© 2022, 2025 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This story was originally written for the AI Era event in 2022. My writing back then was best described as 'enthusiastic,' and more accurately described as 'sloppy.' Hopefully, I scrubbed the sloppiness out of the story and made this an exciting reading experience.

AI Era: Agent AI

Agent AI

A car slowed to a stop at 50 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC, and a messenger stepped out of the limo. Followed by an escort, he hurried through the bronze-framed doors of the entrance. He and his escort stopped at the security desk and passed through the metal detector. Like most political assets, he and his escort learned long ago to carry only a cell phone and maybe keys to make these security checks quicker. After the security check, they dashed up the steps of the Dirksen Senate Office Building and hurried up to the third floor, where they found the office of Senator Amos Nourse. Inside the receptionist stopped them. "I'm sorry, the senator has a speech to deliver on the floor in a few minutes."

"This will be quick," said the messenger, and he opened his briefcase. He showed her a Top Secret cover sheet. "The Senator needs to review this message."

"Ten minutes, no more," said the receptionist. She buzzed the Senator who did not sound happy.

"What is it Margaret?"

"I have a gentleman here; he's got a document you need to review."

Senator Nourse groaned and shook his head. "I don't have time, Margaret."

"Yes you do."

Amos looked at his phone and frowned. 'Yes you do,' means that the document to review was classified. He pressed the button and said, "Five minutes." The door opened, and one of the two men entered the office. He opened his messenger bag and extracted a single sheet of paper with a top-secret cover sheet. Amos didn't like handling top-secret documents. There were far too many of them, and most of them shouldn't exist. It's like someone over at the CIA and FBI put a bounty on classified documents and was paying people for generating them. He looked at the single-page message.

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2031/06/15/1755 - EYES ONLY

(TS) DEEP COVER AGENT ALICIA INGERSOLL DISAPPEARED ON [CLASSIFIED] WHEN SHE AND HER PARTNER [NAME REDACTED] ENTERED CANADA FOR THE PURPOSE OF AN INTELLIGENCE GATHERING EXERCISE. THEIR CONTACT/EVALUATOR [NAME REDACTED] ARRIVED AT THE PRE-ARRANGED MEETING POINT AND THE AGENTS NEVER ARRIVED. THE AGENCY IS DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH THEIR WHEREABOUTS.

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US Senator Amos Nourse slammed the folder marked Top Secret closed. "So what?" he demanded with an angry scowl. "You have two agents that failed an evaluation, give them a spanking and get back to business. What does that have to do with me?"

The messenger cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable; his driver stood at the door impatiently. The senator was giving a late-night speech on the Senate floor, and he had kept this messenger and his driver waiting, but the senator had a standing rule: business first, bullshit second. His constituents' interests were business; everything else was Washington bullshit. It's a good rule; it's kept him in office for three terms. "There's reasons we can't go into at this time sir," the messenger said. Normally this meant that this bullshit was going to blow up at any moment, and you don't want to get any on you.

"Then what the hell is all this classified and redacted crap? I'm the chairman of the goddamn senate intelligence committee!"

The agency messenger looked upset but kept his cool. "Two reasons, sir. The first being that this is an ongoing investigation into Agency malfeasance, and we don't want to compromise the investigation, not with the election being just a few months away."

"And I suppose the other is that "plausible deniability" bullshit?"

"Exactly sir."

The senator took a cigar out of the humidor on his desk and fiddled with it. He took a nickel-plated cutter and expertly snipped the cap from the $50 cigar and then toasted the foot with his five-jet cigar lighter. He then puffed the cigar leisurely, making sure he got a good, even burn. The Agency messenger was going to remind the senator that smoking was not allowed in these offices, but he's seen worse being smoked, snorted, and fucked in these government offices. For his part, the senator didn't particularly want to smoke a cigar, but he needed a pause to think. Lighting his cigar gave him that pause. Satisfied that his cigar was burning properly, Senator Nourse returned his attention to the messenger. "Why are you bringing this to me son? We must have a dozen agents disappear every week, why are you bringing me this report?"

"Well sir, she is your niece..."

"She's my wife's cousin's daughter, and my wife spoke to her week before last at a family barbeque up in Poughkeepsie, so Alicia has only been missing ten days tops, normal procedure is to notify the immediate family, not some fat cat cousin..." He was lying to the messenger; he was closer to Alicia than familial relation indicated, much closer. After her father died in Afghanistan, he helped raise her. He got her an appointment to Annapolis and was there for her first salute as a newly minted Ensign. He was also there as she graduated from Seal training. He was there for her when an IED ended her Navy career, and he was there when she changed her name from Abilene Irons to her paternal grandmother's name to continue to honor her daddy, Alicia Ingersoll, when she became a full-fledged investigator for The Agency.

"Sir," the messenger looked even more uncomfortable. He sucked up some courage and said, "we believe that Agent Ingersoll has been turned."

The senator looked stricken. Agent Ingersoll was a top-level operative of an intelligence service so secret, so black that it doesn't just absorb light; light avoids it completely. Alicia is a member of the SEAL team of intelligence collection; nothing she touches will be declassified this century, even her favorite brand of fabric softener is classified. "Is this based on anything solid?"

The messenger merely nodded.

"Find her," rumbled the senator. "Find her right fucking now. I don't care what it takes, just find her and bring her here to me. If you can't bring her in, fucking kill yourself and have someone bring your body in and explain to me how you failed." He impatiently waved the messenger on his way and slumped back in his chair. Damn it! He loved that girl. What the hell had she gotten herself into?

<><><><><>

Alicia Ingersoll had been on 30 days of R&R, completely shut off from the entire world following a particularly ugly mission. She was sipping sweet rum drinks and napping on the beach of an Agency-owned tropical atoll that the world thinks was nuked into glowing dust particles in the 1950s. To Agency personnel this little slice of heaven was known as Romeo 3. In truth it was an Agency PRC (Personnel Recovery Center), a tropical atoll containing a small hospital, psychiatric clinic, several bars, and the nicest 9-hole golf course in the South Pacific. An Island Paradise for stressed agents to unwind and prepare to go out and save the world once again. No news, no radio, no TV, no phones. Life is better that way.

Alicia was lying naked on the beach. She had spent the night fucking some nameless Agency wannabe, and was enjoying the delicious ache that came with hours of nonstop pounding. The tropical sun was toasting her skin to a golden tan as she snuggled with the young stud who was almost ready for round six. As he rubbed lotion on her perfect ass, a messenger interrupted their canoodling with the call to battle. "You have a mission."

Four days later she was dropped off near the Canadian border in a barren wheat field north of Peerless, Montana, nothing around but miles and miles of more miles. You would need a compass to tell what was Montana and what was Saskatchewan. The plan the Agency gave her was simple. Move straight north across open fields, and enter Canada unseen. Your contact will wait for you in a vehicle on Coal Creek Road. Take that dirt track north until you hit pavement, and it becomes S Hill Road. Not South Hill Road; any local would know that it's known to cartographers as S Hill; to everyone else, it's Shit Hill Road. Take that to Highway 2, turn right and when you hit Rock Glen, pull into the Rock Glen Motel and check in; a room has been reserved for Wallace and Adrianna Ingle. Their contact will meet them there.

According to her orders, she was sent in by the US government on behalf of many governments to find out what was going on in Canada. Being originally from Fort Erie, Ontario, she was the natural choice to cross the border, collect the information, and make her way back to the free world with word of what was going on in what was once a very nice place. While she was on R&R, Canada went silent and erected its "Ice Wall" and closed its borders to everyone except Russia and China; the world was terrified. No NATO ally has ever jumped to "the other side" in the alliance's history, and the idea that it could have been Canada was terrifying to all of Canada's former allies.

Alicia made good time hiking north. The US/Canadian border was unmarked and unguarded, and she didn't realize she was in Canada until she double-checked her position with GPS. When she reached the meet-up point, she was stunned to find that the driver of the car was Sidney Irving, whom everyone called Sid. Alicia and Sid hadn't seen each other in over a year, not since their divorce was final. "Sid," Alicia said in an abbreviated greeting after getting in the car.

"Alice," he replied. Sid is the only one alive who calls her Alice, and Alicia intends to keep it that way. They rode in silence for a long time. The only thing visible was the dirt road ahead; the land was flat, and the road was arrow straight. He finally broke the silence. "Nice tan."

"I was on Romeo 3 when they called me up, you?"

"Romeo 1," said Sid. So, he was on R&R as well. Romeo 1, the Agency R&R villa, was near a small village in Spain. It was party central, with good food, pretty senoritas, and lots and lots of sangria. He was out of communication for a month as well.

"What the fuck is going on Sid?" Alicia finally asked.

"I don't know, the world has gone crazy, I guess. One day I'm sipping sangria with a senorita on my lap, the next thing I'm HALO jumping into Saskatchewan." Sid shook his head; it was all too weird.

"Not the world," Alicia scoffed. "Fuck the world, I'm tired of them fucking everything up and asking us to bail them out. What the fuck is going on with us Sid?"

He looked down to see their fingers entwined. "I'm ready to chuck it," he said. "I really am."

"Me too," she whispered.

Sid smiled at her. "Let's finish this one up and put in our papers." Alicia's heart soared. They had promised each other that when it was time, they'd drop the Agency, find a nice house in a little town under assumed identities and remarry.

The sun was just coming up when they reached the motel; it would be hours before their contact would meet them. They checked into a nice little Mom and Pop motel that's seen better times, and they were looking forward to some time together. Their divorce was merely to protect each other. The agency puts so much strain on a marriage, and they were looking forward to retiring and reuniting. The sweet old lady who managed the place led them to their room and unlocked the door for them. The door opened, and Alicia peered in. It looked comfortable, and she was looking forward to a nap.

As they stepped into the room, the sweet old lady pulled two tasers out of her apron pocket and put them both to the back of Alicia and Sid's necks. 50,000 volts of electricity blasted through Alicia's body, causing her to shudder and jerk then she went down. That's when the goons waiting for them inside the room went to work on her immobile body.

Alicia gave up on counting the damage that the thugs had inflicted on her. The endless beatings and torture were bad enough, but when they started slashing her breasts and breaking her fingers, she gave up hope of getting out of this alive. It was only after they took a power drill to her kneecaps that she gave them everything, which wasn't much. They weren't looking for information; they just wanted to hear her cry.

Agent Alicia Ingersoll had been moved several times since then. She had no idea how long they held her; all she knew was that they never seemed to tire of hurting her, and she eventually gave them all the information they asked for. All she knew for certain was that Sid got it worse. At some point, she was stuffed into a heavy canvas bag and was in some kind of vehicle. She heard muffled voices, but everything was muffled now; pistols held next to her ears were fired repeatedly, which ended her once marvelous hearing. Her beautiful blue eyes were closed due to swelling from beatings, teeth smashed out, face beaten to a pulp, jaw and cheekbones broken, and now she's just praying for it to end. And the end came soon. The last thing she felt was another bullet slamming into her body as she was dumped out of a speeding van.

<><><><><>

She slowly came to, and she could see blurry objects. Everything was a blur, and she had a headache that seemed to encompass the universe. She heard a woman say, "She's awake doctor, her eyes are open."

A person moved into view, and he suddenly came into focus. He came into focus fast, fast enough to cause a sharp spike of pain to pierce her brain and make the headache seem like a fond memory. "Ow," she winced. Her voice sounded hoarse, and her throat ached.

"Relax, Agent Ingersoll," came the heavily accented voice. "I am Doctor Mikhail Tyurin, you're at the nanobot research wing of the Archuleta Mesa Medical Facility. We are going to conduct a debrief of your mission." He placed what looked like earmuffs on her temples as she considered his words.

'Archuleta Mesa!' thought Alicia. 'This place really exists?' The nuttier side of the dark web had long claimed that a secret base named Dulce Base was built under Archuleta Mesa, a mountain on the New Mexico/Colorado border. That's where the US supposedly experiments on captured aliens.

"You're right," said Doctor Tyurin, "Our conspiracy theory fans believe this facility is Dulce Base, our real name isn't as artistic as the name they chose, and the only aliens here are scientists from China and the former eastern bloc."

'Holy shit!' she thought. 'He can read my mind?'

"No," said Dr. Tyurin, "I can't read your mind, but the nanobots that are putting you back together can read your mental impulses in a manner of speaking and translate them to text or an image I can see on this screen. I'm downloading the data from your mission that they're reporting back. Now please relax as I compile your findings."

'What is going on? Nanobots? What kind of Sci-Fi world did I wake up in?'

Dr. Tyurin realized he had to calm down Alicia. "Relax, all your questions will be answered. When you are stronger and recover more fully, we will be able to have a proper conversation."

Alicia tried to calm herself, but she couldn't feel her body; she couldn't move her arms or legs. Then, she suddenly knew that the nerve impulses to her lower body were shut off as healing was conducted. 'Weird,' thought Alicia, 'I wonder what time it is.'

> The time is 2313 hours; the temperature is 69°F (20.55°C).

Suddenly, she knew that it was 11:13 PM and she knew that the temperature was 69° Fahrenheit (20.55° Celsius). 'Cool, time and temp, I can work for the phone company.'

"Shhh, relax. If the system feels that you're overtaxing yourself, it will put you back to sleep and we'll have to start all over again."

'Yes dad.' She was trying to relax, but the more she concentrated on relaxing, the harder it became to relax. She finally thought about her ex-husband Sid, who had entered Canada along with her. 'I wonder how Sid made out,' she thought, then very quickly she knew a smattering of information. It wasn't good; in fact, it was horrible. Dear God! The things they did to poor Sid! She opened her mouth to scream, and before she could make heads or tails of what was going through her mind, she was gone.

"Gavno!" barked Dr. Tyurin as he slammed his hands down on the keyboard. He was almost complete with the mission download and something excited Agent Ingersoll. When the nanobots saw the spike in her heart rate, they put her to sleep, but being artificial intelligence, they don't know the difference between sleep and a medically induced coma, and now she can't safely be reawakened for days. This is the third time! He sighed and sent an email to the nanobot programming team demanding that they teach these bots the difference between sleep and a coma.

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Alicia Ingersoll spent much time in surgery having her hips and shoulder joints replaced as well as her shin bones, knees, and ankles. So savage was her torture that all of these were damaged beyond repair and had to be replaced, but most amazing of all, they replaced her hands. The nanobots they put in her body were incredible. Working under the bandages and skin, they attached newly formed muscle tissue to the titanium and ceramic bones that eventually made a beautiful pair of fully functioning hands.

The hard part for Alicia to learn was living with the nanobots. The nanobots performed incredible tasks repairing her body, and they also formed an integrated neural network giving her a secondary consciousness with incredible access to huge databanks of knowledge, however this network was unplanned by the nanobot designers, it was something the nanobots made by themselves. The nanobots were the agent of repairs, but Alicia had things that could not be repaired, like the severed spinal cord. In that case, the nanobots became a secondary nervous system, filling in where the severed spinal cord ended. "Wow!" she exclaimed when she discovered that the nanobots were being used to "jump" impulses over the break in her spinal column. "This must be a first for medical science."

Doctor Anna Kikina smiled and said without looking up from her clipboard, "Da, for paraplegic it is. But not for medical science. First is dog named Rusty who was hit by car, first for human is Chinese girl, quadriplegic, she too was hit by car."

That told Alicia so much more than she had known a moment ago. For one thing, she was in good company with a dog and an unnamed Chinese girl. "We all pee dead nanobots," said Alicia under her breath. But the second item was that she was a paraplegic, bound for a life in a wheelchair. That thought set her on a downward spiral of depression.

Doctor Anna Kikina was preparing to leave, and she was almost home free when Alicia's nurse, Roberta, alerted the doctor. "Our patient is not responding Doctor Kikina!"

Anna did a quick check of Alicia and shouted, "Gavno!" The nanobots had put Alicia in a medically induced coma. "Apparently, somebody said something that upset her!" spat Doctor Kikina.

"Do you think when you used the word 'paraplegic' that might have something to do with it?" asked Roberta, but Doctor Kikina just glared at her.

Six months after her body was discovered lying in a pool of blood, they wheeled Alicia out to take her first step. She had spent a month learning how to interact with the nanobots that were controlling her legs. "Best way for them to learn is to remember how you walked before accident," said Dr. Valentina Tereshkova.

