Chapter 2: "Artificial DNA and the Syndicate"

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Back in Azimuth, John signed for and approved Tetsuo’s renderings, and uploaded Valerie’s improved hyper-realized versions into the Bio Team’s server.

Looking at Tetsuo’s work, John envied Tetsuo, that he was able to indulge his artistic side. For John, he was just far too busy to do that sort of thing anymore. In any case, indulging in his music was over for him. It would hurt too much to do that again as he would just remember his mom. His companies and his coworkers were more than enough to make up for that missing part of himself, but sometimes, when he met people like Tetsuo, there would be a little pang of something missing.

For a while now, he had been trying his hand at cooking. In a way, this allowed him to express a little creativity, and when Minnie flew home on the weekends to be able to spend time with Johnny, she would try out some of his culinary experiments. They weren’t even palatable at the beginning, but he had slowly improved over time to the point that he had become a spectacular country cook, with a lot of potential to grow better.

- - - - -

Back in the present, John fired off an internal e-mail to Edith MacAllister, the team leader of his Bio Team, cc’d it to the rest, as well as to Telly, instructing the team to start with the creation of the new genetic template. If this works, he thought, it could secure the company’s future for the next, what? Couple of hundred years? Not that the family business needed any more money. But he could just imagine how good his mom would feel if she knew how well he’s doing so far. And he imagined the potential of their new technology, of how it could benefit humanity.

He missed his birth-mom, Valerie, terribly, even after all these years. And it was during these times that he’d want to see Minnie, his other mom. It’s terrible to be a mama’s boy, he said to himself with a small self-deprecating chuckle. Over-dependence on one’s parents during one’s formative years can really screw up one's adult life. He smiled, imagining in his mind’s eye Valerie’s smile, and Minnie’s. But Minnie was in Australia, in the Naithsmith Corporation’s global HQ, keeping their various corporate holdings ticking over like fine Swiss watches. Australia’s tax rates was one of the highest in the world, but they had lots of property there, and the standard of living was pretty high making it the ideal location to construct their global HQ.

Besides, when the government heard that Australia was in the running, especially Tasmania's state government, they bent over backwards to make Tasmania more attractive, tax-wise and infrastructure-wise (they didn't really make any kinds of special accommodations, really, but they explained certain particular circumstances where Naithsmith Corp. would be able to avail of specific tax breaks and other incentives.

After doing an exhaustive analysis, John and Minnie concluded that it would actually be quite... advantageous to the conglomerate to lay down their roots in Tasmania.

- - - - -

Her visits had recently become less frequent because, well, John had just recently acquired a little sister, and Minnie didn't want to leave her alone too much.

A picker, his wife and fifteen-year-old daughter, and several of his co-workers and their families from one of the corporate-owned vineyards in a town in New South Wales called Mudgee was riding towards a private landing strip for a trip to Hobart. There was a little party being thrown for them at the corporate HQ because John's little gamble with this small, unheard-of family vineyard paid off. With the company's assistance, they improved the quality of their already affable table wine, upped their production, increased their visibility and distribution, and, seven years later, their latest vintage became the toast of the entire wine-drinking world and swept all the major international awards for that year.

But on their trip towards Tasmania, the little, thirty-seater turboprop developed engine trouble and crashed near a remote backwater Australian town. Several of the passengers were hurt and a few were severely injured. Thankfully, rescue was alerted ahead of time while the plane was still in the air, and was at the scene in minutes. But the picker and his wife had died instantly, and their daughter was badly burned. Naismith Corp. did all it could for the passengers, but despite the best that medicine had to offer, the girl fell into a coma, and would die if certain critical life decisions weren't made and certain very invasive and expensive procedures were authorized. In fact the medical people were saying to... discontinue support.

So Minnie had her people look for relatives but, despite everything they did, they couldn't find any close relatives, and the distant ones didn't want to take responsibity. So in true Naismith family fashion, Minnie, with John's full concurrence, went through the process of adopting the girl so she could make these decisions for her.

Their arguments for adoption were thin - they knew the family because John worked closely with the vineyard workers and their families because the vineyard was a new acquisition of Naismith Corp., and they were working to improve production. But that was the extent of it.

Still, Minnie and John were Naismiths, and they proceeded with adoption.

- - - - -

The Selkirks were known in Mudgee as standoffish, though friendly and pleasant, loners - something which wasn't unknown in rural towns like Mudgee. No one really knew them.

The town was relieved that the Naismiths were taking responsibility of poor Willa Selkirk, so that none of them therefore needed to find excuses for not being the ones to take responsibility, and aided and abetted the Naismith’s petition, agreeing with everything the Naismiths said. John and Minnie weren't exactly lying about the extent of their knowledge and friendship with the family - it was more exaggeration. But with the town's support, their petition was approved in record time and without contest. Otherwise, Willa wouldn't have had a chance.

So, in a way, John now had a sister.

Young Willa was brought to the Naismith's place in Hobart where Minnie had converted the largest room in their mansion into a virtual medical suite, where the Naismiths took care of her and waited for her to wake up.

In the end, the girl's condition was stabilized and it became a waiting game, waiting for her to come out of her coma, if ever. Plastic and reconstructive surgery was also performed on her second and third-degree burns, but only to the extent of what was necessary for her survival, as advised by her doctors: any further operations required her to be awake since her cooperation would have been necessary.

But there was no indication of her ever coming out of it. So besides the range-and-motion therapy that the physiotherapist did on her, the poor girl didn’t move at all. At least autonomic reflexes like breathing were still working otherwise they would need to resort to a ventilator. All the specialists said there was very little chance of her coming out of it but Minnie refused to give up hope, and Willa would linger for five more years.

- - - - -

Telly was soon back, and stood in front of his desk. She cleared her throat, and when that didn’t work, rapped on his desk with her knuckles.

Johnny looked up, irritated by the interruption, but when he realized it was her, he smiled broadly.

“‘Sup?”

“I got her to chew up the graphic file, and she’ll start churning out the code in just a little bit.”

“‘Her’? ‘Her,’ who?”

“You know who. Valerie.”

“Valerie?”

She sighed. Here we go again, she thought. “Valerie: Voice-Activated Language Recognition Engine. V.A.L.R.E. You Know? Valerie?”

“Oh! That Valerie!”

She sighed again. “Listen, Johnny. I know how proud you are of your creation. But…”

“She’s great, isn’t she?”

She huffed exasperatedly. “Yes, yes, she is! But this has got to end. Enough already. Okay?”

He made a patting, conciliatory gesture. “Okay, Okay. Simmer down. So. What did Valerie say?”

“She said that it’ll take about two hours for her bio-modeling program to finish generating the parameters that she generated from your graphic into a matching gene sequence.”

“Two hours. Is that all?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Call me when she’s done, okay?” He turned back to his screen.

She looked at him and shook her head in fond exasperation. “Okay, but you know you can find out a lot faster if you ask Valerie yourself. I’ll be at my desk if you need me.”

He was already in a world of his own. “Kay…”

He barely heard the door shut as he queued up the Valerie interface. Since she was still in the prototype stage, he didn’t allow more than ten users simultaneous access yet. He saw no one using the program, so he opened her interface.

He saw his microphone light come on and wondered if her program was running already. “Hello?"

“Hello Johnny. How are you today?” The voice was incredibly lifelike and, to anyone who knew her, she sounded exactly like John’s mother, Valerie.

John smiled. “Hello, Valerie? I’m fine. Thank you for asking. How are you feeling today?”

“I feel fine. How could I feel otherwise?”

“How, indeed? Give me an update on all outstanding projects, please.” And Valerie proceeded to give him succinct but complete reports on each of the projects that he had put in his priority list. Just added to the list was the new gene sequencing project for the Bio Team.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, can you email Bob Iger? Can you ask him to arrange for Tetsuo to have an interview with the Pixar people? And send him Tetsuo's resume? He owes me several favors so I'm sure he'll do it."

"Tetsuo is the anime artist that we hired for the...?"

"Who else?"

"Of course. I was just confirming. My apologies. You programmed me to be thorough."

"Of course, " John laughed.

"Done - the email has been sent, and I used your emailbox."

"That's good. Thank you."

"Why did you not hire him instead? AI's animation section is short of people."

"I would have if he wanted it," he said. "But he wants to work for Pixar, not here. Just humor me, okay?"

"You are the boss," Valerie said with a tone that sounded a little like long-suffering patience.

John smiled at that, and gave the AI a razzberry.

- - - - -

Valerie’s “user interface” was quite an advance over other similar systems. It was made up of several major components. On the hardware side, on the face of it, was fairly straightforward: A good speaker system, a good directional microphone, and several high-speed supercomputers. The software, though, was something else - specially coded by John’s programmers, with a big chunk of the code being programmed by John himself.

There were three major components to the brains of Valerie’s interface. The first module was by far the easiest to program - the sound generation system, which translates Valerie’s responses to an analogue signal fed into the speakers, was practically off-the-shelf. When deciding on the physical voice, John provided a set of old video recordings and interview tapes of his mother when CNN interviewed her for one of their programs years and years ago. His staff broke down her voice into their individual phonetic components. The team also replicated her intonations and speech patterns. It was an inspired choice - the femininely-low and husky voice coupled with the slight English accent lent the electronic Valerie an air of sophistication and formality that suited their needs, not to mention the aura of sensuality and sexiness that the real flesh-and-blood Valerie also exuded, which grabbed the attention of the listener right off the bat.

The second component was the voice interpretation software that allowed Valerie to understand English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Chinese (although, among all the Chinese dialects, she could only understand Mandarin with any predictable level of reliability. They were still working on her Cantonese). It was here that John’s special skills with languages were put to good use. Breaking down a person’s words appropriately, and trying to understand what she meant was a skill that most people took for granted, but difficult to replicate artificially. But, by understanding the meaning of the individual words, the language structure to understand what the words strung along in a sentence meant, and, by being able to recognize cues from the intonation, the loudness, the cadence of the sentences themselves, made Valerie exceptionally astute in knowing the context of whole conversations as well. This recognition and interpretation program required more computational power, memory and storage space than usual computer systems, but Valerie had enough to contain the various language dictionaries and tables required, as well as couple of people constantly coding new referents, slang terms and phrases for each language.

And her AI operating system, which was John's own proprietary code that took all the current technology from IBM, MIT and all the leading AI innovators, integrated them and actually made them work, was a necessary adjunct in order to make it possible.

The result was that Valerie's conversational skills became very fluent and natural very rapidly.

The storage for the enormous amount of information necessary to make her possible was easily accommodated – Valerie was outfitted with extremely large, regular commercially-available storage systems from various companies like EMC, Hitachi and IBM. However, the processing power needed to make the code run fast enough required the processing power that could only be provided by top-of-the-line “massively parallel” supercomputers. But since the sale of supercomputers was heavily restricted by the government, John and his people had to make their own. The result was that Valerie’s computers, commercial UNIX-based IBM computers, were retrofitted to a great extent, whose insides now resembled the old Crays of the eighties and nineties rather than their original IBM pedigree - the old Crays were “hardwired,” as opposed to today’s systems which relied more on off-the-shelf components. Valerie’s brains were “hardwired” as well. In any case, what was inside the relatively small twenty-foot by twenty by fifty room - where they kept Valerie’s customized computers - now represented the fastest and most advanced parallel-processing combined-computer on the planet, and could outperform any other supercomputer currently available by at least a factor of a thousand.

The third component, which John programmed himself (since none of his current people could get a handle on it), was a program that allowed Valerie a way of understanding what people were saying to her, or what they want from her, with a high degree of accuracy, going beyond a literal interpretation of the spoken sentences. It was as if Valerie could understand context. Some of the most advanced recognition systems of the day could already translate spoken sentences, but people had to use a specific form and syntax in order to be understood by such systems. Using the concept of “frames” that AI theoreticians originally put forth in the sixties and seventies, Valerie could put into the proper frame of reference any conversation that she had, and converse with any woman or man off the street, understand what was being said to her and, in turn, be understood. With the addition of a camera several months back, John had another input to Valerie, making Valerie’s skills much better. Using the same algorithms from her AI program, Valerie could now correlate voice with body language, intonation and facial expressions as well.

Most recently, John’s computer people had modified the facilities of the compound to be directly interfaced to Valerie, but with John, the Bio Team, and a few other select people the only ones with access to her. That means, with her ability to understand people, she could now carry out instructions more rapidly for them than ever before, and directly run the company’s systems and equipment for them.

For those who had the privilege of using her, everyone was incredibly impressed. But after six months or so of constant use, even that novelty became run-of-the-mill. Except for John, of course - the closest Valerie had to a father.

And, like any proud parent, he reveled in his electronic offspring's accomplishments.

"Valerie?" he asked, going back to the new project, "would you match up the team survey data to the new graphic, and determine if the graphic matches the physical parameters in the survey?"

The aforementioned survey was conducted by one of the foremost polling and survey companies in the UK, but the service was done in the US. The effect of this was that the survey was out of the media spotlight, as intended, and because UK companies were known to be very thorough, and went the extra mile when conducting interviews, the resulting survey was very thorough, indeed.

The company higher-ups was told Azimuth was attempting to improve the efficiency of its executives to effectively run and lead AI. The survey centered around a different approach - to prioritize people's physicality and not their behavior or personality. The rationale being psychological and psychosocial data was open to interpretation. By looking mostly at physical features and characteristics, it was hoped that the data would yield more objective conclusions.

It revolved around three main questions: based on how they looked - who did people trust the most, who did they listen to and would follow, and who did they find most attractive (since attractiveness gave so many advantages when relating to others). The data gleaned was most useful for this purpose, but it was also useful to Edith and her team.

Anyway, the results of the extremely thorough survey were quite predictable. Especially to the male members of the team. The ones who had problems believing some of the results were the women.

"Tits and ass," Jazz had muttered at the time when the survey’s results were seen. "How typical." This was greeted by razzberries from Glenn. After all, it was a survey so Jazz couldn’t really accuse anyone from the staff for skewing the results in any way.
Anyway, the survey concentrated on physical traits since that was a big chunk of what the team was after, and according to the survey, generally speaking, those that people trusted the most and paid attention to the most were people who were good-looking, had a good head of hair, were physically strong and weren't overweight or too underweight.

As anyone would say, these survey results seemed obvious and, and if this was all the survey got, then the survey was probably unnecessary. But, to come to these conclusions, the survey people had gathered a lot of information.

Among the information that was unearthed was that people liked those who were good in sports or in music, who kept their appearance clean and neat, dressed well, got along with others, were uninhibited in certain things but shy in certain others, spoke well and whose speech was easily understood. The survey company accumulated a lot of this type of data, but didn’t include all of it in their report, since they weren't part of the information asked for. But Dr. McAllister asked for it anyway, and they provided a complete secondary report.

But the Bio Team was actually looking for parametric data for their New Human. Of course, they didn’t want that known so they obfuscated and dissembled, not being up front with the survey people about what they really wanted. It was their way of keeping their project under wraps.

Out of the blue, Valerie, asked to see the survey details. Johnny was pleasantly surprised – this indicated that Valerie was initiating a "line of thought” that was totally independent. In any case, John didn’t see any reason not to, so he uploaded a copy of the survey for her.

The survey was thorough enough that it did come up with very specific physical information. For example, in males, people found tall, muscular (but not overly so) men, who had a semi-deep voice the most influential. In females, people preferred sexy and busty women with sultry, husky voices. But this was not specific enough for the purposes of the Bio Team.