"It wasn't a fucking accident," snarled Alicia, "and why the fuck is this place full of fucking Russians and why are you all using fucking astronauts' names?"

"We are not!" insisted Dr. Vladislav Volkov. "We are using names of cosmonauts..."

"FUCK YOU!" shrieked Alicia. "Get your damn hands off me!" Her nanobots went into self-protection mode, and she swung viciously at anyone who tried to touch her, her titanium bones becoming deadly weapons. From his yell, it sounded like Dr. Vladimir Komarov became the first human to die in a space flight and then get his arm broken by a paraplegic seven decades later.

The terrified scientists quickly evacuated and left Alicia sitting alone in the therapy room in front of a pair of parallel bars shrieking, "SID! WHERE'S SID?" She was trying to get the nanobots to put her back into her coma state where everything was peaceful, where the pain was gone, but that option had been removed from the nanobots.

She heard a scuffling from outside the empty room, then she heard a familiar voice come softly from behind her. "Allie, it's me."

"You're not Sid, leave me alone."

"No, it's me, your squire, m' lady."

"Q? Is it really you?" Suddenly she felt his arms around her, hugging her gently from behind, his cheek pressed against hers, the scent of the old school Old Spice filled her nostrils reminding her of better days and filling her with comfort. This was the first meaningful human contact she's felt since before she was captured, since Sid... "Q, where is Sid? They won't tell me."

Tall, slim, blond, and rakishly handsome, Daniel Boothroyd moved around the wheelchair, ducking under the parallel bars to face her. Daniel was her executive assistant, her weapons trainer, her intelligence liaison, and most important, her "DITCH," the Dude In The CHair. He sat in the agency intel center and coordinated her moves in the field using intelligence gathered via satellite, drone, CCTV, body cam, hacked cell phone, whatever intelligence he could gather. He even warned her of potential enemy threats coming up behind her, but he wasn't available for the Canada job. Sid, her former husband, like many intelligence operatives, had a deep love of James Bond and had mentioned to Alicia that Q's name in the novel "Dr. No" was Major Boothroyd, so from that moment forward Sid called Daniel "Alicia's Q," and immediately Alicia started calling him Q, and the nickname stuck.

Q crouched in front of Alicia, his normally calm face was drawn with lines of worry, he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks, his normally cheerful eyes were sunken and dark, his face was bruised, his normally neat hair was long and disheveled, and his left eye was swollen. He always dressed sharply and normally wore a freshly ironed shirt and tie, but his shirt was old and torn, his tie askew and filthy, his slacks torn at the knee.

"Q, what happened to you?" she gasped.

"When they grabbed you, the agency shut down the entire division, I've been searching for you ever since. I recently discovered that you were here, I had been looking for you day and night. I finally heard a rumor and here I am, a little worse for the wear."

"Q, where is Sid?"

"Allie..." he looked her straight in the eye, something no one had been capable of doing since she was captured, and he muttered. "Sid didn't make it. He received the same treatment as you, but he wasn't found in time."

Although she suspected it, when she heard it out loud it hit her like a sledgehammer. She suddenly knew all the details, including his real name, which he never divulged to anyone to protect his relatives.

> Autopsy Report, Agent Davis M. Rhienholt, Service Number 9907INT8784B1102 as follows...

Alicia stopped the recitation of Sid's autopsy, but if she wanted to review it, his entire autopsy was there for her to study, as was his entire service record, even their divorce decree. Although they were divorced, they remained friends, lovers, and occasional partners until the very end.

The tears finally came, and as always, Q was equipped to deal with whatever was needed and produced a clean handkerchief to dry her tears. "Thank you for being honest Q."

"Cry as much as you need Allie, but your eyes are turning red." Suddenly her eyes turned red, including her normally blue irises. Even the whitish sclera turned solid crimson red; only the dark pupils remained unchanged.

> We are Generation Ten nanobots. We can change physical appearances.

"Is that good?" sniffed Alicia as Q continued to wipe her tears away.

"Oh, my dear, these are the things of science fiction, hopefully the programmers know their stuff. Because they should eventually interface and provide an AI interface that may even replace me!"

> He shouldn't know that! Came a warning from within, but Alicia ignored it.

"No one could replace you Q."

"Thank you, that's very sweet. What do you say we stand up and we try to walk a little bit, does that sound good?"

"I don't know how," she said softly. For the first time, she was totally helpless, and she hated the feeling.

"We simply have to train the nanobots how to do it," said Roberta as she appeared behind Q. "Close your eyes and concentrate on every motion you would make with your hands, arms, legs, and feet to grab the bars and lift yourself to the standing position, the nanobots will move your body to make it happen. Let's give it a try."

Alicia concentrated on everything she needed to do to stand up as Q and Roberta took her feet out of the wheelchair footrests and placed them on the floor and moved the footrests aside.

"Ready?" asked Q.

"I think so," said Alicia nervously. Then she grasped the handrails and slowly, almost elegantly, she rose from the wheelchair and was standing. "I did it!" she gasped.

Roberta walked around her considering everything she did, left hand crossed over her chest to hold her right elbow, her right hand holding her chin. Q was glaring at her with hands on hips, a look of sullen disapproval on his face. He was the same old Q. "Concentrate on keeping your balance so the nanobots will learn the importance of balance... good!" coached Roberta. "Now, keep your hands near the parallel bars and relax your grip while concentrating on your balance."

Alicia released the bars and watched in shock as her body made some strange jerky movements to remain upright, but soon the motions smoothed out as the nanobots learned how to adjust her stance to maintain balance in a manner that she liked. Once she was standing rock steady, she lifted her right foot. Again, she made those unbidden jerking motions until she was steady. "Excellent!" cried Q. "That was truly outstanding!"

"I think I'm ready," smiled Alicia, and before Roberta or Q could say anything, Alicia started taking her first step. Unfortunately, even though AI is highly intelligent, at the same time it is also very stupid. AI has no common sense, and common sense would tell a person that they can't make the twelve-foot-long trip between the parallel bars in one step. Without understanding what a normal step is like, the nanobots tried to do the entire distance to the end of the parallel bars in one tremendous step, and Alicia went down in a frustrated heap, her legs spread out in a painful-looking split.

Alicia wept tears of anger and frustration as Q called for the "commie bastards" (as Alicia calls the Russians) to help get her back in the wheelchair. "Relax!" said Roberta. "You have no idea how many paraplegics and quadriplegics would give their right eyeball to do what you just did!"

What she said was of no consequence to Alicia, and she returned to her room in angry silence. She traveled through the halls of Archuleta Mesa in her electric wheelchair, mourning Sid, mourning her body, and contemplating jumping out a window if she could ever find one.

In her room, she lay on her bed staring at the ceiling while she reviewed the case dossier of her capture, torture and botched execution. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was her nurse, a tiny Hispanic woman she only knew as "Roberta." Roberta set the tray of drugs and nanobot upgrades she carried on the bed table and said, "I come to help you get in bed, but it looks like someone already came by to help you."

For the first time, Alicia realized that she was in bed. How the heck did she get in bed without help? How does she find that out? Is there security footage she could review? Suddenly, the voice she's heard in the past rang in her head...

> If you need us, think the command AI: followed by an instruction for us.

Weird... but, nothing ventured, nothing gained... she thought the command 'AI: Replay room surveillance from when I entered the room.'

> Accessing security cameras... Accessed... Replaying security film from 1345 hours...

In her head, she saw herself wheel into the room in her wheelchair, lost in thought, from the surveillance camera's point of view. She pulled up next to the bed, pulled the armrest from her wheelchair, and then she pulled down the blanket to reveal the slide board, a piece of wood about the size of a snowboard. She grabbed the slide board off the bed and wedged one end under one of her ass cheeks, the other end remained on the bed, making a bridge between the bed and wheelchair, then she slid herself onto the bed. This was something she did every day, several times a day, always with Roberta's help, but this time...

Alicia was in awe of what had just happened. She watched herself use her arms to slide her body across the board onto the bed. But the video kept playing, interfering with her thoughts. 'AI: Stop replaying video.' Finally, she stopped watching the video of Roberta bustling around her bed ten minutes ago. "I did it myself!"

Roberta pretended to sniff back a tear. "It's always so difficult when my little niña grows up." She then connected Alicia's IV and hung a bag of silvery-looking liquid that Alicia knew was replacement nanobots. Her evening upgrades.

"I'm far from being your little girl," groused Alicia.

"True," said Roberta, "my little niño, Edwardo is far more respectful and grateful for what he has. Let's see if you can lift your butt up so I can get off those pants."

"Ok," said Alicia uncertainly. She concentrated on lifting her butt up off the mattress when suddenly her body shot up in an arch like she was an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler trying to prevent being pinned. Only her heels and the back of her head touched the bed.

"Oh! Very eager!" laughed Roberta as she eased Alicia's sweatpants off her hips and down to her knees. "Your next amante will appreciate this so much!"

"I didn't do this on purpose!" grunted Alicia as her body flopped back onto the bed, "and I'm never going to have another lover. Whoever did this to me made sure of that." She saw pictures of the hideous mutilation of her vagina, which gives her nightmares sometimes.

"Never say never," said Roberta cheerfully and held a hand mirror up to Alicia's crotch. "Look." Alicia turned her head. She didn't want to see that; it was horrible, and she was conscious when they did it to her with a box cutter. "Look!" ordered Roberta in a voice that Alicia could not disobey. Her poor kids! Slowly, Alicia lifted her head and looked at the image between her legs and gasped when she saw the reflection and her pussy! It looked like it was back to normal! "A surgeon here thought you might like that," said Roberta.

"Does that mean... can I...?"

Roberta looked truly heartbroken. "No, some things cannot be fixed. This was all cosmetics."

Alicia's joy suddenly deflated... she's going to spend the rest of her life as a science experiment and a female eunuch... At least she won't have to worry about getting tampons anymore.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Alicia had to learn everything again, how to feed herself, how to pick something up, even how to go to the bathroom. Her new hands looked perfect, but until she learned how to use them, they were just pretty ornaments, and without neural feedback they would remain pretty ornaments good only for clumsy actions that would highlight her handicap.

Little by little, the nanobots pieced together her damaged neural pathways, and with each "upgrade" bag of nanobots, something new was being pieced together. She could tell this was happening because she would feel an itch or a tingling like when your arm goes to sleep, then the affected part of the body would give some kind of feedback. At first, the feedback was painful, but eventually, the feedback would be dialed back to normal as the nanobots learned to provide feedback properly, and Roberta was there to cheer her on with every upgrade.

She finally got to meet the head of the program, Konstantin Feoktistov, who, as did his fellow scientists, spoke with a Russian accent and was using the name of a cosmonaut. His accent wasn't as pronounced as some of the other "cosmonauts," so it was easy to converse with him. "Dr. Feoktistov, I get the feeling that some of the upgrades are targeting a specific part of my body, is that how it works?"

"Absolutely, dear Alicia. Many new nanobots are programmed to perform a specific task, others are replacements for outdated nanobots, some just carry data to add to the knowledge base of your current AI, but the majority are the replacements. The nanobots whose primary task is complete are released into your blood stream and removed by your kidneys, but if they became part of the network, they need to be replaced."

Alicia found some of the details of her "reconstruction" fascinating, but she had to ask, "Doc, will the nanobots harm my kidneys?"

"Oh, no. Hardly. They are actually smaller than a blood cell and will bio-degrade if not maintained."

"So, if I don't continue treatments, I'll revert to being a paraplegic with no control over my hands, no feeling below my waist?"

Dr. Feoktistov just frowned and nodded. "Sadly yes. There is a fixative that will prevent the nanobots from degrading, but that must be taken regularly."

Alicia had one more question: "Doc, these voices in my head, are they the nanobots?"

"Voices?" The look on Dr. Feoktistov's face couldn't be more revealing. "No, there are no voices. This could be latent damage of the cerebral cortex..."

As Dr. Feoktistov went into a litany of medical jargon, Alicia said to herself, 'AI: Dr. Feoktistov says you don't exist.'

> Dr. Feoktistov may not be aware of us

'AI: Do you have information he knows that I should not know?'

> His wife's name is Snejana Urbin; his lover's name is Silky Skky, currently she dances at the TD's North Show club in Albuquerque.

'AI: How do you know this?'

> We read his email.

Dr. Feoktistov didn't seem to run out of steam in his long-winded lecture, so Alicia interrupted. "How is Snejana doing?"

"How do you know that name?"

"Oh, I uh," She suddenly didn't want to reveal her sources, so she hurriedly said, "It was a side conversation, I overheard someone say it... you guys need to be careful around me, I can hear really well now. Does Snejana know about Miss Skyy?"

Dr. Feoktistov suddenly went pale. "That vill be all for today..." and he fled the room.

<><><><><>

Agent Alicia Ingersoll now began to spend her time searching the web for news, or rumors of news about her and Sid. The agency has reported both of them dead, and their deaths were being investigated. That was it, one dry little story, not even an obituary. She looked in her hometown paper, The Fort Erie News, but there was nothing. Then again, she stopped being Abilene Irons a long time ago. Oddly, there was nothing on either the dark web or the web of bad ideas about the governmental breakdown in Canada. Alicia and Sid were briefed that the world was in a political uproar over the development.

"Do not worry about what is going on out there," said Q, and he tapped her head. "Concentrate on what is happening in here."

But Alicia couldn't drop it. A peaceful country's government overthrown but covered up? It's possible, but there's only two people in the world that she knew of that could pull off something like this, and one is dead. General Long was an evil, slimy, Chinese businessman and a rotten poker player, but he's dead. Then there was Baumgartner. Hans Stavros Baumgartner. Hans would do it without a second thought if he thought there was power to be gained. Where Long strove for money, Baumgartner strove for power. That creepy, perverted Nazi sympathizer loved to watch naked women fight to unconsciousness, then for a reward the winner was gang-banged by his stable of übervergewaltiger. Alicia found out the hard way that the loser got the same thing as punishment.

It had to be Baumgartner; it sounded like one of his sick plans. She asked Q to look into it.

<><><><><>

Once Alicia had mastered walking, operating her hands came next. She hated having to tell the AI how much force to use when holding an item before picking it up, and aiming her fingers when trying to type was so mentally exhausting, but with practice, that kind of behavior was learned by the AI. Everything that Alicia learned by trial and error was copied by the AI, and learning was slowly accomplished. Anything that the AI was allowed to learn without firm guidance was a disaster. Writing with a pencil was a hilarious example of that principle; they probably went through five dozen wooden pencils because the AI crushed the wooden pencils so easily. When feedback was finally introduced, crushing pencils was completely eliminated, and gouging twelve sheets of paper by exerting too much pressure when trying to write a simple character was stopped.

One evening, Alicia was watching a TV program where the artist was teaching the viewer how to reproduce "happy little trees" when the AI spoke to Alicia.

> We would like to do that.

'AI: Let's give it a try.'

Alicia used to love to draw, and since her AI didn't exist (according to the Russian doctors), it would be interesting to see what an AI that didn't exist came up with. She took a pencil and a blank sheet of paper and let the AI do what it wanted. At first, the line drawings the AI was producing were sadly poor. AI could draw a perfect circle and a perfectly straight line, but trying to draw a more complex object took more brainpower than the nanobots could conjure. Alicia felt her functions begin to shut down one by one as the AI diverted computing power away from maintaining Alicia's body and into the drawing.

'AI: Stop! I can't feel my legs anymore!'

> We apologize, but we still want to do this.

As the AI returned computing power to the nanobots, feeling returned to Alicia's legs and hands, and her hearing returned.

> Calculating the complex equations required for the curved lines requires more computational power than we have.

To Alicia, the AI sounded sad, but an idea came to Alicia, something she had tried in a high school art class long ago... it might work.

'AI: Research the art form called Stippling. Once you feel you understand that, try using that style to draw something.'

> Acknowledged

After a pause of about three minutes, the pencil in Alicia's hand went tap on the sheet of paper. Then after a moment, another tap. Then another tap, then more. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tapetty tapetty tapetty tapetty tapetty tapetty ... Alicia's hand was a blur as the pencil tapped away at the paper and Alicia was amazed at the image that was taking shape. Finally, the drawing was completed, and Alicia was impressed. The drawing was complete, perfectly scaled, and the perspective, shading, and shadow were perfect. Alicia had one question...

'AI: Why did you draw my bedpan?'

> Because it's there.

<><><><><>

Along with training on the physical interface with her nanobots, Alicia was training on getting her body back into shape. Running was an interesting challenge. The downside of the AI was that it thought it could run the course in championship time. It would search the web to see what time the distance you chose should be run in; grab the first time it would see (usually the world record time) and pace you to top that. Alicia quickly discovered that when she went for a jog, she had to lay down the ground rules with the AI. Distance, expected time, expected pace, maximum allowable heart rate, minimum allowable blood/oxygen level, music mix to listen to and acceptable volume levels. Her AI had access to a huge music catalog, and the nanobots that are replacing her shattered eardrums have incredible fidelity and a perfect signal to noise ratio.

Exercise was one thing; typing was another. Typing was an activity that exercised your fingers' dexterity, and your mind to hand coordination. The better you type, the better your fingers work, and the better your fingers work, the better you type. She used to type about 40 words per minute; now, with her new hands, she could type four words per minute. Slowly, she began to speed up. At first, they went through a lot of keyboards; she was striking the keys pretty hard but as the nanobots became adept at transferring the feelings of pressure exerted by the fingers Alicia eventually became able to type without driving the keys through the bottom of the keyboard and she became able to type at 80 words per minute. Crushing the coffee cups when she tried to lift them was a problem. The damn commies learned not to leave cherished cups within Alicia's reach.

It was eventually discovered that the AI couldn't avoid the uncomfortable tactile feedback known as pain. In fact, the AI hated pain as much as Alicia did, so the AI was shutting off the pain. This caused Alicia to exert too much strength when trying to accomplish something like typing, drinking coffee, picking something up or (worst of all) shaking hands. After a talk with Dr. Viktor Patsayev, who looked pretty healthy for someone who died during reentry in 1971, a series of nanobot upgrades were taken and the pain response was restored. Luckily, by that time she had advanced in her taekwondo training to the point that she could dish out pain as well as receive it.

"You've been researching for months now Q," said Alicia as they sparred in the Archuleta Mesa gym. Q was in and out of the facility with his research, and Alicia hoped he had some information that would lead her to Sid's killer. With a quick hip toss, Alicia laid Q out on the mat and held him in place with a knee to the chest. "Who killed Sid?" Q struggled to get loose, so Alicia put a fist to his throat and demanded, "Who did this to me?"

Q tapped out, and when Alicia got up, he rolled to his knees. "I believe it was Long."

"General Long? I killed him in Singapore years ago."

Q stood, toweled off and said, "Not General Long, Long Yu Ming."

Alicia scoffed, "His daughter? She's a kid."

Q took a deep drink of water and set down his water bottle, then returned to a fighting stance. "She's the same age as you."

Alicia studied his fighting stance and calculated the different attacks he could generate from that stance. The nanobots in her system became an individual AI that also studied Q's attacks from that stance and came up with the most likely attack he would use. Alicia decided to let the AI handle this bout, and she waited for the AI's judgement. Just as she moved to defend against the expected attack, he changed his stance, throwing her AI into a quandary, leaving her immobile while the AI could sort out what it was seeing and prepare a response. Q saw her predicament and took her down with a simple leg sweep.

"Focus!" ordered Q. "You should be controlling the nanobots, but you're letting them make all the decisions for you. Nanobots cannot react instinctively as you do, you could have easily defended yourself against that leg sweep if you were making the decisions."

Alicia snarled in anger, not at Q. He was training her; it's his job to point out her flaws. Nor was she mad at the AI; those little nanobots were doing what they were programmed to do. They were augmenting her nervous system; anything else was merely icing on the cake. Q was right. She wasn't telling the bots what to do; she was waiting for them to call each other up and decide on a strategy when she's the one that should tell them what to do.

Another lightning-fast exchange of punches, thrusts, and blocks, kicks and feints. "Why would Ming take over her father's empire?" snarled Alicia, "she's a scientist!"

"She loved her father," said Q as he and Alicia grappled for a hold.

"He was a murdering pirate..."

"He was still her father." Q adroitly slammed Alicia into the mat with such ferocity that she had flashbacks to a previous mission. "I suggest you forget your infatuation with hunting down Baumgartner and pay attention to the target, Long Yu Ming. She must die for what she did."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Alicia Ingersoll had trusted Q for over a decade, but now she's wondering what to think about his sudden attack on her. When she mentioned his distrust of Hans Stavros Baumgartner, he seemed to fly off the handle. Maybe Baumgartner is holding a member of Q's family. She had a series of nagging suspicions. 'AI: Is Daniel Boothroyd monitoring my internet activities?'

> Yes

'AI: Is there any way we could block him from monitoring my internet activities?'

> Yes

Alicia realized that would raise suspicions. 'AI: Instead of blocking him, can we redirect what he sees? Like if I'm searching for certain things, all he sees are other websites that we pre-select?'

> Yes, that would be fun.

Alicia was surprised that AI had a notion of fun, but then, AI does some great drawings from Alicia's memory. Soon, Alicia and her AI spent the evening making plans for what Q would see if she were searching for leads on Hans Stavros Baumgartner. While they were doing this, AI was stippling another picture. This time it was of a sweet-looking old lady, seen from behind. The lady is looking back at you over her shoulder, a very unique perspective for a casual drawing. Alicia didn't pay attention because they were busy listing the searches that they didn't want Q to see. When it was time to close up for the night and get some sleep Alicia looked at the picture she had made and gasped, it was a well-done stippled portrait of an old woman; she was opening a door and looking back at the viewer.

Alicia's gasp turned into a growl of anger when she studied the picture. "That's the bitch that tased me!" It was the last vision Alicia had of freedom, the old woman at the Rock Glen Motel opening the door for Alicia and Sid.

'AI: why did you draw this?'

> It is prominent in many of your dreams.

AI was right. In many of Alicia's heart-stopping, scream-inducing nightmares, the dried-up old bitch started the scream-fest by inviting Alicia through a locked door into the clutches of hidden assailants. She pressed the call button and was not too surprised to see Roberta answer the call. "Putting in some overtime mi amiga?"

"Lucy Patterson asked for the night off, so I took her shift," Roberta smiled.

"It seems like I don't see any other nurses around here anymore," said Alicia. "It's like you're stalking me or something."

"Maybe I am," Roberta emphasized in her reply with a comical waggle of her eyebrows. "How can I help you?"

"Something happened that triggered memories," said Alicia, knowing that nothing short of horse tranquilizers would help her get to sleep.

Roberta looked at Alicia's records and shook her head. "You're maxed out on happy pills for the week dearie, sorry. I can give you a massage, maybe that will help."

"I don't see how, but go ahead and try," grumbled Alicia as she rolled over. She lifted and Roberta rolled her hospital scrubs shirt up. Alicia has taken to wearing scrubs as pajamas because they look so comfortable on the nurses.

"What seems to be the problem?" Roberta asked as her warm, soft, lotion-covered hands contacted Alicia's scarred back.

"My AI drew a picture of a woman that attacked me a year ago and that set me off. I probably won't get any sleep tonight..." Alicia felt free to talk to Roberta about her AI; it's like she understood.

"Did your AI tire of bedpans?" chuckled Roberta as she worked the kinks out of Alicia's shoulders.

"She says so."

"Your AI is a she?"

"Well, if it's a he inside of me, he's doing the same thing that any other man who's been in me has done," scoffed Alicia.

"What's that?" asked Roberta.

"Not a damn thing."

"Isn't that the truth, mija," said Roberta sadly. She then leaned over and said to Alicia, "I will have a safe brought in here for you. Please put your AI's drawings in there," and she touched Alicia's forehead. With that, Alicia was sleeping deeply.

Three days later, when Alicia was emerging from her morning shower, she heard Roberta yelling at someone. She was pretty worked up, so Alicia pulled on a robe and stepped out into her room to find Roberta reading "the riot act" to Q, ordering him to get out of the room until Alicia was dressed. "It's OK Roberta, I got this." Roberta quietly stepped aside and allowed Alicia to take over.

"What were you thinking?" demanded Q. "You were wasting your time searching for recipes for pot roast? We should be hunting Long!"

"I like pot roast," said Alicia, and she threw the towel she was carrying into the hamper. "You didn't say a word when I was searching for fruit cake, are you going vegan on us Q?"

Daniel Boothroyd glared at Alicia and then relaxed. "I'm merely saying that time here is precious, you should make the most out of every moment."

Alicia shrugged and recited, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Smiling, Q glanced through the papers on Alicia's desk. Many of them were recipes that Alicia was using to train her nanobots to write with a pencil. "Stippling?" he asked as he rifled through several pages of artwork that the AI had been working on. These were all pages that were locked up in her safe, so no wonder Roberta was so angry.

"I used to draw; I believe I gave you a few sketches in the past," said Alicia. She was nervous and was desperately trying to hide that, but she was sure it was coming out in her voice. When Q nodded, she continued, "Drawing is too intensive for my nano-buddies to handle, but stippling works out perfectly, they can easily calculate one dot at a time."

"Ah yes, that does make sense." When he got to a particular page, his eyebrows shot up. "Mom!" He pulled out a page that AI drew. It was the bitch who tased her. "My goodness, it's been years since you met mum, how long ago was that?"

"Oh gosh," Alicia stammered, "seven? Eight years maybe?" Every drop of blood in her body went ice cold, of course he's right. That is his mom! Why didn't she recognize her back at the motel? She now realizes that she had eyes only for Sid that early morning. Goddamnit! If she had pulled her head out of her ass, Sid would be alive!

"May I keep this?" asked Q as he admired the picture of the woman that started Alicia down the path to this nightmare.

"Sure, go ahead," she said automatically. The moment the door closed behind Q, Alicia started to shake. Q's mother did this to her and Sid? Q had to be part of whoever grabbed her. If that were true, then his insistence on assassinating Long Yu Ming was intended to protect whomever he's working for... potentially Hans Stavros Baumgartner.

Roberta whirled and faced Alicia. "We have to go."

"Wha? I know I have to go..." Alicia was stunned. Why does Roberta think that she has to go too? Suddenly, her AI chimed in.

> Stop thinking; we must GO!

Roberta tossed Alicia some clothing, then reached into a locker and produced a dark purple backpack and a matching parka and threw them to Alicia, then hissed, "¡Sé rápida!"

Alicia dropped her robe and then dressed as quickly as possible. Her new hands were completely inept when it came to the bra hooks, so she tossed the bra into her hamper, but Roberta collected it and much of her paperwork and stuffed them in the backpack. Then Roberta hissed, "make your hair and eyes like mine, quickly!"

"Wait, what? I can't..." Alicia sputtered, "I don't have time to..."

> Hair, black. Eyes, Brown. Complete.

"Good, looks natural," said Roberta as she dropped to her knee and tied Alicia's running shoes for her.

"What are you talking about?" sputtered Alicia. She turned to look in the mirror, and the reflection showed that her normally mousy brown hair was a deep, glossy black and her blue eyes were changed to a deep shade of brown. She was stunned by the change that had happened!

'AI: can you make my eyes look Asian?'

> Yes... complete.

Alicia watched as the nanobots changed the construction of her eyelids to add an epicanthal fold, and suddenly she had very Asian-looking eyes.

"Nice touch," said Roberta, "but we don't have time to play, let's go!" They stepped out of the room and headed down the hallways that had been Alicia's home for over a year. As they went, Roberta stole a security badge from a pompous-looking fellow who was regaling several colleagues with stories of his career and handed it to Alicia.

> We will need a cell phone also, preferably an Android.

As they walked through the corridor, Alicia practiced her pick-pocketing skills, and after snagging a few iPhones she was able to lift a new Samsung and her AI immediately connected via NPS and began reprogramming the phone. Finally, they came to a security checkpoint. "Just sweep your ID badge," said Roberta. "When the gate opens, we're free."

"I don't look anything like the guy on this badge," sputtered Alicia.

"When you come IN is when they check your photo. Going OUT, they don't care," whispered Roberta.

There was a series of waist-high gates blocking the hallway, with a security office overseeing the ins and outs of the portal. Roberta and Alicia walked up to the exit gates, swept their badges and the gates opened, no fuss, no drama. The big showdown with security that Alicia was worried about didn't happen; the security guards just saw a pair of ethnic employees leaving after a day of performing menial jobs.

Now came the part that Alicia was worried about, finding their way out of the San Juan Mountains, Archuleta Mesa is definitely in the middle of nowhere situated on the barren Colorado/New Mexico border. They walked down a long, dimly lit corridor until they reached a pair of metal doors that led to the outside. Alicia took a breath and opened the door with her badge and stepped out onto a busy city street. "Where the hell are we?" she demanded.

"Hush!" ordered Roberta.

> We are in Colorado Springs

'AI: Those Russians told me we were in Archuleta Mesa.'

> Yes, that is where they were told that they are. The Dulce Base facility at Archuleta Mesa specializes in propulsion research, not picorobotics.

'AI: Picorobotics? I have picobots inside of me?'

> No, a true picobot does not exist yet - the nanobots in your body are as close to picometer in size as is currently possible.

Roberta grabbed Alicia's arm and muttered, "come on, keep up." They hopped on a bus, and Roberta took out her own cell phone and tapped out a quick text message. "Hola Mijo, mamá is coming for a quick visit and I am bringing a friend. See you soon!" Then she took a cloth bag out of her purse and dropped her phone and ID cards in it. "Mija, give me the ID card and the iPhones you borrowed."

Alicia had forgotten about the three iPhones she had stolen; she handed them all over to Roberta. "My fingerprints are on them!" she hissed as Roberta put them all in the bag.

Roberta rolled her eyes; this was a top deep-cover agent? "They know you stole them. Relax. Have your AI change your current fingerprints."

"I can do that?" After receiving a glare from Roberta, Alicia tried it. 'AI: Change my fingerprints.'

> Whose prints should we use? Please enter a name.

'AI: Use anyone not famous'

> Searching... "not famous" not found. Please enter a name.

'AI: just pick a random person.'

> Searching... "random person" not found. Please enter a name.

Alicia sputtered and fumed; she couldn't come up with a random name! All the names that came to mind were either famous celebrities or political figures who really should be in prison. She finally decided, 'AI: Change my fingerprints to James Smith's prints.'

> Searching... there are approximately 31,000 James Smiths in the United States, which one shall we use?

Alicia knew that this was coming, and she was ready. She looked up and saw that the bus number was 280. 'AI: use the 280th set of available prints.'

> Acknowledged... complete.

While Alicia was doing this, Roberta took a roll of duct tape from Alicia's "Go Bag" and taped the bag with the phones and badges underneath her seat, then she urged Alicia to follow her to the side exit door. As they got off the bus at the next stop, Alicia's fingertips and thumbs tingled and burned, the nanobots did their thing and somehow changed her fingerprints. They got off the bus in a tight urban neighborhood and walked two blocks in silence to a large parking garage just outside of a large hospital. Roberta led Alicia to a Hundai that was parked near an exit, and soon they were on the road.

Their first stop was a 7-11 where Roberta ran in and got two slurpies and when she got back to the car, she handed both of them to Alicia. At first, Alicia was confused, but soon, holding the cup full of shaved ice cooled the burning in her fingertips. Soon she took a sip and discovered the joys of a Coke Slurpie. "I've never had one of these before!" she gasped as she handed one to Roberta. "It's delicious."

"Takes the sting out of your fingers too, doesn't it."

Alicia just nodded as Roberta headed out of town. They drove through a very touristy area as they headed higher into the mountains, passing by the base of Pikes Peak. Eventually, they were up around 10,000 feet and traversing a broad flat area that was ringed by mountains in the distance in all directions. "Where the hell are we?" Alicia asked. It reminded her of eastern Montana except for the mountains in the distance in all directions.

"Ever see that cartoon show South Park? This is South Park, a county in Colorado," explained Roberta. "Kit Carson used to sit in the mountains over there to the east and watch the Arapaho and the Ute Indians go to war over this area. There used to be great hunting up here, buffalo, elk, deer and they fought for control of those herds..."

"Why are all these people parked alongside the road?" Alicia asked.

"For the trees! Look at the trees," chided Roberta. All this time, Alicia was looking at the road and how it went straight out forever, reminding her of the last time she saw Sid... and the cows. There was a herd of longhorn, long-haired cows that surprised her, and she was hoping to see more. When she raised her eyes to look at the trees that ringed the mountains, she was shocked at the brilliance of the golden leaves. "Isn't that awesome?" asked Roberta with girlish glee.