John had Valerie churn the survey over and over, and, in a short time, she was able to generate very specific empirical parameters - things like exact heights, weights, body ratios and measurements, eye color, hair color, skin tone, even details to the most ridiculously-specific information – like the age (plus or minus three months), the length of fingers and fingernails, length of hair, exact shade and hair texture, freckle patterns, voice tones, vocal decibel ranges, voice patterns, and even the person's scent. The survey even came out with what people found as the most attractive accents (which happened to be British English - specifically "RP," "heightened RP", French and Australian - John was a little surprised by that last one).

The problem was, the data ranges were very wide, and would also change a lot depending on things like the ethnicity of the people surveyed, the location, and even the time of the day. The parameter combinations were almost infinite. No single computer model could be created that could represent the "ideal." But what Valerie could do was identify if a set of criteria fell into the ideal range for a certain demographic. It was the whole point of getting Tetsuo from Pioneer – for him to do a drawing of the “ideal” human (in this case, a human girl) and thereby establish a way of constraining this wide range of parameters and put the appropriate bias to these numbers. And then Valerie would further constrain these parameters appropriately, depending on other parameters that are not covered in the survey data. Unbeknownst to anyone, Valerie did some research on her own and dug out additional data – demographic data that the advertising agencies in many English-speaking countries used for their various ad campains, as dictated by their campaign needs, to constrain the baseline further.

Prior to this, Valerie's rendering routine fine-tuned Tetsuo's graphic to a near-real life image that fit the required ranges, and the result was what looked like the full-body portrait of a real person that Tetsuo saw (and eventually forgot).

Physically, they now had the perfect model for East Coast Americans, Londoners and, in an odd coincidence, Australians (and it was not that far off from the ideal for the rest of America and most of other western countries). But for things that weren't strictly a physical parameter, i.e. something to do with behavior, personality, psychological characteristics, or something of that nature that was also revealed by the survey, that was something that couldn’t be conveyed in Tetsuo’s image. Valerie could still use them – she had the survey data, after all. But she didn't say anything to the Bio Team on how she would use them (they didn’t ask, after all).

- - - - -

Johnny sat in the big conference room and waited for the others to file in.

“Hello, sir,” one of the younger scientists coming in greeted him shyly, and ducked her head. The shy eighteen-year-old Scottish-Irish genius always brought a smile to his face. The youngest of his people, Dierdre, was a certified genius, had a PhD in several fields, did five crossword and Sudoku puzzles at a time, owned a little yellow Japanese Kei-class mini-SUV that suited her petite five-foot one-inch form, always wore her blonde hair in a neat ponytail, and liked to watch Nickelodeon. All these things would have made her easy to remember. But what people noticed about her first, and remembered her best for, was her very cute Irish accent. That, and her very prominent breasts…

Learning that she was also gay had disappointed John as well as all the heterosexual men in the office. Of course, he had no intention of acting on the attraction he felt for her, but he was a little sad to know that he didn’t even have a chance. But that was okay. He’d settle for being her friend instead.

Johnny smiled and nodded pleasantly. “Hello, dear,” he said. Dierdre giggled. For some reason, Johnny had a lot of trouble pronouncing “Deirdre”, so he just called her Miss O’Connel, or “Dear” (the closest he could come to Dierdre). And this was always greeted with a giggle.

The others came in and found seats around the large conference table. Telly came in last.

“Everyone in the Bio Team that could be spared is here," she said. "We’re missing Paolo, Dexter, Lizzie and Rosie. They’re finishing up an experiment, and they’ll be along in a few.”

“Can’t be helped I guess,” Johnny said. “Let's give them a few more minutes. But everyone else is here?”

“Yes, sir,” Edith said. At fifty-five, Edith was by far the oldest in the team, and acted as the Team Leader. With more than a thousand patented gene sequences to her name, she was the most advanced genetics specialist in the world, and besides, the photo-voltaic gene-sequencing system that they were trying to make was her idea and design.

- - - - -

Established science had said that the essential theory behind Edith’s device was basically flawed, and it had been junked by the universities and labs she had worked on it with. She did have a lot of supporters remaining in the new field of Synthetic Biology, however, and largely with their lobbying, she was able to progress her experiments from theoretical to a prototype device (albeit a still-non-working one). Also, because of this, she was able to convince Johnny that her theory was not a flawed theory, and could be the key to solving some of Humanity's biggest problems.

Johnny, being who he was, decided to fund the project because of its potential benefits for the world.

The project to create a working "photo-voltaic gene-sequencing device" prototype was originally called the Pea Project. The name of the project was, as usual, thought up by Johnny. It was in honor of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics.

Mendel’s experiments were done with pea plants, and the name of the device Edith and her people were trying to make began with the letter "P," hence the "Pea Project," or later on, "Project P." But it didn't sound good after all so John thought to call it the "Proteus Project," after the ever-mutable Greek god of rivers and oceans. And everyone went along with that. It was a round-about way of naming the project, but everyone liked it.

- - - - -

Glen, Waldo and Jazz (short for Jasmine) sat together as usual. Along with Johnny, they were responsible for designing Valerie’s computers. And they rarely cracked a smile. Still, they were highly-valued members of the project since they were the ones in charge of creating the physical device.

They looked at Arnold, the biochemist that sat next to them, with less than enthusiastic expressions.

“Feet off the table, Arnold,” Johnny said in a mild voice.

“Righto, boss,” he said, and promptly lifted his feet off. Kimiko, another biochemist, smirked, and Arnold glared at her.

Arnold, a smartmouthed street-smart Cockney was their senior biochemist. He usually put his Nike-clad feet up on the table’s polished mahogany surface during meetings just to irritate the hardware kids.

It was his, Kimiko's and Edith's responsibility to create what they called the biological "matrix" - the material upon which their device will work on to create their "product."
The "product" they were hoping for was no less than a totally synthetic replacement body for humans.

This had nothing to do with cloning. By that time, cloning was old hat, and, after a fashion, it was already in current use, and it had been responsible for helping so many people enormously, essentially helping to develop gene therapies and provide human "spare parts." But so far, cloning entire bodies remained undone. The politics of cloning precluded it.

It was also not about recombinant biology, where "customized" biological... stuff was made - a field of biological science that was responsible for creating better plants for food, inventing cures for diseases, and so many other things that allowed the world to maintain its current population. But the full effects these had to humans, the food chain and so many other things were still unknown, making them problematic as well.

True, both technologies had their detractors, and, true, they had the potential to be used for things which had less than ethical purposes, and had the potential for so much danger, but that's a discussion for another time.

No, the Proteus Project was all about creating substitute bodies from scratch, without using any existing biological material, and to actually transfer the consciousness of a person into such a body. The point of that was that the person's new body could be designed to be anything, and would be all-purpose - designed according to any specifications they wanted, allowing the new entity to do things that were literally not imagined yet. Extended life, for example, or resistance to all known diseases, or enhanced strength, or breathing underwater, or surviving without food for a long time in environments thought of as hostile and unsurvivable. The body could even be designed not to be humanoid at all. It could herald a quantum leap in human evolution - the creation of the homo futurae.

The idea hinged on the matrix. Originally designed to be organic nanobots meant to search out and destroy harmful viruses, these nanobots invented by Edith were repurposed to become the "aggregate," or the matrix, used as the base for the "universal" body, since they could be made to function and behave in any manner depending on their programming. After being redesigned and reformulated, It was now more like an organic protein matrix designed to grow according to a code that was fed into them via electricity, lasers and ultraviolet lights coming from the "P Device." (The unfortunate name still made the team snicker.)

At the beginning of the project, Edith was able to grow artificial organs using the cells and DNA from the original organ as the pattern. It wasn't cloning since her matrix didn't grow from the original cells themselves. In fact they didn't use DNA at all except as the basis of their code. This meant that Edith was able to create synthetic organs based on the originals. It was like making a meat-free hamburger patty using a real burger as the pattern, thereby making sure that the meat-free burger looked, felt, smelled and tasted like a real burger.