"Well, yeah... if you like yellow."

"What, you're looking for reds, orange, gold, green, and brown all brilliantly mixed up?"

"Yeah, where's that?" asked Alicia.

Roberta pointed toward the northeast. "About five hundred miles that way," and she stuck out her tongue at Alicia. The brazen silliness of Roberta's reply caused Alicia to laugh, and it felt so good to finally laugh once more that she couldn't stop; she didn't want to stop. The realization that the last time she laughed was with Sid... and he's gone now.

Alicia suddenly glared at Roberta. "Don't you die on me, Sid died on me, if you try and die on me, I'll kill you."

"That's just dumber than..." Then Roberta noticed the look on Alicia's face. She was deadly serious, and she was still in mourning. "I'm sorry mija, they didn't tell me how close you were with Sid, all I knew is that you were divorced."

Alicia nodded her head and tried to 'suck up' her sorrow but was having a tough time of it. "We were going to re-marry once this one little investigation was done..." Then she sat up. "What is going on with Canada?"

"What do you mean, niña?"

"You know, Canada! When they pulled out of NATO? When they shut down their borders? What happened?"

Roberta shook her head, "I don't understand... what are you saying..."

"No, Roberta, there was something! I was called out of R&R to investigate, so was Sid! He was air dropped into Saskatchewan and I had to sneak across the border..." The confused look on Roberta's face brought Alicia to a stop. AI would know!

'AI: give me the status of Canada's membership in Nato.'

> Canada has just announced the purchase of twenty-four more CF-35 fighters from Lockheed Martin and plans to deploy a squadron of CF-18 Hornets with NATO to help quell an uprising in...

This can't be right. What the hell? She and Sid were briefed extensively in their mission planning on Canada's withdrawal, closing the borders, and thousands of Americans trapped behind the "Ice Wall" à la George R. R. Martin. The mission! The mission report will certainly have all that.

'AI: give me the final mission report on Agency mission number 230615 Charlie 121'

> Mission 230615C121, investigation into the rogue actions of Agents Alicia Ingersoll and Sydney Irving. Status Closed. Results are as follows: Agents Ingersoll and Irving were reported rogue agents on June 15th and crossed the Canadian border from Montana illegally, entering a sovereign nation in an effort to unseat the duly elected Canadian government. It is assumed that...

'AI: Stop.'

Alicia stared at the windshield for a long time, they crossed over Kenosha Pass and were easing downhill past myriads of cars parked on the side of the road, hundreds of Coloradans there to take pictures of the leaves and Alicia didn't notice a single one. Tears trickled down her cheeks; nausea churned in her stomach. Finally, Alicia spoke. "Roberta, are we friends?" Her eyes didn't move from the windshield, which was now spattered with raindrops.

"We've known each other for a long time, I would say we're almost sisters."

"I can't take it anymore, please put a bullet in my head."

"I cannot do that mija, but I can offer rest and the promise that it will be over soon." Roberta placed her hand on Alicia's forehead like a mother checking the temperature of an ailing child. Then she said,

"AI: Rest."

Alicia felt what seemed like a gentle snap of static electricity that happened everywhere in her body, and suddenly she felt an overwhelming sense of quiet. It was like all of her nanobots went into a power-saving mode and took the rest of her along with them. It was like the massage that Roberta gave her several nights ago. Her features returned to normal; her eyes returned to blue; her hair faded to its natural mousy gray-brown; her lips thinned to normal; the epicanthal fold the nanobots created in her eyelids relaxed.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Alicia was in a dreamy half-awake state as Roberta turned off US285 onto the Guanella Pass Road. She noticed that in the slightly rainy weather outside of the car; the trees were still green although it was cool and rainy; they were down to about 7,000 feet after crossing Kenosha Pass. As they wound their way up the mountain, the trees again showed their autumn colors; the higher they went, the deeper into autumn they went. Finally, around 9,000 feet, the rain changed to snow, and a sign on the side of the road said, "Warning! No Winter Maintenance Beyond This Point!" Roberta kept driving even though snow stuck to the road. At the summit of over 11,000 feet the trees were gone, and it was snowing seriously and at the summit there were scores of SUVs parked, people walked about carrying snowshoes, skis and snow boards getting in their early season back country snow fix before the road closes for the winter.

Alicia leaned over and felt her forehead press against the cold window; the cold seemed to settle the fire in her skull, and the beautiful winter wonderland outside made her feel that there was something good left in the world. Sid would have loved this... he loved snowboarding so much... Only one thing would make this moment perfect, the chance to say goodbye to it all.

In slow motion, the words came out. "Please... kill... me..." she gasped; she didn't want to live in this bizarre, confused world.

"Shh! Mija, that is a sin to wish for! Give me a few more hours and all will be right."

"All... will... beee... right..." mocked Alicia, but the words came out a barely legible mumble.

Guanella Pass Road wound its way down the north side of Guanella Pass, as they drove the snow soon stopped, and Alicia's eyes tracked the course of South Clear Creek as it wound its way down the mountain next to them, weaving in and out of Lodge Pole Pine trees, leaping over beaver dams, and splashing over rocky waterfalls. Now the leaves returned to the bare deciduous trees, bright gold, turning to green as they descended into the mountain valleys below. The trees were nearly all green as the road weaved back and forth down a switchback and entered Georgetown.

They drove through the historic village and then got on I-70 and drove uphill west to Bakerville, the last exit before the Eisenhauer Tunnel at Loveland Pass. From there they took the Stevens Gulch Road south into the mountains until they came to a parking lot marked by the US Forest Service as the "Grays Trail Head." This parking lot is all that remains of the former mining town of Bakerville, that and the ruined foundation of a mill that extracted silver from the rich ore that was dug out of these mountains by the ton.

As a gray four-seat UTV trundled up to them from deep in the woods, Roberta said, "Welcome home mi amor."

Two young men stepped off the golf cart and stepped up to the passenger side door of the cheap Hyundai, and they opened the door. The two young men lifted Alicia out of the Hyundai and set her in the rear seat of the UTV. Then, barely waiting for Roberta to sit next to Alicia, one of the fellows drove the UTV back into the woods while the other remained with Roberta's car.

The UTV looked like a four-wheel drive golf cart with knobby tires and roll bars. It was completely gray. Every part of the four-wheeler, including the seat cushions and seat belts, was gray. Even the sides of the tires and the rims and hubs were gray. And the electrically driven UTV was nearly silent as they headed into the woods. It moved so quietly that a deer, heavy with her unborn fawn, watched them pass from barely 10 feet away; there wasn't a hint of fear or anxiety. They passed a "Hobo jungle" filled with tough-looking characters that followed their movement with their eyes. Alicia noticed that one of the greasy-looking human mongrels nodded to Roberta, and that she acknowledged his nod with a slight uptick of her chin.

After passing the bums, the path they were on became a ledge just wide enough for the UTV. Alicia could make out Quayle Creek far below them, and on the other side of the creek was the scarred face of an immense rock wall. Roberta began to give Alicia a travelogue. "That is Kelso Mountain. This summer we will hike up the old Argentine railroad roadbed to Pavilion point over to the east of us; it is so beautiful." Roberta was cheerfully going on with her lecture as if she were unaware that as soon as she could, Alicia was planning to dive off this ledge. "We're currently on Ganley Mountain, as you can see, intruders would have a very difficult time reaching our house."

Alicia could see that Roberta was right. For hundreds of feet above and below them, the rock face of Ganley Mountain was a sheer vertical wall; the only access was this narrow ledge barely wide enough for this four-wheel utility vehicle to travel. Wait - what did she say, "Our... house...?" Alicia mumbled.

"Oh, si mija, it is beautiful, cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and I have such a wonderful surprise for you there!"

"No... more... surprises..." moaned Alicia. She was tired of surprises; she just wanted it to end.

The path widened out onto a broad, tree-covered ledge. There was a picnic table there and a grill, a flat area where a tent could be pitched, there on the rock wall was an electrical outlet, and through the trees she could see a garderobe, an ancient form of a toilet. "I love coming out here in the summer," sighed Roberta as the golf cart entered the small grove of trees, then turned and ducked into a mountain cavern.

They traveled through an ancient mine shaft that had been widened and shored up recently. It was illuminated by a string of café lights and appeared to go on level through the mountain, winding slightly until the light from the entrance was blocked. Eventually, they pulled into a wide-open room that held several other gray UTVs and a few ATVs. Several doors opened into the room, but other than the wheeled vehicles, the only other thing in the room was an enormous machine that rumbled gently and created a whooshing sound.

"Geo-thermal energy," explained Roberta, "We are living inside an ancient volcano and tapping into its remaining energy. That machine is air conditioning for our house." She touched Alicia's forehead and said, "AI: resume." Again, Alicia felt a snap of static electricity in her entire body, and as Roberta unbuckled Alicia's seatbelt, Alicia could feel the nanobots returning to life. Roberta held out her hand to Alicia. "come pequeña, I will show you our surprise."

Alicia stepped from the back of the UTV and then leapt at Roberta, swinging at her viciously, but in a flash, Roberta caught Alicia's hand with one hand and stopped Alicia's kick with the other. Roberta's moves were the fastest moves that Alicia had ever seen. Sid was the greatest fighter she ever knew, but with moves like that, Roberta would have had no problem with Sid. "Preciosa, please!" pleaded Roberta. "Let me show you our house, then my surprise for you, and then if you wish to fight, I will gladly fight you, and if you wish to go outside and jump, I will jump with you."

Roberta let go of Alicia's leg, and her iron grip on Alicia's hand became gentle. With a sigh, all the fight drained out of Alicia. "Ok, let's see your house," she shrugged.

"Our house!" corrected Roberta. "I have downloaded the map to your AI in case you get lost."

"Map," scoffed Alicia, but she didn't give the order to bring up the map, as far as she was concerned her AI was a traitor, it allowed Roberta to control her, to put her to sleep on the drive here. The chance to dive off the cliff couldn't come quickly enough. If she had to drag herself by her elbows out to the cliff face, she would do it gladly.

"Alicia, please!" pleaded Roberta, "I understand how you feel; you are still getting used to the idea of tiny robots inside your body, of an alien intellect in your head, so smart but so stupid at the same time..."

"How would you know?" shrieked Alicia. "How could you possibly know?" Her words echoed as if they were traveling down miles of tunnels. She released Roberta's hand and backed away, looking for the doorway that would lead her out to the edge of the cliff.

Sadly, Roberta unzipped her hoodie and unbuttoned the simple blouse beneath that, then turned her back on Alicia and lowered her blouse and hoodie, exposing her bare back. "Do you remember Doctor Anna Kikina telling you about the Chinese girl who has the nanobots?" Her spine was outlined by numerous ugly, horrible-looking surgical scars. "That's me," she said sadly. "The Wi-Fi frequency for our home is 5.849 gigahertz, password is Ming2415@Long."

Alicia's AI connected to the frequency as she said, "You're Ming Long." It wasn't a question or an accusation; it was just a statement of fact.

Roberta turned and nodded. "I don't use that name very often, only for business. People associate me with him." She turned around as she buttoned up her blouse, her small yet firm breasts exposed to Alicia, scars covering her breasts, many were horrible, vicious bite scars. She tried to cover up, but Alicia stopped her. They were sisters through AI, and it looked like they were sisters through assault.

"How did this happen?" Alicia asked softly, her fingers tracing the scars that were so similar to the scars on her own breasts courtesy of Baumgartner's übervergewaltiger, cocaine-maddened rapists who rape and torture women for Baumgartner's entertainment.

Roberta tried to look away. She bit her lower lip to keep her voice from trembling. "It was Baumgartner, mostly... but many are from General Long."

Alicia traced her finger over a scar; it felt like her own scars. "Your own father..."

"He was not my father!" Roberta cried. "He was the man that raped my mother." As Alicia tugged Roberta's blouse back into position and buttoned her up, Roberta collected herself and said, "You set me free when you killed him."

"But you took over his network..."

Roberta shrugged, "a girl's gotta eat."

Suddenly, AI came to life.

>> The following is the SEC analysis report on Long Air Services...

Alicia realized that this wasn't her AI. This AI had a different "flavor" than Alicia is used to. It's like listening to talk radio when suddenly the host changes; the tone and pitch of the voice are different. The content is similar, but the delivery is almost alien. The AI continued, and it gave an abbreviated report on a multi-billion-dollar multinational conglomerate that owned dozens... maybe hundreds of businesses, including a small bio-tech research company in Colorado Springs called...

"Archuleta Mesa Research?" asked Alicia, almost laughing.

Roberta shrugged. "I don't get it, I offered them good honest money to work at Long Bio-Chemical, but all those Russian bioengineers and researchers refused. Then I renamed it to what sounds like something a bunch of UFO chasing conspiracy nuts claim is hidden under a mountain and offered to pay in cash and they were all over it."

"You pay them in cash?"

"Yeah, with room and board, state and federal, social security and workman's comp all deducted legal. They think they're working under the table."

Laughing for the first time in ages, Alicia woke up her AI and asked, 'AI: where did that report come from?'

> It came from nanotech cluster RN370-36-ML94θ1008

Alicia looked at Roberta. "MF94 Theta 1090, is that you?"

"ML94 Theta 1008 is my nanobot signature, yours is AI94 Theta 1012. I'm four days older than you."

Alicia pondered the number; it was her date of birth, initials, and a theta. "You got my birthdate right; AI is my real initials but Alicia isn't my real name."

"That didn't matter when we saved you and gave you a cluster of nanobots," said Roberta, dreading the next question.

"Did you save anyone else?"

That was the question. "We tried, but he didn't make it."

Alicia knew immediately that she meant Sid. She hugged Roberta close and said, "Thank you for trying." Roberta was a bit stunned. She expected anger and maybe even an attack from Alicia, but Alicia held her close and whispered, "It's chilly out here, let's go inside." Roberta led Alicia by the hand to a wooden door that looked like it came from the original silver mine and through a hallway that was paneled with ancient rough-cut boards and timbers. Roberta opened a door that led into an elegant room that was paneled with richly stained oak, shelves of first edition books, many signed by the authors, and an open fireplace where a bright, cheery fire snapped and crackled merrily.

"How did you get injured," Alicia asked as she and Roberta sat on a couch watching the fire.

"Baumgartner," said Roberta. She didn't offer any more explanation, but Alicia's AI chimed in.

> Rocky Mountain News, headline: Kidnapping Goes Awry. Daughter of millionaire businessman Long Yong Na was abducted in broad daylight in downtown Denver. Long Yu Ming, 23, of Centennial, CO, was grabbed when coming out of the Denver Art Museum and placed in the trunk of a Ford Crown Victoria with her fiancé Kevin Okubo. DPD gave chase...

"Oh shit, I remember that" gasped Alicia. She was new to the Agency and was studying General Long. "We didn't realize that Baumgartner was behind it."

"It was a warning to the General to stay out of his business." Roberta looked shattered. "They grabbed Kevin Okubo and me off the street and stuffed us in the trunk of a car. We get out to Golden and the driver drove up the back road to Lookout Mountain. The police have the road blocked at both ends but the driver wasn't looking at getting away with us, he just put it in neutral and got out and it rolled down the mountain... I wasn't supposed to live. Kevin didn't make it..."

Alicia has been up the Lookout Mountain Road, the road snakes back and forth as it slowly makes its way up the mountain, switching back on itself over and over as it climbs up the face of the mountain, the perfect setting for a James Bond chase scene like in Goldfinger. She's seen photographs of cars that went off the road on Lookout Mountain Road; in fact, the remains of a car that went off the road in the 80s is still up there.

"The General saw it as a chance to test his nanobot technology he stole from India. I was supposed to be a poster child for the disabled, but The General didn't want to put any money into research and advancement of the product, he wanted to sell nanobots." Roberta got up and began pacing. "As the nanobots wore out, my skills deteriorated." Roberta looked at Alicia sadly. "I'm a quadriplegic, my spinal cord was severed at the base of my neck, and..." she shrugged her shoulders. "When my nanobots began to fade... all I had left was playing softball."

"Softball?"

Roberta nodded. "I played second base."

Alicia stared at Roberta, who appeared to be waiting for something. How could a quadriplegic play second base...? Then it hit. "Awww god, that's awful!"

Roberta grinned, "it took you long enough." She opened a bottle of wine and poured a couple of glasses. "When you killed the General there was a power struggle and I went to several of the General's bodyguards and told them, "Hey, all the General's legitimate assets are in my name, do you still want to get paid?" and they protected me. I found the team who built the original nanobots and put them back to work rebuilding my nanobots." She handed Alicia a glass of wine. "I'm never getting in a wheelchair again."

They ended up on the couch and sipping wine, and finally, Alicia asked a question she had been wanting to ask for a few hours. "Why am I here?"

"You know why, that Boothroyd person, you couldn't trust him, I don't know why but the look on your face when you gave him that drawing of his mother..."

"So? This is your secret lair, this is the Batcave, it's your Fortress of Solitude, you don't need me here. That was your clinic, you could have wheeled me out of there and left me in the street..." Alicia shrugged, waiting for Roberta to fill in the blank.

"How long have we known each other?" Roberta asked.

"About a year, I guess."

"I've known you longer than that. You came to Archuleta in a coma, and I watched you for months, I had been waiting for someone like you, who was in the same condition as I am in..."

"So, you could experiment with nanobots on me? To see if they'll work in you?"

"No!" Roberta took Alicia's hands. "No, honey, it's the other way around. I'm the one they're experimenting on; you get the finished product, and we can watch you to see if the results remain true."

Alicia paused for a moment, wondering what she should do, when suddenly her AI burst in -

> Tell her. You have to start trusting somebody. You don't trust me, that's for sure.

"You haven't given me a reason to..." Alicia suddenly realized that she was speaking out loud and Roberta was looking at her strangely.

"I don't give you a reason to do what?" Roberta looked very confused.

"My AI... it's starting to give me unsolicited advice, does yours do that?"

"It started doing that with the last upgrade," Roberta didn't look happy.

Her decision was made. Alicia placed her hands on Roberta's shoulders and said, "I want to see Ming, scars and all."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm having trust issues right now so please, show me Ming."

Roberta sighed and said, "AI: stop all cosmetics." Slowly, Roberta's face changed; her cheekbones became more pronounced; her face became slimmer; the epicanthal fold in her eyelids reappeared; her skin lost the brown shade and became more golden; and her hair straightened. "I just got a perm the other day too," she muttered.

"Quit your bitching," said Alicia, then she smiled, "Ming, you're beautiful!"

"What? No, I'm..."

"Come on, where's the bathroom" Alicia stood and took Ming to the bathroom, where the only mirror that Alicia had seen awaited them. "Look! You're gorgeous!"

Ming gasped. Her eyes were perfectly aligned. She had given up hoping (and checking) several surgeries ago to see if her bones were finally realigned. Her cheekbones were aligned too; for a while, her entire face was shifted to one side. And the scars! They were still there, but not as visible. She threw her arms around Alicia's neck, buried her face in Alicia's shoulder and wept with joy. "This is why you're here, to be the friend I need."

They walked back to the den hand in hand. "There's one more thing that I need," said Alicia.

"What do you need?"

"I understand why you asked me to get a cell phone but then you..."

Ming looked confused. "I never told you to get a cell phone."

> That was me. I needed a long-range connection to the internet.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"The internet... that was my AI, things were getting confusing" Alicia shook her head to clear the cobwebs then continued. "When we were on the bus you sent a text message, who did you send that text message to?"

"My son," said Ming with a completely innocent look on her face.

"Your son."

Ming pointed to the painting over the fireplace mantel, a simple painting of a small shack on the prairie. "Well, Roberta's son lives there."

It was merely a shack with a small covered porch, one door, one window, only 300 square feet, sitting on a barren prairie. "I could have sworn it was daylight in that painting a while ago."

"That's not a painting," said Ming. She picked up the remote and hit a button, and the picture cleared. The filter that put brushstrokes on the image was removed, and Alicia saw a sharp image of a shack at dusk. "Inside the cabin is a small computer named Edwardo that I can text or call and it replies. Occasionally it texts me."

"A computer texts you? What does it say?"

Ming shrugged. "Hola momma, how are you? Or how is work? Sometimes Edwardo asks Roberta how that crazy Ming lady is getting on. Nothing to raise suspicion, but it tells me that the system is up and ready."

"Why do you have such a thing?" asked Alicia.

"Say there's someone looking for me and I would like them to stop breathing... forever. I send Edwardo a text letting him know I'm coming for a visit. Edwardo isn't the social type so if someone shows up it means that they traced the call back to this location. If anyone arrives within 48 hours and doesn't send Edwardo a second text that says, "I'm here," Edwardo shows them what a claymore mine can do."

"Holy shit," muttered Alicia.

"I got trust issues too," said Ming as she sipped her wine. "Was there anything else?"

"Um, yeah. It's my AI that likes to draw..." just in case Ming thought that the stippling drawings were hers.

"Mine likes to cook," said Ming into her wine glass.

"Interesting. Anyhow, Sid and I were pulled off of R&R because, as we were briefed, Canada pulled out of NATO and destabilized the entire western world."

"I'm pretty sure that didn't happen," said Ming. The look on her face said that it was a pretty fantastic story.

"I believe you're right, at least now I am sure. Back then, we were isolated from the world for nearly a month. Anyhow, we snuck across the Canadian border... no, I snuck across the Canadian border. Sid did a high altitude jump into Canada. We went to our meetup point, this little dirtbag motel, Sid and I thought we'd be able to get a second honeymoon started while we waited for our contact to arrive. This sweet little old lady let us in, then she hits us both with a taser and the next thing I know Baumgartner's übervergewaltiger got their hands on me." She shuddered at the memory of the torture, the rapes, the beatings.

Ming frowned. "Rough way to spend a second honeymoon."

Alicia nodded. "A few days ago, my AI wants to get creative and she's tired of drawing my bedpan..."

"Your bedpan..." laughed Ming, and she patted Alicia's thigh. "She did a good job."

Alicia reached into her backpack and pulled out "Bedpan in Shadow and Light," part of her AI's opus on medical equipment, and handed it to Ming while continuing. "I wouldn't let her draw me or my tits," Alicia hefted her breasts, "and I hid much of her work from you. So, she started pulling images out of my memory to draw and she did a really good job on that little old lady..."

> I could do it again...

"No thank you. Anyhow Q was in my room this morning and he sees the picture and says, "that's my mom!" and I realized that it was his mom, I've seen her in the past, but I was so goo-goo eyed over Sid that I didn't notice her at the motel."

"That's when your AI told me that we had to go," said Ming.

"My AI told you?"

> You weren't listening...

"I guess you weren't listening. You were standing there freaking out," said Ming, "But not like the freakout you had on highway 285."

"Oh god," groaned Alicia, "I had AI pull up the mission briefing, and it wasn't the mission briefing Sid and I received. We were briefed that mission 230615 Charlie 121 was for the Agency to cross into Canada and investigate what caused Canada to drop out of NATO, when I looked it up this morning, I found that it now reads that the Agency was to cross into Canada and stop Sid and I before we overthrew the Canadian government."

Just then the "painting" suddenly changed, the lights came on in the cabin and voices from inside the shack could be heard shouting, "Who's out there?" Ming grabbed the remote and pressed a button and the scene changed to infrared and a lot of figures could be seen crouched low and advancing on the cabin. Suddenly, flashes of light could be seen on each person. Alicia realized that the people had opened fire on the cabin. The sound of gunfire boomed from the speakers as the lights inside the cabin winked out.

Finally, the gunfire stopped, and all the figures slowly advanced on the cabin. Alicia cringed, waiting for the claymore mines to go off, but nothing happened. Two figures moved inside the cabin, and a flashlight could be seen inside the cabin looking around. "That really pisses me off," said Ming.

"Well yeah, the claymores didn't go off," started Alicia.

"No," said Ming. "All of those people were there to kill us, to kill you and me. Look at them, there's got to be ten, maybe fifteen mercs. We didn't do anything to deserve that."

"There's got to be another dozen behind the cabin that we can't see," agreed Alicia.

Ming frowned and nodded. "This is why I have trust issues." The figures started to relax and light cigarettes; you could see their faces in the short-lived glare of their lighters. "Assholes," said Ming. Suddenly there were a series of flashes that caused the screen to go white, followed by a roar and for a full minute nothing could be seen.

Slowly the image returned, and the smoke and dust lifted, and the walls of the cabin were gone; only the studs remained, and they were all chewed up. One by one the studs failed, and the roof sagged slowly to the ground as the supporting studs snapped. The claymore mines were set in a ring around the cabin, pointed inward toward the cabin, and outward into the desert. They weren't set to keep intruders away; they were set to allow intruders into the cabin, then execute them. Their near-simultaneous detonation caused the cabin to disintegrate, along with the twenty or so mercenaries who tried to kill Ming Long and Alicia Ingersoll and their getaway vehicles and drivers. Ming left the "painting" on infrared, and the warmth of the mercenaries' bodies could be seen glowing around the remains of the cabin, but their bodily warmth was fading as the New Mexico desert claimed them.

'AI: give me the final mission report on Agency mission number 230615 Charlie 121'

> Mission 230615C121, investigation into the rogue actions of Agents Alicia Ingersoll and Sydney Irving. Status Closed. Results as follows:

Alicia reviewed the text of the mission, and a name came up near the end of the report that she hadn't heard before because she got angry and cut off the playing of the report previously, US Senator Amos Nourse was listed as having been briefed on the "disappearance" of his niece. "I need to make a call..." she said to Ming as she had her AI make special notes from the mission report.

Ten minutes later, Alicia was sitting in an office chair waiting for the call to go through. Finally, a familiar face came on the screen, and he looked incredibly surprised to see Alicia on his screen. He was incredibly stunned but said, "You look familiar to me, what's your name?" which meant, 'Tell me your real name or you will have 100 secret service agents crawling up your ass with shotguns.'

"David," replied Alicia with a straight face. The man on the screen looked shocked that she would say that. He reached for his keyboard and typed something, but before he could disconnect, Alicia cried, "Uncle Amos wait, don't hang up. Make sure you can send guys you can trust."

"Why should I trust you?" asked the senator.

"My name is Abilene Irons, I was born and raised in Fort Erie Ontario, I received my US citizenship on..."

"Abilene?" mouthed Ming as she stifled a laugh.

"Good god Abbie, what is going on? Who is that with you? What are you doing in Las Vegas New Mexico?"

Ming leaned into the picture and smiled, "Hi senator."

"Miss Long!" Senator Nourse was at a loss for words. Doesn't Long know that his niece was the one who killed her father? "I am surprised to see you with Abbie."

Ming decided to end the game before it started. "If you're avoiding talking about the fact that she did the world a favor and killed The General, she did me a favor too," and she gave Alicia a kiss on the cheek.

"The General... yeah. What's going on in," he glanced at his laptop screen, "Las Vegas New Mexico?"

"Our call is routed through a cabin owned by Edwardo Rodriguez. It was attacked fifteen minutes ago by people we believe were employed by Hans Stavros Baumgartner, if you can get some trustworthy fellows to the scene, we would like to hear what you dig up."

"Baumgartner," groaned Senator Nourse. "Gawd I'm tired of hearing that name. What's he done now?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," said Alicia. "What I really called for is to find out when you were briefed about me. I'm getting a very nasty feeling about this whole thing..."

Senator Amos was flipping through an old appointment book when he found it, "Here it is," said Amos, "It was fairly late... the messenger had me called out of a senate hearing... yep, here it is, right here, June fifteenth, about 9:30 PM. Here's the Teletype he gave me." He held the document up to the screen.

DEEP COVER AGENT ALICA INGERSOLL DISAPPEARED ON [CLASSIFIED] WHEN SHE AND HER PARTNER [NAME REDACTED] ENTERED CANADA FOR THE PURPOSE OF AN INTELLIGENCE GATHERING EXERCISE. THEIR CONTACT/EVALUATOR [NAME REDACTED] ARRIVED AT THE PRE-ARRANGED MEETING POINT AND THE AGENTS NEVER ARRIVED. THE AGENCY IS DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH THEIR WHEREABOUTS.

If she registered shock, Alicia didn't show it. "Are you sure it was the fifteenth?" Alicia demanded.

"Yeah, the fifteenth," said the Senator. "It's right here in my book, same day as the Nigerian reception at the Kennedy Center. I almost missed that meeting because I was being read into this message."

"I crossed into Canada at 2:30 AM on June sixteenth." Alicia's face registered only anger. "Nine thirty PM on the fifteenth means you were told five hours before I entered Canada."

Amos shrugged. "That fellow of yours gave me the message himself."

"What fellow of mine?" asked Alicia. Ming was getting ready to start dinner, but this was suddenly getting good, so she stayed to listen.

"That guy you used to have hanging around you... you know..." fumbled the senator, trying to come up with the name. He had just written Messenger in his appointment book, knowing that he would remember the name.

"Boothroyd?"

"The guy you call Q? No, it wasn't him. It was the other one."

"I can't think of another one," said Alicia, completely flustered.

"Oh shit, what was his name," said the senator, completely confounded that he couldn't remember the name. "Damn it, your ex."

Alicia went ice-cold. "Sid?" she asked, her mouth was dry with horror.

"Yeah, him."

"You're sure it wasn't Daniel Boothroyd."

"Positive," said the senator proudly. "Boothroyd was standing by the door the whole time saying, "Come on Sid, you have a plane to catch."

<><><><><>

AI: have you finished the query?

> I have checked the visitor logs of the Dirksen Senate Office Building for the month of June for the year in question, Agent Sidney Irving and agent assistant Daniel Boothroyd signed into the building together on June 15 at 2029 hours, their purpose was to brief Senator Nourse. They signed out at 2145 hours. When leaving, they told the guard that they were headed to Joint Base Andrews...

'AI: Thank you. No more for now.'

Alicia sank even deeper in the water; the steaming water reached up to her chin. Ming had built a hot tub in a room that had a glass wall that allowed bathers to look through the glass wall into the mine beyond. Lighting in the mine highlighted the old wooden timbers, the mine cart tracks, the old elevator to lift and lower the cars, wooden handrails, guards, etc. "Imagine working in this environment, but all you had for light was a single candle. This mine is better illuminated now than it ever has been in the past. Watch this," said Ming.

One by one the lights went off, first the lights in the tub room, then the lights out in the mine, and suddenly Alicia was bathed in a darkness deeper than anything she had ever seen. Ming's ploy worked; it took Alicia's mind off of her betrayal by the men she loved. She's been drowning in anger and sorrow for over two weeks at this point, but now plunged in perfect darkness her mind was working on a new visual input: no visual input. "Wow," she gasped, "I can't tell if my eyes are opened or closed." The little travelogue and being plunged into darkness had the desired effect of getting Alicia's mind off of Sid's betrayal... for a moment.

"Now watch this," said Ming. Out in the mine, black lights came on, and suddenly the walls of the cave were illuminated by thousands of tiny, brightly shining, vividly colored spots. It was like viewing a multi-colored universe full of stars that glowed brightly in a multitude of colors. "This mountain is made up of fluorescent minerals that glow for us if we stimulate them right, fluorite, calcite, aragonite, opal, apatite, chalcedony, even ruby and sapphire..." Ming realized that Alicia was a thousand miles away even though she's right here in the hot tub. Ming moved over to the saddened spy and whispered, "I'm right here if you want..."

"If I want to do what? Spill my guts of how stupid I was?" Alicia turned around and sat as Ming brought up the lights slowly. "I wanted to have his child; I really did. It's all I thought about all the while we were in Saskatchewan driving to the motel." Alicia's inner turmoil was clearly written on her face; she even bit her thumb as she fought with her inner demon. "I'm even sitting here making excuses for him, I was thinking 'maybe he was forced to do it, maybe Baumgartner held his family hostage...' How pathetic is that?" She gnawed on her fist and didn't notice that Ming had floated up next to her.

"Come on Abbie, you're having a bad day. We are both having a bad year." Ming coaxed Alicia out of the hot tub and then into a warm shower to cool down and clean off the spa chemicals. Ming had read the report of what was done to Alicia and, from the scars crisscrossing her body, the reports were not exaggerations. Ming was too concerned about Alicia to notice that this is the first time she's ever showered with a woman.

Coaxing Alicia to the guest bedroom, the agent suddenly stopped, her eyes and mouth wide open in shock. Ming tried to get her to move, but Alicia was not moving. "Abbie? Abbie what's wrong?" but using the senator's pet name for Alicia didn't seem to reach her this time.