The beauty of these artificial organs was that they could be used as replacements without any danger of cell rejection or organ incompatibility, and could, in theory, be enhanced to function better than the original.

Edith, as well as everyone else, didn't have the technology yet to do better than nature. But what Edith did have was the ability to copy nature – her artificial organs used the “blueprint” of genetics and DNA and RNA, aping what nature had perfected though millions and millions of years of evolution. She was able to do that by borrowing heavily from the work of the worldwide Human Genome Project. Her artificial body parts with their own version of DNA-RNA used other nucleobases other than Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine, Adenine and Uracil, but they worked so well that they aped what nature does exactly, and, though her matrix did indeed grow on their own after a fashion, she was able to code a large quantity of her matrix to grow into fully-functional organ replacements and even whole bodies in as short a period as a few hours instead of having to wait for it to grow naturally in the same time as the original did.

Before the end of the first year of Project P (as it was still known then), she was able to grow a complete imitation adult human body in less than six hours - a feat that she and John had kept secret, given that the ethics of the thing was not exactly clear-cut yet.

It was difficult, of course, as she had to use massive, jury-rigged equipment that wasn't too reliable, and had to personally hold the thing together, both she and John staying in the labs literally holding fire extinguishers just in case.

In the end, Edith was successful in creating her artificial people.

She and John had agonized over that. The question of whether they had created actual people weighed heavily on their minds. Not that they worried about the god-related philosophical questions of creating life, although that caused them many sleepless nights as well, but it was more because they had decided to "kill" the artificial bodies afterwards.

But after two more full-body "builds," Edith told John that she had accumulated enough of the data they needed that she didn't need to create any more "fake humans." This relieved John enormously, and the two of them could just create virtual artificial people in a computer simulation instead.

What Edith didn't tell John was that she actually had to go through the creation of several dozen fakes to accumulate the information she needed to program the simulator. This fact weighed heavily on her heart because she felt she was putting people to death. These were "created" people, she constantly told herself, not real people, and her work was important to the world – it needed to be completed. But when she saw her artificial people's faces after their “deaths,” she started doubting it.

She had taken a month off after she had finished her simulation software, and told John she just needed time off to recharge, but actually, she had gone and had several sessions with her old college roommate, who was now a very successful psychiatrist. It was to get help to get over her feelings of guilt for “murdering” her creations.

In the second year of their project, with her team's help, she finalized the design of her device. They had to make a change, though - Edith had to use a different kind of coding in order to have full control of the process. So any "product" she would create would not be DNA-sourced at all anymore. Besides, by that time she didn’t need it to be.

She had also started finalizing the software which would essentially write the "programming sequence” that would "grow" their protein matrix the way they wanted it. By the end of the year, with the help of Johnny's people, her new software would be able to completely control the "P Device" and allow it to emit the appropriate electromagnetic signals needed to affect their protein “matrix” base in the appropriate way.

By the end of the project's third year, her device was ready to start producing a new-human equivalent of a real live being based on that person's DNA. Well, theoretically, at least. She hadn't done a real live one yet – just simulations.

She then started exploring the coding needed for an artificial body that would be able to accept a person's consciousness into itself so that the person would essentially reside in the newly-created body. But she seemed to have hit a brick wall.

So she decided to table the question for now, and decided, temporarily, to concentrate on the question of being able to make human and new-human organs coexist, with the idea of pushing forward the goal of creating cheap and safe substitute organs.

Purely by accident, however, in one of her experiments using rat brain cells, she stumbled on the basis for new code that would force the new-human cells to, in essence, absorb the brain matter introduced into them.

A little piece of a rat brain she had just pureed in a commercial Osteriser (something lots of lab people used) fell into a new batch of matrix she was designing to replicate a human brain. The new "product" that came out was completely new-human with her new-human coding and form, but the new-human brain cells exhibited the same electro-chemical properties as the cells it had absorbed while the organic material had been broken down, metabolized and used to power the reaction.

It was the key to transferring a human's consciousness into a new-human body, she thought. With the help of Valerie, she investigated further and she eventually confirmed her hunch, and proceeded to isolate the effect. Now, she was confident it would work. The thing was, it would necessitate physically taking a person's brain - as intact as possible and still alive - and physically putting it in the "blank's" cranium-to-be, letting it literally be "absorbed" by the synthetic body. In doing so, the physical substance of the brain would be broken down but its neural patterns - the result of a lifetime of experiences, of accumulated knowledge and the embodiment of the essential substance of the person - would be absorbed. The blank would then come out as what Edith's design meant it to be, but it would not be soul-less like the other full-body creations she had grown before: a consciousness would now reside in the new-human body, in fact the consciousness of the person who owned that brain, and not a copy.

Needless to say, it was a one-way process, and any mistake or miscalculation would result in a slow de-association of the neural pattern - in essence, death.

She had eventually accepted that she would have to perform the process on herself first. She wasn't willing to risk anyone else's life, so she knew that she would have to be the guinea pig.

And knowing that, she had therefore instigated the survey. Sure, the reasons she used to justify it were reasonable – to have a “catalog” of “perfect” new-human body blueprints - but the real reason she wanted the survey was that, If she had to be in a new body, she'd want it to be the perfect one.

- - - - -

Using the data that came from the world-wide collaborative human DNA mapping project also known as the “Human Genome Project,” as well as other DNA-related projects and experiments, Edith was able to create a "predictive algorithm" that she and John installed inside Valerie.

Based on a characteristic Edith would ask Valerie’s predictive algorithm program, Valerie could answer with the DNA pattern that would exhibit the characteristic she entered. This opened up the possibility for her to actually dictate the full characteristics of the new entity she wanted to create.

These “tweaks,” however, were theoretical since human or mammalian genetics could not accept the changes - these changes would initiate a cascade of mutations that would make the new creature non-viable, or create a rapidly-spreading cancer or some other catastrophic cellular disease in an existing creature.

But then again, she wasn’t working with DNA. DNA was just the pattern that they worked from. Their code allowed the tweaking that their photovoltaic system made possible - the nanites that made up their matrix was originally programmed using varying lightwave frequencies instead of chemical cues, which allowed their system to initiate changes so rapidly and precisely, the matrix had no chance to produce imperfect or intermediate cells that gave rise to unwanted mutations as it would in a natural DNA-based creature, whose changes were based on chemical cues.

The upshot of it all was, instead of having to use chemical triggers that were very imprecise, and having to laboriously correct the hundreds of thousands of coding mistakes this impreciseness would give rise to, with their system’s precision coupled with Valerie’s human genome data, they could now, for example, just tell Valerie to give the new-human red hair, and Valerie will tweak the code so that the resulting artificial human would have red hair. At this point they could specify anything they wanted. For example, they could show a picture of a person to Valerie, and the new-human that would come out would look exactly like that. It was so flexible that, if they played a voice for Valerie, for example, the new-human would have a voice that would sound just like that recording.

With the system’s precision, the details could be as ridiculously specific as height, weight, dimensions down to the millimeter, or even pin the biological age down to the second, whether that person had an allergy to peanuts, whether that person had a large lung capacity - anything at all, even up to the number of freckles and their location on the face - it was that perfect and precise.

Edith, of course, knew how complex the kind of calculations Valerie needed to do in order to give them the ability to create a new-human from such vague specifications, not to mention the calculations necessary for Valerie to interpret what Edith could ask in the first place. Valerie's gigantic memory capacity and unique AI program made it possible. And without those, Edith's dream of a perfect artificial human would just remain a dream.

- - - - -

Johnny’s people proceeded with their meeting, and discussed current projects. But, soon, after they finished discussing everything, they could finally start talking about the Proteus Project.

John got on the keyboard and the monitor on the table came to life. "Arnold," he called out. "Could you plug in the projector?"

"Sure thing," Arnold said, grabbed a cable and plugged the computer into the ancient Barco multimedia projector. Kimiko pulled down the projection screen at the end of the room. It wasn't the most high tech room in the building, but it did have the virtue of being the most secure.

John typed in his password, instructed Valerie to bring up all the Proteus data and turned the computer keyboard over to the others.

Glen, Waldo and Jazz reported that the physical photovoltaic device was ready, and they had finished the program that Valerie needed to fully control the process. They flashed their program, as well as diagrams of the device, on the screen. Johnny asked Telly to start the ball rolling for the fabrication of the prototype device.

Next, Arnold and Kimiko reported that, based on the data provided by Dr. McAllister, they were now able to create a coding sequence without the need for any manual intervention at all. Their system could now accept any DNA code they entered and create the equivalent new-human code automatically. With the intervention of Valerie, of course - she was only computer available to them with the capacities to run their algorithms within a reasonable time.

Kimiko called their code "CAC." And with a CAC code fed into her, Valerie would start their photovoltaic device which would generate the necessary electrical and photo-electrical signals that will "grow" Edith's matrix according to the CAC pattern or code.

"Why CAC?" Johnny asked.

"We're calling our new-human DNA a 'Chemical Analog Code,'" Arnold replied. "So, CAC."

"I like it," Johnny laughed.

Dierdre then reported that she and Telly had completed the program that will allow Valerie to map out the DNA code based on parameters she was given from scratch, regardless of how sketchy they were, and from which Arnold's and Kimiko's program can then replicate into the equivalent CAC code. Dierdre and Telly relied heavily on Edith's predictive algorithm and the data from the Human Genome Mapping Project. They had a lot of problems getting a handle on the requirement in the beginning but got a lot of input from John as it required several improvements in Valerie’s AI routines, so they were successful in the end.

In essence, they had to give Valerie something akin to a point of view, or perhaps a kind of personal preference or even a kind of personal bias that would allow her to select from options available and allow her to pick one she “liked.” There was no danger of affecting her ability to be totally empirical since her “like circuit” would kick in only if she came to a situation where she wasn't given any kind of factual criteria or information to pick from several options.

By then, Valerie had been improved to the point that they can, for example, show her a picture of Megan Fox, Scarlett Johansson and Amber Heard, and give her a vague, imprecise command that they wanted someone that looked like all three, and she would have been able to comply.

They showed the algorithms and code that they incorporated into Valerie’s program and everyone pored through them until Arnold got everyone laughing.

“You know, of course, m’dears,” he said as he studied their code along with the others, “that we’re just pretending that we understand all that chicken scratching.” And with that, they all dissolved into laughter.

“That’s true, actually,” Kimiko said. “But we know you did good, and that it’ll work.”

Dierdre blushed and Telly thanked everyone.

When they were done, Johnny turned to Edith. It was her turn.

Edith shrugged. "What can I say?" she said. "My team is great."

Everyone laughed.

"Seriously, Edith," Johnny said, smiling.

"Except for assembling the final device and running simulation tests, I am pleased to report that we're done, Johnny."

Everyone applauded.

"All right, then. I guess we start with the simulations next?"

“Yes,” she grinned.

- - - - -

Over the next few days, everyone started running their simulations and quickly identified many problems in their individual areas. They started fixing and adjusting, and they reported that they would eventually be ready to do their first “conversion” in a month or so.

As everyone knuckled down to work, the team didn’t notice that Dr. McAllister had contantly started disappearing during the middle of the day. To where, no one knew.

Unconsciously, they just assumed that she was hard at work in her Photovoltaic Lab.

Well, they were halfway correct – Edith was indeed in the Photovoltaic Lab, but she wasn’t really working on bugs in their system, but was mostly tweaking the code template that Valerie had generated from Tetsuo’s drawings.

The first thing that she did was to make a copy of the file, “FEMALE PROTOTYPE-1.” That way, any errors she makes will not damage the file. The file was several petabytes in size, so she could only make one copy to practice on.

Her intent was, since she fully intended to be the guinea pig for the conversion, she wanted to improve things so her new body would be more than just a regular new-human, but a “super” new-human. (She was amazed that no one was curious why they were starting with the female prototype, for which she was grateful for. But if this works, she knew they’d have to replicate all of this work with a male version, using data from the survey they used for the female. But that’s a problem for a later date.)

She put Valerie’s new improvements (care of Dierdre and Telly) to the test and told her the additional changes she wanted. But Valerie had a question – the question Edith had been dreading.

“Dr. McAllister,” Valerie said. “Why are you doing this?”

“Just trying to improve our girl, Val.”

“Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“But why?”

Edith sighed. “Accept override alpha.”

And, with that, Valerie didn’t question her anymore, and did her best to follow Dr. McAllister’s instructions. But she did resolve to tell Johnny and Minnie when Dr. McAllister was done.

First off, Edith McAllister had Valerie tweak the template so the resulting new human would have improved and enhanced abilities, or abilities not currently found in Humans. Valerie, being Valerie, asked the doctor what abilities, and why.

Edith sighed. She sometimes forgot that Valerie wasn't a real person. So she explained what she wanted when she said abilities.

"You know, Valerie, all I want is that our new girl was just better all around. For example, I want her to be able to run faster than any other human, jump higher and farther, be stronger, cope better in any environment or situation. Or…"

"I see. That would, of course, require deviating from the current parameters of our template.”

“I guarantee, Valerie, that the things I want will not be in the template. Think of them as additional constraints.”

“All right.”

The additional changes Edith wanted were based on her own preferences.

For example, she liked wearing heels but couldn’t wear them all day, so she asked Valerie if changes could be made to allow their new girl to be able to. Valerie said that she could do that.

Edith also hated cellulite, wrinkles, and the blemishes that become inevitable with age, and Valerie said that taking them away was possible, too.

Edith also mentioned that she hated chipped nails and cavities in her teeth, and had always wanted to be super-flexible so that she could do the splits (she was a frustrated ballerina).

There were other things that really put Valerie to the test, such as Edith’s desire to be able to sing well, or to be able to paint, or to have a great clothes sense. Valerie said she could make this happen as well by making appropriate changes to the new human’s brain. The new human won't know how to paint, but would have the necessary capacity to learn as well as the necessary motor skills and other qualities to be a great painter, and so forth.

Edith also had other more… unconventional requests but Valerie said she could accommodate them as well.

And it went like that for several days until she was able to finish all her “customizations.” She had Valerie save the new file without touching the original, name the new file "BABE-XXX," and she turned back to her regular work.

- - - - -

Minnie became more visible in the AI offices in the next few weeks. John had told her of the exciting new developments in his pet project and Minnie had decided to fly over from the global main office of the Naismith Corporation in Hobart, Australia and temporarily transferred her office to AI so that she could be near where everything was happening.

John asked after his adopted sister but Minnie shrugged. No change to her condition, she said. But that was how Willa had been ever since she came to live with Minnie at the Hobart mansion, and the doctors said this will not likely change. That was partly why Minnie felt it was okay to leave her for a while. In truth, though, Minnie and John were told that she didn't have long to live anymore. Thoughts of Valerie's death echoed in Minnie's mind everytime she thought of this. John saw the suppressed tears and gave his mother an encouraging hug.

"You never know," he said. “Willa might surprise us.”

Minnie didn’t say but Willa’s condition was deteriorating. Her doctors said she might not make it past six months. Despite everything that they did, nothing helped. Knowing how Johnny felt about his “sister” and the hopes he had for her recovery, Minnie didn’t say anything. Who knows – if John and his Bio Team were able to perfect their technology soon enough, Willa might be able to benefit from it before it was too late.