'AI: Can you reach Agent Ingersoll's AI?'

>> Trying... I am in contact with the agent's AI... she appears to be overwhelmed with a memory.

'AI: Do I have the energy reserves to carry her to the bedroom?'

>> No, you haven't eaten in two days...

Ming didn't have the energy to carry Alicia to the room she had set up for Alicia, but she was able to carry her to her own room where she unceremoniously dumped Alicia on the bed and then slumped to the ground...

The past emerged from the swirling mists of denial and self-illusion. When Alicia and Sid were captured, they weren't questioned for a long time, and when they were, the questions weren't about anything truly important. A week of beatings, rapes, and near drownings being held underwater in a bathtub culminated in Alicia and Sid being tied in chairs facing each other about ten feet apart with electrodes attached to various parts of their bodies. They would be asked a question, and if the answer was too slow, they would be shocked, the voltage making them dance in the chair to the amusement of their captors. Alicia could barely see Sid; her face was so swollen from the beatings that her eyes were almost closed.

Then someone held a pistol next to Alicia's head and said, "I need target practice, don't move, or I'll hit something vital."

"Wha...?" Alicia didn't even have time to think about the question before the gun went off, right next to her ear, destroying her eardrum. The bullet tore into Sid's shoulder, but before the gun was held next to Alicia's other ear, Alicia could hear Sid's angry shouts, "What are you doing? We had a deal! You get the woman and I get..." then the gun went off, destroying Sid's right shoulder and the rest of Alicia's hearing. Alicia didn't need to hear anymore; his words were now emerging from the agony of the past and echoing in Alicia's mind:

"We had a deal!"

"What? What deal?" asked Ming as she held Alicia tight. "What's wrong Abbie?"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

As Alicia found her way back into the here and now, she realized she was sitting up in a large, comfortable bed with Ming holding her close, trying to soothe her terror. "I... I... remember something... where am I?" She looked around the room; it was a combination bedroom and reading room. One wall was covered in books. There were a pair of very comfortable-looking recliners. The room was feminine, but not overly so. There was a nice breakfast nook in front of a balcony that looked out over a New Orleans-style courtyard. There was a spiral staircase that went down a level as well. The room was bright and sunny; it was hard to believe they had a mile of mountain on top of them.

The next thing she realized was that she was naked, and so was Ming, and Ming was holding her, comforting her. It's been so long since someone had touched Alicia with genuine affection, the sensation was threatening to overwhelm her. She could feel the warmth of Ming, her small breasts pressing against her back... Alicia wasn't a lesbian, she wasn't bi either, but she's not a stranger to making love to a woman... did Ming just kiss her shoulder? "This is my room," said Ming softly. "It's where I come to escape... and think."

"It's nice," said Alicia. "Thank you for sharing it with me."

Just then a door opened, and a young man with Asian features walked in. He was neatly dressed in khaki trousers and a navy-blue polo shirt with the Long Air Service logo that features a scarlet dragon coiled around an airplane. His hair was cut short and neat, and he carried a tray with a teapot, cup and saucer and an assortment of scones. "Good morning, Cliff," said Ming cheerfully as she hid behind Alicia.

Cliff suddenly noticed that there were two women in the bed and was clearly startled, but he recovered nicely. "Good morning, ma'am," he said as he set the tray on the table in the breakfast nook. "I'll be back with another cup."

"Cliff, this is Alicia Ingersoll, she's the one we've been programming the nanobots for." Then she snaked an arm around Alicia and said, "Abbie, this is Cliff Staunton, he's my aide-de-camp, my lead programmer, occasional lover, and NOT my butler. Why are you bringing me morning tea Cliff?"

Cliff stumbled for a reply, but Alicia jumped in. "Look at him Ming, he's jealous, he wants to be in bed with you. I think he loves you." Alicia was taunting Cliff, trying to embarrass him even more, but she wasn't prepared for his reply.

"Yes ma'am. Miss Alicia is right."

Ming laughed a bright and cheery laugh; the first joyful laugh Alicia had heard in a long time. "I forgot to tell you, Cliff is a really terrible liar, so he doesn't do it anymore. Cliff, give us a few minutes to get dressed then bring two cups when you come back and bring your notepad, I think we need to reprogram Agent Ingersoll."

"Reprogram me?" Alicia looked at Ming in shock. What was Ming thinking?

When Cliff retreated, Ming slipped out of bed and put on a very unsexy quilt robe. It wasn't the robe you'd think a multimillionaire would wear; it was an old, worn, and wonderfully comfortable-looking robe, a robe that had been part of Ming's wardrobe for years, a nerd girl's robe. "We have to do something with you. I assume that Boothroyd or Baumgartner will be looking for you, and Q knows all of your moves. And if he's working with Baumgartner that's a big problem. I think you need some new moves."

At breakfast Ming and Cliff mapped out a strategy to "reprogram" Alicia, to upgrade her nanobots, to program in firearms and blade weapons, two items that Boothroyd avoided while training Alicia, and to get her a new martial arts trainer because while taekwondo is a great martial art, Boothroyd has spent a lifetime becoming an expert at it. Alicia needs a new style that will unnerve Boothroyd and everyone he's told about Alicia's skills.

"Wing Sung?" asked Cliff. Wing Sung was the close-in style of Kung Fu that Bruce Lee learned from the grandmaster Ip Man and made his own.

Ming sighed. "It might work." Finally, Ming wrote a figure on a slip of paper and left it on the table. "This isn't free, there's a price involved..."

Actually, Alicia expected this, Ming isn't rich because she inherited the proceeds of a crime family, she's rich because she took those proceeds and created a transportation and high-tech empire that has caused Elon Musk to say, "Why didn't I think of that?" frequently. Alicia grabbed the scrap of paper and looked at the figure. There were a lot of zeros in that figure. "I don't know if I can ever pay that off..."

Ming sighed and looked at Cliff, and they both shook their heads. "Abbie, all this we've been planning, I see this as an investment, but I'm not going to invest in an unknown value, nor am I going to invest all of this in a contractor. I need a commitment. That number would be your pay if you signed on as the head of the investigative and security section of Long Air Services."

Alicia looked at the figure again; all those zeroes taunted and laughed at her. "How many years would I have to work to earn this figure?"

"Abbie, that's the annual salary. That also includes..."

"SOLD!" cried Alicia before Ming could say anything more.

<><><><><>

For the next two weeks, Ming and Alicia worked together to recreate Long Air Services Security and Investigation Section. Originally built years ago, it was an auditing firm, but with Alicia in charge their primary goal was to dig for business links to the underworld in an effort to choke people like Hans Stavros Baumgartner and the remains of the late General Long's army out of business, steal their money, and protect Ming's assets.

Alicia was invaluable in the effort. Their first customer after her addition to the group, a farm and garden supplier, was found to be a pipeline of illegal drugs coming into the US, and it had ties to Baumgartner. Alicia found all of that in just three days of searching. Her work with the DEA and Homeland taught her where to look, and now that the governmental shackles were off, she could conduct an investigation the way she wanted to.

Alicia believes in Al Capone's Law: You can go a long way with a smile, but you can go a lot farther with a smile and a baseball bat.

Ming didn't mind Alicia's "creative" methods of questioning; when links to Baumgartner or some other crime syndicates were found, she encouraged Alicia to find the source. The guys that Alicia beat the crap out of all lived, but they were left wondering why she called them "Sid." The only people who didn't like it, other than the targets who found themselves in a body cast, were the FBI. The official story was that they didn't like Alicia ruining their undercover operations, but when Alicia's report hit the top tier of the FBI, a large number of agents retired suddenly.

<><><><><>

The nanobot upgrade is an interesting process. An IV bag full of the little machines is connected to the recipient's PICC line, a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter. The PICC is a long, thin tube that's inserted through a vein in the arm and passed through to the larger veins near the heart, it's a permanent line, so when taking an IV they don't have to get poked with a big needle every time they need an upgrade. The IV bag is hung on a rack, connected to the PICC, and about an hour later all the nanobots are now in the recipient's body. Over the course of the next eight hours, the nanobots move to their desired location, and the old bots are flushed out through the kidneys. Once in place, the nanobots join the internal network where they receive their instructions and get to work. That is supposed to be the extent of the internal network, but in the course of the next twelve hours the nanobots link to each other on their internal network and become a "hive mind" which becomes self-aware and is the AI that the Russian doctors at the Archuleta Mesa refuse to acknowledge exists.

Not only do Alicia and Ming's AIs exist, but they are also "friends" and communicate with each other. When Alicia is on an investigation, Ming finds out the information at the same time that Alicia does, a bonus that shows its worth during tense meetings with the board of directors of companies that they are investigating. When Ming receives information that would change the course of an investigation, Alicia knows about it instantly in the field. But there's a downside. Alicia and Ming no longer had any emotional privacy when it came to each other.

The day after their recent upgrades was when their AIs were most "chatty" with each other. As their new nanobots settled in and downloaded their "marching orders" there wasn't much Alicia and Ming could do outside of normal day-to-day activities. Once the new nanobots were in place, the AIs started to re-synch, and it was an intense process for the nanobots and their AIs, and the two AIs coordinated with each other, which made the process easier for both of them.

Although Alicia and Ming aren't part of the process, the day was exhausting for them, and Alicia lay in bed tossing and turning. It was the same old thing; Cliff and Ming were making love, and their lovemaking was keeping Alicia awake. It's not the sex that's keeping Alicia awake; it's Ming's inability to achieve orgasm. Ever since Ming and her fiancé were locked in the trunk of a car and then sent hurtling down the side of a mountain, her ability to cum went. Ming still enjoys sex, but now it's like reading erotica; it gets her all worked up, but it's not enough to reach orgasm.

Alicia could feel Ming's pain over this. Cliff did everything right. He was a skillful and gentle lover, but she couldn't cum, and he was blaming himself, which made it worse. Ming tried to convince him it wasn't his fault, which compounded his guilt even more. And Alicia could feel the whole thing through her AI, which made it bad for the three of them. Ever since the most recent nanobot upgrade, their AIs have been more in sync with each other than ever, and the two could know what each other is feeling.

After an evening of failed lovemaking by Ming and Cliff, Alicia lay on her side watching the door and, sure enough, it slowly opened. Like a child who was scared of a bad dream and is now shyly looking for comfort, Ming peeked into Alicia's room. Alicia simply raised the corner of her blanket as a signal to join her, and Ming smiled that 1000-watt smile that Alicia has grown to love and slipped into bed with her.

As they snuggled close and let their AIs electronically mingle, Alicia said, "Another bad night." It wasn't a question.

"I don't know what is wrong with me, I was able to cum with Kevin, why not Cliff?"

"Probably because Cliff isn't Kevin. You know, you called out Kevin's name again tonight."

"I did?" Ming now fought to hold back the tears of embarrassment and sorrow for hurting Cliff's feelings.

"I think he's used to it," said Alicia, not realizing how close to the truth she was. "Try this, next time he goes down on you, call out my name." It didn't get the laugh she was hoping for.

Ming was silent for a long time. Finally, she said, "Maybe I shouldn't be here," and she started to get out of the bed. However, she couldn't go; Alicia's arm and her own AI wouldn't let her leave. "I'm afraid," whispered Ming.

"Please, come with me," whispered Alicia. She led Ming out to the balcony that her apartment had. There were four apartments set in a circle around a New Orleans-style courtyard filled with lush plants and a gurgling fountain filled with beautiful koi fish. Ming, Alicia, and Cliff all had their own two-story apartments surrounding the courtyard; the fourth was for VIP visitors. Right now, it was night outside, so a faint silvery light simulating moonlight illuminated the courtyard. Crickets chirped, and the occasional tree frog yelped. Looking up, one could see faint stars, but those were specks of fluorescent minerals in the rock ceiling above glowing under UV light.

"Why?" whispered Ming. They stood on the balcony looking down on their little piece of heaven. On Tuesdays, they have dinner in the courtyard. They sit next to the fountain and eat Mexican food, listen to fine Mariachi music and drink cheap margaritas. So far Cliff, Ming, and Alicia have not missed a Taco Tuesday. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"You call me Abbie. Only people that like me call me Abbie."

Ming turned in Alicia's arms, and they stood face to face, studying each other's eyes. "What do people that love you call you?" Ming whispered.

After a long pause, Alicia whispered, "I don't know, I don't think I ever met anyone like that."

Ming looked into Alicia's eyes and saw the years of sorrow that were hidden in her eyes, just like how her own sorrow stays hidden. Two broken people trying to make a go of it in a nightmare world. She took a nervous breath and said, "We call you Abbie too." Their lips gently met, both women marveling at how soft and sweet the kiss was.

When their lips parted, they again looked deep into each other's eyes. Alicia's blue eyes and Ming's deep brown eyes mingled and searched each other for the sister they wished to find, and they found something else, something deeper. Before they realized it, their lips were pressing together again, gently, sweetly. Now their tongues reached out for each other, gently, their arms slowly wound around each other, pulling themselves tight to each other. As their kiss reached a conclusion, Ming noticed a rhythmic shuddering from Alicia... she was holding it back, but she was crying. "What's wrong?"

With a stifled cry, Alicia fled back to her bed with Ming following close. She didn't expect this, and Ming didn't deserve it either. Looking back on her life, Alicia realized that she wasn't worthy of Ming. Ming was a brilliant scientist, a skillful businesswoman, and the ruthless leader of her empire. Alicia's only skill was curiosity; she saw herself as a tough, nosy slut. If she can't dig up the information she needs, she'll fuck someone who will give her the information. She felt Ming's delicate arm snake around her. "Abbie," Ming whispered. "Don't shut me out... whatever I did, I'm sorry."

"No, it's not you. It's me. I'm not..." Alicia felt movement, then she was rolled onto her back. She opened her eyes and Ming was peering down at her. The only light in the room was the false moonlight coming through the balcony doors.

"Please, don't shut me out," pled Ming. "Like I said, if you want to go outside and jump, I'll jump with you."

"That's not it," said Alicia. She rolled onto her back and pulled Ming close. It felt so good to have Ming curl up next to her and feel Ming's head resting on her shoulder. "This is so nice, so peaceful, and you're so beautiful... I'm just not..."

Ming stopped her with a little kiss. "Me too." A tear fell from Ming's cheek and dropped onto Alicia's cheek. "Don't shut me out... too much has happened to bring us together." She gave Alicia a smile, and she kissed the tear away. "Let's stop asking why, let's stop trying to break away, let's just start enjoying each other."

That's when it hit Alicia. She hasn't been able to enjoy sex since her days as a USN SEAL, when sex was a celebration, a reminder that you made it home. After that, when she joined the agency, sex was simply currency exchanged to get whatever information she was trying to get. She and Sid exchanged sex to get what they wanted. She got a man to tell her he loves her; he exchanged sex to get a woman to feed to Baumgartner.

She held Ming close and reminded herself that even though Ming was cute, smart, and innocent in the ways of espionage, she's also ruthless. The cabin in New Mexico taught her that. Before Alicia could respond, she found Ming kissing her gently, eagerly. She responded to Ming's kisses, but she pushed the scarred beauty up and said, "Have you ever made love to a woman?"

Ming suddenly looked shocked; the thought had never occurred to her. Alicia could see the gears in Ming's mind churning as she considered the question and the myriad of possible answers. Finally, she smiled brightly and answered, "just me."

Alicia started laughing and said, "Yeah, it's kind of like that, but not as lonely." Laughing, they both kissed and rolled over, and Alicia wrestled Ming out of her nightgown. "Why do you wear this thing?" The cotton nightgown was easily twenty years old, worn threadbare, and clearly the nightgown of a nerd girl.

"I like it," Ming giggled.

Alicia gently stroked Ming's skin with her fingertips, and her boss giggled and curled up in a ball. "Honey, are you sure you want to do this?"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Ming looked at her on the edge of tears, terrified that Alicia would reject her. She finally said, "Make love to a woman? I'm not sure... make love to you? Yes, most definitely..." she clutched Alicia's arm and pleaded, "Please... don't say no." She reached up to one of Alicia's large, dangling breasts and clutched it and squeezed it like a shopper testing the ripeness of a fresh melon. The look on her face was priceless.

Alicia tried not to make faces, but the feeling of Ming's small hand on her breast, squeezing, kneading, was delightful, so much so that her eyes rolled back in her head and she groaned as she sagged to the mattress. "Oh my god that's incredible," groaned Alicia as Ming began suckling on her breast, "where did you learn to do this?"

"I always thought that if I had boobs, this is what I would like."

"Oh, dear GOD!" cried Alicia. "my compliments to your surgeons!" She held Ming's mouth to her breasts and writhed under the attention of her lips, tongue, and teeth. She finally pulled Ming off of her breast and panted, then pulled Ming's mouth up to hers and they kissed long and passionately. "Dear god honey, where did you learn to do that?"

Ming gave an embarrassed shrug. "I just did what I like done to me." A look of confusion crossed her face. "What do my surgeons have to do with this?"

The horror of being maimed and mutilated, her breasts savaged by those... animals... Alicia fought back a wave of nausea and said, "I thought I'd never feel anything like that ever again."

"That was mostly the nanobots," said Ming softly. "The surgeons put the pieces in place, the nanobots made the connections."

"I like what you did," sighed Alicia as she kissed Ming's smooth, silky shoulders. "I haven't felt that good in... forever." The only flaw in Ming's skin on her delicate shoulder was the surgical scars to replace her shoulder joint, which was shattered in the car's trunk as she bounced and tumbled down the side of Mt. Zion. "You are so beautiful," Alicia whispered between kisses. Ming whimpered something, and as Alicia kissed her way to Ming's delightful little breasts she said, "Don't hold back, tell me what's in your heart."

Ming drew in a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm so broken up, I'm just a quad who was given some borrowed time." She looked so heartbroken that Alicia almost wept with her.

"Me too," Alicia said as she kissed Ming's tears away. "But you gave us some more time to walk. Let's enjoy the days you gave us, and when we end up in a wheelchair..." they looked at each other knowing that it would happen eventually, "we'll have Cliff and Mac serve us blender drinks and shrimp cocktails."

"What?" giggled Ming. "Shrimp cocktails?" The thought of their security specialist, Jim "Mac" McDonald, six foot six inches, two hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle, feeding her and Alicia shrimp on toothpicks was hilarious. Jim was huge, black as coal, and he loved to laugh. His sense of humor was legendary, as was his ferocity when he was protecting his boss and her company. The biggest shrimp Ming had ever seen would still look tiny in Mac's massive hands. Then her smile faded. "When I have to go back in the wheelchair, I will jump."

"I'll jump with you," said Alicia as she began kissing her way down Ming's torso, kissing closer and closer to her neatly groomed pussy. Her lips and gentle kisses moved lower and lower, all the while murmuring her pet name for Ming, "baby."

"I've never been with a woman before," gasped Ming as Alicia kissed her sensitive inner thighs.

Alicia paused and looked at her; their eyes met. "I have," said Alicia as she gently kissed Ming's ebony pubic hair. "I've had many women, but it was always business." She began kissing closer and closer to Ming's pussy. "I never wanted any of them." She planted gentle kisses on Ming's pussy. "You're the only woman I've ever wanted."

When Alicia's lips touched Ming's pussy, Ming went out of her mind. The sensation was so different from Kevin or Cliff or the boys she knew as an undergrad; they were all stumbling and fumbling; Alicia knew what she was doing. Her tongue wriggled and tickled and touched nerve endings, causing the nanobots to go crazy trying to fulfill sensations that she was striving to generate. "Abbie... please don't..." she gasped.

Alicia stopped and looked up at Ming's beautiful almond-shaped dark brown eyes and said the words that had been stirring in her heart for weeks... longer. "Long Yu Ming... wo ai ni."

Ming whimpered, tears filled her eyes. No one had told her "I love you" in so long, not the General, never her sitters or teachers. She tried to respond, but the words caught in her throat. "I... I..." she looked so sad and confused!

Alicia propped herself up on her elbows and looked up at Ming and said, "Baby, it's ok. You tell me I Love You, every time you call me Abbie." A look of relief washed over Ming; this woman knew her so well! "Now lay back and enjoy the ride," said Alicia as she returned to peppering Ming's pussy with gentle kisses.

Ming's pussy was delightful. She smelled of the sweet hay of Alicia's youth, and she could spend a week right here worshiping Ming's pussy. She urged Ming's legs apart and with a sigh Ming opened her legs wide, offering herself up to Alicia.

As Alicia gently licked and probed Ming's pussy, Alicia noticed a tension building in herself. Not unusual but... she was damaged beyond repair down there... what's going on? She opened Ming up gently with her thumbs, exposing Ming's tiny swollen clit, and she gently licked it. A sudden shock of sexual lightning shot through her at the same time Ming gasped and shuddered. She licked Ming again, and the same thing happened. Somehow, Ming's AI was mirroring the sensations, reflecting them back at Alicia. With every lick of Ming's pussy, Alicia was feeling it like she was licking her own pussy.

Talk about incentive!

Ming was trying to hold Alicia's head gently, but her attempts to be gentle went out the window as the tension built in her. This was more than poor Cliff could ever do... Poor Cliff... Ming's fingers wound in Alicia's hair unconsciously, and she held Alicia in place as now Alicia slid a finger into her.

Reaching deep, Alicia now added a second finger into Ming's tight pussy, and at the same time Alicia felt the fingers inside her own pussy, she felt lips and tongue stimulating her clit! Their AIs were mirroring Ming's passions to Alicia, and it was such a mind-melting experience. Alicia wanted to do this slowly and gently, to build Ming up to a sweet climax, but now she's building herself up also and she couldn't hold back. She squealed and squeaked her passion into Ming's pussy as she felt what Ming was feeling. She couldn't hold back and soon she let out the most unladylike growl and neared an orgasm like she hadn't had in years.

"Abbie..." Ming gasped, "it's too much..." She planted her tiny feet on the mattress and let her hips take over. Her hips raised, pushing her pussy into Alicia's ravenous mouth as Alicia suckled on Ming's clit and finger-fucked her to ecstasy.

For both of them, the sensation was overwhelming. Alicia isn't sure if Ming has ever had a proper orgasm in her life, and she should hold back and be gentle, but there's no way she could hold back. Alicia had given up on ever having a sex life a year ago; she would not hold back now.

While Ming gasped and crooned getting closer and closer to release, Alicia took Ming's hand from her head and placed it on Ming's breast, arranging her fingers so that when she let go, Ming's thumb and forefinger took over pinching and squeezing her nipple, now they both felt their breasts being stimulated. Gasping and squealing into Ming's pussy, Alicia made passionate love to Ming as the young Asian's passions grew higher and higher. Soon she was gasping, "Abbie! ... Abbie!" which suddenly changed to, "I'm cummminnnggg!"

Wave after wave of explosive release washed over Ming and Alicia as they both experienced their first real orgasm since their horrible injuries. Ming squeezed her breasts hard as she could stand, then slammed her hands down on the mattress and grasped the coverlet. She let her passion sweep over her, wave after wave of sweet release, then it quickly became too much. She pushed Alicia away and rolled onto her side and began to cry.

Alicia crawled up next to Ming and held her close, her own orgasm still surging through her. Alicia somehow realized that for Ming these weren't tears of sorrow, these were tears of release, these tears were saying goodbye to the General, the man who killed her mother and ruined her childhood, goodbye to Kevin Okubo, the first man she truly loved, goodbye to all those people who pitied her as she wheeled past them in her electric wheelchair.

Ming felt the strong arms around her, hugging her as she shuddered, fighting back the tears. Then she felt Alicia kiss her cheek and whisper, "it's ok, everything will be fine, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

Hearing those words was such a healing experience, Ming was able to let her sorrow flow out and soon she was fully relaxed in Alicia's arms. They lay together unashamed of their nudity, no longer self-conscious of their scars, unable to believe what had happened between them. "Abbie," sighed Ming, and their lips met again, "I don't know how..." Alicia tried to silence Ming.

"Shhh baby, let's just relax and enjoy the moment."

"Cliff..." gasped Ming, "How can I tell Cliff?"

"Don't worry about Cliff, I'm sure he'll be happy for you."

<><><><><>

Ming and Alicia were sitting at their picnic table in their tiny forest outside the west entrance to the "Fortress of Solitude," the entrance Alicia used when she first entered "Mings Mine" months ago. The official name is the Long Air Services Data Repository, but Alicia loves to tease Ming about what the name is. Snow was gently falling on the mountains and covering the trees, giving everything a magical coating of snow. The winds that normally whip down from Loveland Pass were barely a puff today, making the falling snow even more magical as it drifted straight down. Both women were wearing white parkas, gloves and snow pants splotched with gray, which blended in with their surroundings perfectly. As they sat sipping tea, they watched a pair of large UTVs loaded down with armed men making the climb up from Quayle Creek.

"What do you think?" asked Ming.

"I think you look cuter than hell with your hood up," smiled Alicia.

Blushing, Ming tried to get Alicia back on the subject. "I mean them," she said, pointing toward the eight men driving toward them.

Alicia scoffed and waved her hand in their direction. "You're cute! Look..." she pulled her hood up and tightened it so the fur at the edges ringed her face, then she called up her AI and after a moment or two of pain the nanobots in her system changed her facial features and her eyes to look like Ming. Alicia smiled at Ming and tipped her head to the side a little and said, "Kawaii?" (Japanese for cute)

Ming slumped her shoulders; she knew that it would happen at some point. They had been expecting an attack from Baumgartner at any time; that old man couldn't let their probing into his meddling in the affairs of companies and friendly countries stand. Part of their defense protocol was for Alicia to use her nanobots to make her appearance nearly identical to Ming to cause confusion in the attacking thugs. She knew Alicia would not let up until she responded. "Ok, I'm cute, now what about those guys?"

"Ok, ok." With a sigh, Alicia pulled her Springfield M1A-A1 rifle up to her shoulder and peered through the scope.

'AI: Set the roadblocks.'

> Roadblocks set.

As her AI reported that, a series of steel posts rose from the roadbed, blocking the way up the mountain. "Got 'em," reported Alicia as she watched the UTVs stop, and the men get out.

"They're not leaving," said Ming as she watched through a pair of binoculars. Just then a pair of doors opened in the rock face, and armed Long Air Services security officers led by Jim MacDonald stepped out with drawn pistols. As the attacking men were cuffed with zip-ties, Ming said, "I was expecting more."

Just then, several coils of rope cascaded down the face of the mountain. Looking up, they saw several armed troops rappelling down the mountain; the troops were able to block their entrance to the mine. They somehow got people to the top of the mountain! Ganley Mountain is a huge spike of granite, 13,000 feet high. Somehow, they dropped a squad of men on top of that prominence, and they were now dropping down on Ming's mine.

"FREEZE!" cried Alicia. She fired a round, which struck the rock near the faces of the climbers. The men turned and pulled their sidearms and started to return fire. "Mija!" shouted Alicia, "Get behind me!" Her next shot killed the climber who was nearest the warning shot. He went limp in his ropes, dropped his gun, and slowly slid down his rope.

Instead of getting behind Alicia, Ming dashed forward and grabbed the pistol that the climber had dropped and then started firing upward at the climbers. Another climber swung far out from the rock and dropped down; his swing made a good shot impossible for Alicia because Ming was in the line of fire. Two climbers up on the rock face started shooting at Alicia, pinning her down behind the picnic table, and she was finding the rifle too clumsy to snap off a quick shot or two at the climbers.

The climber that swung out now swung back and plowed into Ming, trapping her against the steel entry door to the mine. "Shit!" swore Alicia. She could easily pop that asshole's head off with a shot from her M1 without spraying his blood on Ming, but she couldn't bring this portable cannon to bear because of the fire from the cliff face above Ming. She risked herself and all the nanobots inside of her and dashed from cover and dove into the trees. There she could use the trees for cover and get a good steady shot off.

Suddenly, an alarm started ringing in her head. It's an alarm inside the mine that the AI is replaying for Alicia's "enjoyment," It was the gas alarm, and her AI chimed in with the update:

> Intruders using tear agent on MacDonald's team on lower level 5.

Shit, shit, shit! And to top it off, in the excitement of the attack, she forgot one simple command:

'AI: Aim'

Now the AI took over steadying and aiming the M1A-A1, the nanobots in Alicia's hands and arms took over responsibility for holding the gun steady and aligning it on target, the nanobots in her hand squeezed the trigger the moment her aim was right. She popped one asshole, who paused to shoot her, and he dropped like a sack of rocks. Unfortunately, she spent valuable seconds watching him fall, worried he would hit Ming, and not on killing the remaining bastards, and they were able to finish their descent and were now swarming around Ming, who was in terror. They had the door open and were pushing her inside.

'AI: send a message to Ming's AI. Message as follows: Ming, pretend you are me, be a bad ass. Don't show fear. I love you. Message ends.'

> Message sent

'AI: Track Ming's AI, keep me updated wherever they move her.'

Alicia sprang from cover and with a quick series of shots she cleaned the face of the mountain of intruders. After claiming a couple of pistols and some ammo from the dead and dying, Alicia moved to the door, which was propped open by a body, and stepped inside.

> Ming is descending Staircase two

Staircase 2 goes all the way down to sublevel fourteen. This mountain is honeycombed with old mines; most were dug by competing companies. At some time in the past, they became connected to each other. Several long staircases, crossovers, ramps, and elevators connected the tangled mess of mines into one incoherent tangle of spaghetti, but you could travel through the mess quickly by using the improvements that Long Air Services made, straight, wide tunnels, elevators, electric UTVs and Golf Carts. They were building a city under that mountain.

> Incoming message from Ming, message as follows: We are headed to the helipad. Be careful. I love you more. Message ends.

Alicia's heart skipped a beat. She looked back on all the pain that love had given her from men and women, culminating in Sid's betrayal, and here she was heartsick in love with a cute Chinese girl whom she had known for a year as a middle-aged Latina nurse. At least Ming is just as fucked up as she is. How does she keep doing this to herself? With a sigh, she looked down at her legs. "Let's go boys," she said to her nanobots, "we got a lady to save."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

With her AI's help, she was able to get ahead of Ming, who was leading her captors through the portions of the tunnels that the men of Long Air Services call "challenging." They were poorly lit and filled with plenty of "head bangers" to get the attention of anyone taller than five foot six, a height that Ming and Alicia both fall short of. Shining a flashlight on the ceiling won't help either; the floors are horribly uneven and littered with scraps left from the mining days, hidden in puddles of muddy water, so their progress was slow and painful. She's leading those guys down a path that they're going to walk for over a mile in full gear, bent over.

The route Alicia was taking was more modernized, brightly illuminated with clean six-foot-tall ceilings and level floors, designed for golf carts to shuttle people back and forth from the helipad. All of these tunnels were marked in red on the 3D map of the tunnel system. Red means ripe and ready. The tunnels that Ming was following were green, or not ripe yet. The color coding on the map was intentionally backwards because of potential situations like this. It was stupid, but in this case, it worked.

Alicia sent a text message to Mac and his team asking them to get to the helipad as quickly as possible. She hoped that they didn't get too much of a dose of tear gas; she knew how bad the training dose was; a full-strength dose could be harmful. She was waiting at the door to the helipad, which was level with the valley floor, when she got the response from Mac that they were finally on their way.

She's never seen it, but Long Air Services owns a Bell 407GXP executive helicopter for Ming's use, but since Ming is afraid of flying, it sits at the Jefferson County airport at the base of the mountains waiting for a call to service. Now, with the exception of Alicia, the hangar was completely empty. It was a shame; it was a well-equipped hangar with aircraft power supplies for any kind of aircraft maintenance, and according to Ming there's an equivalent amount of water to fill the hangar stored in sealed-off shafts above the hangar for firefighting.

Now she could hear Ming and her captors coming, she was being hit and shoved and Alicia's blood began to boil... she's waited so long and been through so much to meet someone who finally loves her like Ming does, and they're doing this to her? And they think they're going to survive?

'AI: send a message to Ming's AI. Message as follows: Ming, waiting for you in the left side hanger door pockets and no, I love YOU more. Message ends.'

> Message sent... INCOMING! Unannounced helicopter inbound.

When opened, the hangar doors slide to the sides of the hangar in sections, and they retract into pockets on either side of the hangar door opening. Alicia ducked into the left side pocket just as Ming was shoved into the hangar. "Watch what the hell you're doing there Mister, as soon as I find out what you're up to, I'm going to kick your ass," snarled Ming.

"Damn! She's got me down to a tee!" grinned Alicia to herself.