- - - - -

Most of the AI staff resented the boss’s mother being around to look over everyone’s shoulder and butt in, but it wasn’t like that at all.

Wilhelmina Lloyd was a very astute people person, and knew enough not to buttonhole the staff. So she just smiled and said good morning to everyone and quietly did her work in the spare office beside John’s. She did, however, make a point of having her meals in the building’s large cafeteria, and of having coffee or a snack, or a bit of brunch with the members of the team whenever she could. And within a week, she had endeared herself to John’s people, especially among the men (she was a babe, after all, though a bit mature). And how could anyone be cross at someone named Minnie?

Everything seemed to be going like clockwork, with John quietly going about the business of putting money in AI’s bottom line, keeping such picayune worries away from his people while they worked, and Minnie continued to keep the family conglomerate ticking over like a Swiss watch.

However, a few days later, there was a bit of an undercurrent of something in the office. John and Minnie started to hold closed-door meetings with some of the company’s security people, and, later in the week, people from the FBI paid them a visit. Everyone was getting worried and John sent an email to the staff that said he would be making an announcement in a few days.

On the day before the Bio Team was supposed to try their first conversion, John called a meeting and had everyone assemble in the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was just large enough to accommodate AI’s entire staff, and they all milled around waiting for John.

In a short while, John came in with Minnie. He picked up a wireless microphone, stood on a table and waited patiently for everyone to settle down.

“Ladies and gentlemen, family and friends,” he began, “I’m sure you have been feeling something in the air for some time now, especially after people from the FBI paid us a visit.” Lots of people nodded their heads at that.

“Well, first let me help get rid of all the speculation. No, there’s nothing wrong with AI, nor with the corporation. Believe it or not, my mother isn’t here to do any audit or inspection. She’s just here to pay me a visit. You know how mothers are.” Everyone laughed at that.

He took a deep breath. “The reason the FBI was here was because they wanted to let us know we have been targeted by the Yellow Dragon Syndicate.” Many of the staff gasped.

The Yellow Dragon Syndicate had been a fixture in the news for quite a while now. It was a criminal organization that trafficked in pirated technology. But instead of industrial espionage via hacking target systems and electronically extracting the information they needed, the Syndicate went old-style, and would actually go in and literally physically steal the technology they were after, in broad daylight, as it were, killing whoever got in their way.

It was like a late nineteenth century criminal syndicate, or perhaps like the 1920’s gangsters of old Chicago, in the way it did its business, but many in the intelligence community said that their style was actually a quick and economical way for the Yellow Dragon to do its business of industrial piracy. But it would only work if it didn’t make an effort to hide the results of its activities: Instead of having specialists with special tools, and arranging for certain "circumstances" to allow them to thread their way through all the security precautions and cyber traps that most top corporations implemented nowadays, the Yellow Dragon pirates did it the blatant, very brutal and very straight-to-the-point old-world way. In their last twenty jobs, they had successfully blasted their way into the research facilities of their target companies and blatantly stole what they were after. Many people were killed in these heists. The police and federal officers just couldn’t stop them because their attacks were completely out of the blue and unpredictable, and the firepower that they used were a hundred times more than what the authorities had. And each and every time, despite the authorities beefing up their own forces, the pirates always had more.

The one good thing was that, after studying where and when the pirated technology came out in the market, the CIA and FBI were starting to close in on the Syndicate. They now knew the channels where the Syndicate was getting its information from and what to target, and they knew the channels where it was selling its stolen wares through. And although the authorities couldn’t stop them, at least they now know that no government was behind them or funding them, but at the same time, it seemed that many companies and organizations also now know how to put up notice of what they’d be interested in getting, and how much they’d be willing to pay, and the Syndicate would usually get if for them if the price was right.

The feelers that the CIA had out in the marketplace had come back with information. It seemed that the secret work that AI had been pursuing was what the Syndicate was targeting now. They didn’t really know what it was but they knew that certain entities were extremely interested in it. Who the eventual buyers were was still unknown, however. John had a strong suspicion who it was and where the leak had come from, but he wouldn’t tell the Feds anything. He said he didn’t want to say anything because there was no proof yet and didn’t want to ruin anyone’s reputation, so he allowed them to pursue the investigation for themselves. They, of course, wanted to know what it was about but he remained mum and the authorities decided it was prudent not to push. They’d find out in due time, he said.

“I am sure all of you have heard of one of our research projects,” John said, continuing his briefing. “I’m referring to the Proteus Project that Dr. Edith McAllister is spearheading. It’s a project that we’ve taken on for one of our sister companies. I am not at liberty to discuss what it’s about. But all I can say is that, if it’s successful, the project will benefit the whole of mankind in a major, fundamental way. And because of this, many people are interested in it."

A couple of people came in and stood in the cafeteria entrance. John looked over and the two nodded.

“If you will all turn your attention to the cafeteria’s main doorway,” John said, “you will see two gentlemen from the FBI and CIA. These gentlemen are here to oversee the facility since it is their opinion that an attack from the Yellow Dragon is imminent. Since this is not a terroriust attack, Homeland Security isn't here. Still, the FBI and CIA are more than enough to manage a bunch of pirates.

"Anyone who has any information they think is relevant, please let them know. Now, for everyone else, elements from the police and the military are on their way. I am requesting all of you to go home until further notice. Anyone who is running any routines in the computer should terminate them. Anyone doing anything at their work areas should save their work and lock down their benches. Secure your work areas and leave it for later. We will call when the immediate danger has passed. Okay?”

There were worried and irritated murmurs, but no one really complained.

John clapped his hands. “Okay then, kiddies. Except for the Proteus team, everyone pack your stuff up, go home, and be safe.”

As everyone streamed out of the cafeteria, John stepped down from the table, brought out his phone and dialed a special number. “Valerie?”

Valerie’s mellifluous, synthetic voice answered. “Yes, Jonathan. How may I assist you?”

“Valerie, I have ordered most of the staff to go home. Please make sure to scan them before they leave the premises, and make sure that they don’t bring out any of our proprietary material. But do it subtly and alert the FBI if you do find anyone smuggling out stuff.”

“I have been listening to your briefing, Jonathan. I understand.”

“Also, there will be a lot of armed Federal agents coming in shortly. Our security staff will take care of them, but I want you to scan them as well, and let me know if there’s anything amiss. Okay?”

“I know. I understand,” she repeated.

“Good girl.”

He shut off his phone and put it away. As he was doing so, Edith, Telly and the rest of the Proteus team gathered in front of him and Minnie.

“Guys,” John said. “Someone has let the Yellow Dragon Syndicate know that they are interested in the Proteus Project. Someone may have leaked information, but we’ll try and find out who this person is some other day. For now, what I want you guys to do is to back up all our data into Valerie’s storage, wipe them from our general systems and let’s all meet up here after you’ve done that.”

“John,” Edith said. “What about the protoplasm base! We have two pallets now. If we don’t use them within two, maybe three days, they’re gonna spoil!”

“It’s just two?”

“Yes. They’re not easy to make.”

“Well, stop making any more, and leave those two pallets. If they spoil, they spoil. We can afford it.”

“Each pallet costs like a hundred thousand dollars!”

John held her lightly by the shoulders.

“You and the team are more important. Never mind the money. Now, do as I say - back up all your data, put away and lock up your equipment, and come back here.”

She looked at John rebelliously but eventually backed down.

“Okay,” she said resignedly. She turned to her staff.

“All right, guys, you heard the boss. Go! Go!”

They all scattered back to into the offices. Edith turned back to John, nodded. “See you in a bit, Boss. Have to do some stuff.”

“John nodded. “Go ahead, Edith. See you in a short while.”

She turned on her heel and went back into the building, undoubtedly on her way to the photovoltaic lab.

“You know, Johnny, dear?” Minnie said, and threw a casual arm over his shoulders.

“Yeah, Mom?”

“You have good people, but you work them too hard.”

He stuck his tongue out at her, an expression from his youth that he hadn’t gotten rid of, at least when he was around Minnie.

They went over to the two Federal agents and talked over the security precautions they were putting up.

- - - - -

At the end of the day, the office felt a little bit like a ghost town. Only essential staff were left, as well as various security people from the government and the police.

Johnny had talked with everyone and they confirmed they all had their data backed up. Edith said that she was almost done with her backup, and was currently saving the details for the device as well as all the blueprints, and the code for the software.

“Good work, everyone,” Johnny said. “Now, as soon as you’re all done, the FBI will be taking you all to a safe house, and as soon as the bad guys are caught, everything will go back to normal.”

“How long do you think that’ll take, Boss,” Arnold asked.

Johnny shrugged and turned to one of the agents.

“Agent Humphries?”

The tall FBI agent stepped forward. “You have no reason to worry,” he said. “As soon as we have you in our safe house, we can start going after the Yellow Dragon. We now have enough details about them that we are confident we can take them down.”

“But how long before everything goes back to normal,” Arnold asked again.

“I cannot say, exactly,” Humphries answered. “No more than a month.”

“A month!”

Johnny stepped forward. “Now, now – this is a major operation that needs to be done. We need to cooperate with the authorities in order to prevent them from continuing their terrorist activities. Besides, a month isn’t that long. And it’s a small price to pay to get rid of them, and to keep everyone safe.”

The others grumbled but didn’t complain anymore.

Humphries nodded. “Good. My agents will be here in a few minutes.”

But they didn’t have time to do that.

A loud explosion echoed through the entire building and alarms started blaring.

“What’s that?” one of the other FBI people exclaimed.

“Security breach,” Telly said. “Someone broke through the security fence, probably.”

Humphries nodded. He pulled out a radio and started giving orders.

“Mr. Naismith?” he said to Johnny. “Any place we can retreat to that’s safe?”

“There’s the conference room two doors down the hallway,” he said. “Let’s go.”

But before they could start for the conference room, several FBI personnel barged in, all of them carrying weapons and sidearms.

“Agent Humphries!” the one in the lead yelled. “Move everyone back! They’re here!” His compatriots started grabbing tables and chairs to block the doors.

“Everyone back!” He called and pulled Dierdre to the far wall opposite of the main door of the cafeteria.

Johnny pointed to a door. “Agent, that’s the door to the kitchen. From there you can get to the main hall and then through the underground access tunnels to the loading docks.”

Humphries nodded. “This is Agent Humphries." he said into his radio. "We’re bringing the civilians to the loading area. Have the vehicles stand by.” He gestured to John. “Lead the way.”

John grabbed Telly, and Minnie got Dierdre and Kimiko, and they started leading everyone to the back door.

A powerful explosion rocked the cafeteria, and the barricaded doors were torn from their hinges. The tables and chairs piled against them flew away, leaving an opening for the invaders to come through.

Humphries waved them on. “Go! Go! We’ll hold them off!”

John suited words to action, and continued on.

More than a dozen armed intruders came through the shattered remains of the doors and started firing their high-powered weapons.

The FBI retaliated but they were outgunned. Though they did their best to cover their retreat, the enemy got everyone except for John, Minnie, Dierdre, Telly and two of Humphries’ agents. Unnoticed, they got to the access tunnels that led to the underground parking area and loading dock, but it was difficult because there were several stretches of the tunnel that were in darkness.

“Come on!” Johnny yelled and gestured them through one of the bends. When all of them had passed, he opened an access panel and fiddled around with the controls. A metal grill slid down and effectively blocked the path behind them. He also tripped several other controls and several other grills throughout the tunnels behind them slid down.

“They’re fire baffles,” he explained to the agents. “They’re designed to reduce the spread of fire through the tunnels, but they’re also good for making it more difficult for bad guys to follow us.” He smiled wanly at this feeble joke.

“Good job, Doc,” one of the agents said. “Let’s go.”

As soon as they got to the basement parking area, one of the agents brought out a radio, and a SWAT van pulled up to them in a minute.

“Everyone get in!” one of the agents in the van said, and they all piled in except for Johnny.

“Mr. Naismith!” one of the agents called. “Come on!”

“I’m going to go back.”

“Go back!”

“My friends are still there…”

“I’m sorry to say, Doc, but they’ve probably been killed already.”

“You’re right, Agent, but I have to be sure.” He turned to Minnie. “I’m sorry, Mom. I have to do this.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss.

Waving to Telly and Dierdre, he pulled the van’s door closed and ran back.

The people in the van couldn’t do much because the driver pulled forward as soon as the door was closed, and drove for the exit.

- - - - -

Johnny didn’t want to go back through the blocked access tunnels and decided to go through the overhead vents. He found one near the tunnel entrance, used a pipe he found to knock back the grill, leapt up and grabbed the edge of the vent opening.

He struggled a bit to pull himself up and through the vent and when he was through, did his best to put back the grill so n one would know anyone climbed through it.

The vents were not too large but large enough for him to drag himself through. He would occasionally peek through the grills that he passed in order to get his bearings, pick his proper course, and continue on. Bruce Willis made crawling through ventilation tunnels seem easy, he thought, but this was hard work. Still, in about five minutes, he found himself over the hallway outside the cafeteria. He quietly pried off the grill and jumped down. Finding a broom, he used it to jimmy the grill back into position. Although it was just sitting on top of the vent, at least it wasn’t too obvious that someone just passed through it.

Feeling like a spy, Johnny crept through the hall, making sure that he wasn’t seen by the few invaders that were still roaming the halls. He couldn’t afford to take chances, so John assumed that anyone he saw that he didn’t recognize was a member of the Syndicate.

Johnny's progress was slow but sure, and eventually he was at the entrance to the cafeteria. Looking around, he saw no one. He picked his way through the rubble and saw his friends.

“Kimiko!” He cried, seeing the young scientist on the floor. He ran to her and picked her up but it was too late. She was already dead. So were the others. He looked around and saw all his friends, along with FBI and Syndicate agents, all dead.

Kimiko, Glen, Waldo and Jazz. Farther in, were the bodies of Paolo, Dexter, Lizzie and Rosie, and the farthest from him was Arnold. Looking at him, Johnny couldn’t tell if it was Arnold because his head was gone – shattered by multiple machine gun hits. But he recognized the sweater and, of course, the sneakers.

Poor Arnold…

Through his tears, he struggled to see, and though he saw the bodies of FBI agents and Syndicate thugs, he couldn’t find Edith. Where was Edith?

“Edith?” he called. “Are you here?”

There was no answer except the machine gun fire of the Syndicate shooters in the otherwise-eerie silence. Johnny dived for cover and barely dodged a fusillade of bullets. He got one of the rifles from one of the dead agents.

He didn’t move nor make a sound and, apparently, the intruder thought he was hit because the shooter started to walk in his direction without seeking cover.

Johnny saw his chance and popped up from behind a fallen cafeteria table and fired. He wasn’t familiar with guns but he knew enough to be able to fire one.

Johnny’s marksmanship was very bad, but at this range, he couldn’t miss. He hit the man enough times that he died right there. The Yellow Dragon killer fell in front of him dead, and Johnny gulped.

It was his first kill, and he thought it would affect him more but it didn’t. He knew that it was probably shock or something, but whatever it was, he didn’t wait around for it to affect him, and continued to search for Edith.

- - - - -

"What's happening," Telly quavered.

"We're escaping," Dierdre explained.

"Duh? I know we are, you…"

"It’s industrial espionage," a voice from her cellphone came out. “But I believe you already knew that.”

Because she was Johnny’s personal assistant, Telly had set her phone so that calls from Johnny and Valerie, the company main computer voice interface, would automatically come through. And since the voice clearly wasn’t Johnny’s...