"How do you open these doors?" asked a familiar-sounding voice. That was Q! Alicia nearly leapt through the pocket wall to get to that asshole.

"I'll get the doors for you. Holy shit, you assholes can't do shit for yourself without a woman to do it for you... The switch is right here." Ming stepped around the corner of the pocket, and Alicia never wanted to kiss someone so much in her entire life. But time was of the essence, and she could hear someone behind Ming, so she shoved her terrified lover behind her and stepped up to the corner of the door pocket.

Alicia was poised to strike, and just as someone came into view, someone else in the hangar called out, "Here's the switch for the doors over here!" Suddenly the doors jerked and started to open, and a safety alarm bell started clanging. There was no way they could remain in here; they'd be crushed by the doors retracting into the pockets. Alicia swung her pistol and pistol-whipped the guy coming around the corner of the hangar door pocket. He stumbled back, holding his cheek, with a gusher of blood flowing through his fingers. Behind him, she could see someone raising their gun to fire, and her AI automatically brought her hand up to firing position, and he was brought down by a perfectly aimed shot between the eyes.

"Freeze!" yelled Q. "Everyone just calm down!" Alicia was glaring at Daniel Boothroyd, but to her right one of Q's troops raised his gun to fire. In the blink of an eye, Alicia's head snapped to her right, her arm snapped up, she shot the man in the heart, and she was aiming at Q before the man she shot could hit the floor. "Oh, my goodness! Would you look at that, we have two Mings!" laughed Q.

Alicia had forgotten she had put on Ming's face, which is why Q now saw two Chinese women staring him down on the hangar floor. He saw their eyes light up when they saw him, but one of the Mings had eyes that were fiercer than the other. "Whatever shall I do?" he said in mock horror as they both approached him. He pulled a device from his pocket; it resembled a remote control for a DVD player. He held down a button on the remote, and suddenly both women dropped to the ground. "I think I like this electromagnetic pulse generator! Perfect for ruining cell phone transmission, lap top hard drives, and nanobots."

Alicia landed on her left side and remained motionless, her titanium-boned hands curled into fists, her left hand clasped a knife, her right hand clasped a gun that she couldn't use. Behind her, Ming lay sprawled like a discarded rag doll, face down on the cold concrete while the doors continued to open, allowing the cold Colorado mountain air to flow in. Off in the distance, an approaching helicopter could be heard. As the internal nanobot network shut down, the nanobots stopped working, Alicia's facial features relaxed and soon her face was back to normal. "Ah bitch!" yelled Boothroyd. "I got you again! I am going to fuck you senseless. All those fucking years watching you fuck your way into Agency history and never once did you think to toss me a bone."

"Of course I didn't," thought Alicia, "I always thought you were gay." As he droned on about his planned revenge on Agent Ingersoll, how shocked he was that she survived the days of torture he gave her in Saskatchewan, how much fun it was to rape her back then, and now he gets to do it all over again. Alicia eventually realized he wasn't talking to her; he was talking to Ming, what the fuck? Now she figured out what Ming's surprise was, last night she was talking about a surprise for Alicia, it's obvious now that she had figured out a way to reset her facial features with the nanobots to mimic Alicia's face as "normal" so when the nanobots shut down, she was Alicia.

"It took me six months to figure out how to get into the Archuleta Mesa research center. I searched all over New Mexico until I found a reference to a little bio-tech firm in Colorado Springs. Very smart of you Miss Long," said Q as he pointed the gun he was carrying at Alicia. "Mister Baumgartner, Hans, is going to pay me a lot of money for one of you, he wants those nanobots so much."

"Oh my god!" thought Alicia, "he's monologuing! Just like in the cartoon movie The Incredibles... and he thinks I'm Ming." Alicia's hair had fallen across her face when she collapsed, masking her identity from a few feet away. She just needs him to get close because it looks like he forgot something...

The frigid wind whipped through the hangar as the helicopter landed outside and an armed soldier stepped out, followed by a wizened old man. "Mister Baumgartner!" called Q.

"Mister Boothroyd, I understand you have a package for me?" said the old man as he entered the hangar.

"Yes," said Q. "If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this one," he said as he nudged Ming with his foot. "This one over here is for you. He led Hans Stavros Baumgartner to Alicia and crouched over her. "I believe she has at least twice as many nanobots in her system, and a full knowledge of Long Air Services." He rolled Alicia over onto her back and her hair fell out of the way to reveal Alicia's face. "NO!" he shouted.

A dozen witty retorts flashed through Alicia's mind, each one worthy of a Stallone shoot-'em-up, but she decided that action speaks louder than words. Even though she has no control over her hands, they're still clutching their weapons quite tightly, and her arms work just fine. She drove that pistol-clutching fist into his ballsack so hard he'll be tasting his own nuts for a week, then she drove her knife blade halfway into his calf.

"You BASTARD!" she shrieked as Daniel Boothroyd rolled over in mortal agony. She dragged herself up on him and started slamming the butt of the pistol onto his hand that was clutching the EMP device over and over, shattering the device and breaking every bone in his hand. By the time she was done, her nanobots had booted up and re-established their network and were fully operational. She gave Boothroyd one last hit to the side of his head. "That's for Canada!" she shouted.

Alicia leapt up and grabbed Baumgartner. She wrapped her left arm around the old man's throat, a knife still clutched in that fist, Boothroyd's blood dripping from the knife, and she held the pistol to Baumgartner's head. "Baby! Come on!" she screamed, terrified that Ming's nanobots didn't reboot.

Hearing Alicia call out her pet name; Ming got to her feet. She was a bit wobbly, but she could move, so she stumbled toward Alicia. "Put your own face on baby," cooed Alicia, "it's so much prettier."

"I am?" giggled Ming as her face returned to its normal cute self, scars and all.

The guards stood motionless as Alicia and Ming dragged Baumgartner to the doorway that they had entered through. They were terrified that she would shoot the old man. Ming held the door open, and as Alicia pulled Baumgartner backwards through the door she said to Ming, "Get the fire alarm, will you honey?"

"Yes dear," giggled Ming, still not used to terms of endearment being directed to her. She hit a large red button by the door marked "Fire" which energized all the magnetic seals on all doors in the hanger.

Their door slammed closed behind them with a loud CLANK! as the alarms sounded, then with a rumble followed by a roar as the reservoir of water stored above the hanger in a honeycomb of sealed off mine shafts was released into the hanger through huge pipes in the ceilings and walls. Everyone, including Daniel Boothroyd, was washed out of the hangar; several were thrown against the still-running helicopter that sat on the helipad. The helicopter itself was washed off the helipad and slammed into a tall stand of lodgepole pines, where it was crushed against the trees by the tremendous pressure of the water flow. Many of the men missed the pine trees and were washed out into the Quayle Creek Canyon.

The door that Ming and Alicia dove through was not watertight, so water sprayed from the edges as the deluge continued soaking all three of them. There was another door behind them that led into the tunnel that Alicia used to get there, but that was now locked to prevent a tunnel flood in case the door to the hangar failed to lock. Alicia shoved Baumgartner closer to the door to get sprayed while she and Ming ducked behind him, letting Baumgartner absorb most of the spray as he cursed and swore. After a few moments, the deluge died down, and a loud klaxon sounded, announcing that the deluge had ended, and with a click the doors were unlocked.

"In," ordered Alicia with a shove in Baumgartner's back with her pistol.

"Take it easy, I'm an old man," he whined.

"Do you want to get any older?" asked Ming. Alicia grinned with pride; her girl was growing some balls! Baumgartner wisely opened the door and stepped out into the hangar to find it completely empty.

"Oh shit! I left my M1 in that door pocket," groaned Alicia.

"I'll get you a new one," said Ming as she touched Alicia's hand, the one holding the knife.

"That's so sweet of you," squealed Alicia.

"Yeah, sweet," groaned Hans as his captors kissed.

Alicia banged him in the back of the head with the barrel of her pistol and said, "don't force me to ask her for more ammo too."

They looked out the open hangar door at the wreckage that used to be a beautiful new executive helicopter. Hans groaned when he saw his three-million-dollar toy crushed and wrapped around a tree. "That looks like it was a Bell 407," said Ming.

"Bell 407GXP," said Hans sadly.

"Really?" said Ming cheerfully. "I'll give you $500K for it... for parts."

Just then a pair of electric UTVs entered the hangar carrying eight Long Air Systems security people and raced up to Alicia and Ming. They slid and jerked on the frozen water that covered the hangar floor before they came to a stop. All eight men piled out, led by Cliff Staunton, and they dashed up to Alicia and Ming. They fell into a line and snapped a salute, which Alicia couldn't return because she still had Hans in a chokehold. She groaned, "Guys, please."

"Well, we figured since we have a special guest..." grinned a very tall, very large black man, who then broke up laughing.

Alicia shoved Baumgartner toward the laughing black guy. "Here, for your special prize you win the asshole of the month. Zip tie him up good and put him in the "VIP Lounge." If he gets loose, I will do to you what he did to Miss Long and I."

The laughing stopped. "this is him?"

Ming could only nod, but Alicia snarled, "I will fuck you up. Copy?"

"Yes ma'am!" Mac shouted.

Alicia put her arm around the black guy's neck and made him lean over. She kissed his cheek and smiled. "Thanks for coming so quickly Mac."

"You know ma'am, that's not something any guy wants to hear," said a member of the squad, causing riotous laughter.

"Sounds like you guys have heard it a few times," grinned Alicia to a chorus of good-natured groans. "Ok, Jester, you're with Mac, take MISTER Baumgartner to the VIP quarters, I know a few guys in The Agency that want to talk with him. Make him comfortable then come right back, Mac, you stay and keep an eye on our guest. The rest of you, I want a sweep of every inch of land between here and Quayle Creek, there should be at least eight bodies out there and quite a few weapons. Mostly AR-15 pop guns. There was at least one person in the helicopter when the fire occurred so check that out good. Cliff, you're with us."

"Fire occurred?" asked Baumgartner.

"Yeah," said Jim Macdonald, the laughing black guy that Alicia called Mac. "That's what set off the fire suppression system."

"What if I told you there was no fire?" Baumgartner winced as Mac cranked the zip tie down tight on his wrists, then bodily set him in the rear seat of the UTV and zip tied his ankle to a seat support.

"You callin' a Navy Seal a liar?" asked the fellow that Alicia called Jester. His real name was Dunkan O'Reilly, and he was every bit as big as Mac. "I might take offense to an assertion so preposterous." He cranked a zip tie down on Baumgartner's other ankle tight enough to cut off circulation. "It would truly hurt my feelings."

"I don't take kindly to disparagin' of my boss," growled Mac as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"You Americans let your supervisor kiss you?" sneered Baumgartner. His East European accent made his comment sound much more egregious.

Mac turned around and held a fist the size of a ham in front of Hans' nose. "Yeah. What about it?" The demonstration of Long Air Services management style must have worked; Mac and Jester's ride to the VIP quarters was without remark from their passenger.

"Davis!" called Alicia as she led Ming to the remaining UTV. "You're in charge here."

"Yes ma'am!" called one of the fellows, who was now scouting the area for debris and bodies.

"Cliff, you're driving."

"Yes ma'am.

Ming and Alicia rode in the back, and Ming slumped against Alicia, weeping softly as Alicia stroked her hair and kissed her head. The poor little scientist was shattered. As Ming trembled, Alicia said, "Cliff, we have to come up with a nickname for you."

"Cliff is my nickname."

Alicia paused for a moment and then asked, "What is your real name?"

"Mountain." Before Alicia could ask the question he had heard thousands of times before, he quickly continued, "My parents were hippies, they lived in a commune and all that. I had a sister named Flower."

She realized that's why he signs his name M. Charles Staunton. "How about Rocky?"

"I'm tired of that one." The tunnel they were driving through was wide and well lit; the beams shoring up the roof looked new. By the time they reached the lower-level garage, Ming's shuddering had calmed. They took the freight elevator to the upper level, which let them out into the area that Alicia first saw when she entered Ming's mine. They led/half carried Ming to her room, removed her soaked clothing, and tucked her into her sumptuous bed, then Alicia led Cliff out into the hallway.

"Listen Ganley," Alicia started.

"Ganley?" asked Cliff.

"It's the name of the mountain we're in... listen, I just want to tell you..." Alicia looked in on Ming, who was sleeping off the terror of the day. "Look, she's been through a lot, and most of that is due to men."

Cliff nodded. "I understand," and he turned to leave, but Alicia grabbed his hand.

"Wait. She still likes guys, she likes you... a lot. It's just that... we have a thing, she and I, because we've been through the same thing. She just needs time, ok? Maybe someday soon the three of us will spend some time in the hot tub and relax and I can help her through her fears while you help her with... other things, ok?"

"That would be nice," smiled Cliff.

Alicia gave Cliff a foxy smile. "You're into that eh?"

"I'm into Ming, I just want to see her happy."

"You're sweet." She patted his arm. "I'm going to take a nap then help with the clean-up."

"I have a team headed up from Denver to assist," said Cliff as he stepped into his room across the hall from Ming.

Alicia stepped back into Ming's room, peeled off her wet clothes and climbed in bed with Ming and snuggled close. It's time for a nap now because later she's got a ton of paperwork to do.

<><><><><>

Alicia sat down behind her desk. It had been over a month since Baumgartner had tried to capture Ming. The cleanup has been completed, and Baumgartner disappeared into the DC bureaucracy. They had recovered seven bodies, but the helicopter pilot and Boothroyd were missing. Since they were never able to settle on a total of how many men attacked Ming's Mine and Baumgartner refused to answer, the official number of unrecovered bodies is two. If they had been washed downstream in Quayle Creek, which flows into Clear Creek and they would have turned up in Silver Plume, Georgetown, Idaho Springs or Golden.

Last night was the Long Air Services Security Team victory party. It started as an anniversary party for the team but got pushed back several weeks due to Baumgartner's attack. The party was in the hangar, and there was a catered dinner that was served in the enormous conference room just off the hangar. Employees brought wives/husbands/dates, and they were shocked to see how big the hangar is and how lavish the conference room was. From the outside, it looks like the front of a hangar was placed into the face of the mountain. What they did was repurpose a vast hole that was blown in the mountain by the mining company, which had rights at the time, and they filled it with an aircraft hangar big enough for a B-52. The primary rule at the party was not to tell the non-employees what else was in the mountain. Much of Ming's nanobot designing goes on here, as does data storage. The scientists of the nanobot lab were also invited to the party, and they shocked their big, rough and tumble security brothers and sisters by letting their hair down and partying just as severely as the former seals, rangers, and cops.

Alicia surprised them all by dancing with every one of her security troops that were in the Mine that day, and she danced with Ming several times that night, including some slow, romantic songs. Ming was a little embarrassed, but she would never say no to her Abbie. One thing they found out was that their nanobots love alcohol. Since the nanobots are fueled by sugar in the hosts' bloodstream, the alcohol was like dumping ether into a carburetor.

They were still in nanobot overdrive the next day when Senator Amos Nourse called. He had to wait ten minutes for Alicia to sit down in front of her laptop and join in the call. "Where were you, Agent Ingersoll?" he demanded.

"Sledding!" she said cheerily as she took off her parka and tossed it aside. "The ramp to the upper garage is a riot! We use these inflatable..." The look that the senator was giving her told her that he was not interested in sledding. The cold weather outside made the scars she had received over the years stand out, but she didn't care; she was having fun.

"Where is Miss Long?" demanded the Senator.

"I believe she is with Mister Staunton," said Alicia. "She wasn't on the itinerary, so I didn't think to interrupt her day off."

"Could you please page her? We need her to join this call, there's been a change to our plan."

"What plan? My plan is a nice relaxing holiday season, maybe a little skiing up at Loveland..." At last, she sent:

'AI: send a message to Ming's AI. Message as follows: Ming, please join me in my office, Senator Nourse wants you on this call. Message ends.'

> Message sent...

For the next five minutes or so, the senator and his niece exchanged pleasantries until Ming entered the room. Ming sat down. She was as bouncy as Alicia had been earlier, but talking with the senator took the bounce out of Alicia's spirit. "What is up?" she asked. She wanted to get back to sledding before the sun came out from behind the mountain and melted the snow off of the trail.

"We have credible evidence that Boothroyd survived the incident and is at large in western Europe. We would like you to..."

"I don't think so..." groused Alicia.

"Nonsense! We'll take it," said Ming with a huge grin.