"Valerie?" Telly said. "Who switched you on?"

"John and Dr. McAllister had just finished uploading the new programs into my systems before the first meeting was called today, and they activated me in order to check the success of the upgrades. Needless to say, the upgrades were fine, but neither remembered to turn my interface off."

“So you’ve been running the whole day today?”

“Yes.”

Minnie moved closer to Telly. “Valerie. Do you have access to the CCTV cameras?”

“Hello, Ms Lloyd. I am glad to hear your voice. As of this time, yes, I do. I am fully interfaced to all of the compound’s systems.”

“Please find out where Johnny is.”

“Easily done. John is currently in the main cafeteria but I believe he is about to leave it.”

Minnie turned to Telly. “My dear, I am going to borrow your phone so I can keep in touch with Valerie, Okay?”

“Ummm, okay I guess. But…”

“I am going back and help Johnny.” She plucked the phone from Telly’s hand and slid open the van’s door.

The van was moving at around twenty miles per hour, but Minnie didn’t hesitate: she jumped out, tucked herself into a ball as she was taught by her trainers, and rolled onto the grassy part of an empty lot nearby. She knew all the survival training that she goes through regularly would eventually pay off. She just wished Johnny took the same kind of classes.

She stood up, visually checked herself for any wounds or injuries, and did a few calisthenic moves, and assured herself that she was fine.

She started jogging along the dirt access road, keeping hunched down so as not to be noticed.

A couple of the agents had leaped out and were now trailing her.

"Miss Lloyd!" one of the agents called out in a kind of whisper-shout. "Come back! We'll take care of coming back for Mr. Naismith! Miss Lloyd!"

But Minnie knew that, by that time, it would be late. No, she was going to get her boy back herself.

The agents were fit - they had to be for their job - but so was Minnie, and she was more familiar with the terrain than they were, so she was able to keep ahead of them, plus the fact that Valerie was able to give her directions from time to time while the others had to stumble around.

"I see you now, Miss Lloyd," Valerie said, picking Minnie up on the security cameras. "You're about to cross the threshold into the compound's perimeter. The main doors are forty-five degrees in front of and to your left."

"Should I try for the main entrance, Valerie?"

"It is safe. None of the... bad guys are near the main entrance. From there, you can go through the fake elevator and then through to John's office."

"Got it."

Minnie started creeping over to the main doors when Valerie called again.

"Ms. Lloyd!" Valerie "whispered." "There are four syndicate agents walking towards the gate!"

Minnie immediately ran for cover behind what was left of a concrete security hut nearby.

The four stood arrogantly in front of the doorway, obviously feeling powerful and invulnerable, secure in the idea that there was no one left to fire back.

But there was.

The two agents trailing Minnie were able to pick them off easily, but were unable to stop one of them from raising some kind of alarm.

The sound of boots reverberated in the now-deserted front office, and the two agents found themselves under fire in less than a minute.

As they returned fire from behind some rubble, one of the agents looked around.

"Dammit!" he swore. "The woman's disappeared!"

The other agent nodded. "I guess she's gone in then. She's on her own now."

"She'll be dead soon, you mean. I can't stand these braniacs! They're crazy!"

The other agent shook his head. "No, she's not crazy. She's just being a mother trying to save her son."

to be continued...

 

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Chapter 3: "Exodus - Homeward Bound"

---

 

From her hiding place in the half-destroyed concrete guard house, Minnie heard the automatic weapons, and she knew the bad guys had found some more FBI people, or maybe reinforcements had come from outside. After all, the weapons firing were all coming from right in front of the entrance. She peeked from behind her concrete cover and saw a couple of agents firing back at maybe a dozen of the enemy.

"Now what, Valerie," she whispered into the phone.

"Can you check around?" the electronic Valerie said. "You should see a small metal door, like this." Valerie displayed a picture of the aforementioned door on the little screen of Telly' phone.

Minnie looked, and, using the faint light coming from the phone's screen (she didn't want to activate the phone's flash), checked around.

"Found it, Valerie."

"I suggest you go through that door. It will lead to a door that comes out beside the building security office. The cameras show that hall where that door comes out is empty at the moment."

Since the door opened inwards, Minnie didn't need to clear out the debris surrounding the door. In fact, after she went through, she piled on more debris before closing it, giving the impression it hadn't been opened. Minnie closed the door carefully so as not to make any noise, and once closed, she felt around for a light switch.

Flicking it on, the little corridor was lit with little red emergency lights on the ceiling. This allowed her to see everything fairly clearly and turned around to dog the door she just went through closed.

"There is no one there, Ms Lloyd," Valerie said. "Proceed quickly, and you will be at the hallway I mentioned."

Minnie scuttled down the little corridor, came upon another door similar to the first one, went though it, and came out in the hallway Valerie described.

"Where to now, Valerie?" Minnie asked, but Valerie didn't respond.

"Valerie!" she said urgently.

"Ms Lloyd..." Valerie finally said. "John was..."

"What!"

"John was in a shootout just now... He's been shot..."

"Oh, no! Where is he?"

"Follow the double-yellow line. It's on the wall next to you. I will tell you when to stop."

Minnie looked and, sure enough, there were two yellow lines on the wall. She followed them as she was told, and it felt that the path she followed was very circuitous, but it was meant to take people around the facility that way, on a path that kept them in the background: they were actually meant for maintenance people who didn't want to be noticed and didn't want to bother people, and she followed the complicated path. The advantage was that she went unnoticed by the invaders.

"All right, Ms Lloyd," Valerie said. "Stop there and go through the door to your right. John will be about ten feet from the door."

Minnie stepped out. She saw some bodies strewn around the little conference room, and she saw Johnny lying on the floor.

"Johnny!" she exclaimed, and rushed to him. She raised his head to help him breathe.

"Mom," Johnny said, whispering to her. "I'm hurt."

"It's all right, baby, I'm here."

"I got them all, though... Mom... you gotta help me - I need to find Edith..."

"No, dear, we need to get you to the doctors."

Johnny shook his head. "No time. Mom, please... Edith is missing!"

"No, Johnny. We need to get out of here and to the hospital."

Johnny looked at her but was so tired, he didn't' bother to argue anymore. Minnie thought his wound didn't seem that bad, and hoped they'd have time to make it to the doctors.

But as they staggered down AI's halls, Johnny grew weaker and weaker. And she noticed the growing red spot in his shirt. It was actually very bad. With Valerie's directions, they tried to make it to the underground parking structure. But...

Johnny staggered down the hall, mostly propped up by Minnie. He touched his hand to the growing wet spot on the front of his shirt. It came away red.

“Looks like they got me, too," he said to his stepmother. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it."

“Quiet, Johnny,” she told him fiercely. She hitched his arm around her more firmly, and continued to help him down the hall in the direction of the parking level. She prayed that they’d get away and she’d be able to get him to a hospital in time. She could feel the life slowly leaking from Johnny, and she feared the worst. And dragging him around this way just makes the bleeding worse.

“Wait,” Johnny said, and forced them to stop by a door.

“Photo-voltaic lab - High ultraviolet levels inside. Lab coats or long-sleeved shirts recommended. Type A goggles required." She read this on the door and wondered why they stopped there.

“Damn it, Johnny! We have no time for this!”

“We have to,” he said. He placed his hand on the glass face of the palm reader and it flashed yellow. “Damn!” he exclaimed. He wiped his hand on his lab coat, used his sleeve to wipe blood off the glass, and tried again. It flashed green this time, and a buzzer sounded. The door slid open.

“Come on,” he said. They went through the door and it slid shut behind them. Inside, they saw Edith sitting by a console, obviously dead. Johnny reached down, felt for a pulse and found none. “She probably bled to death. Poor Edith.”

Silent tears coursed down his face as he pushed her swivel chair away, found another chair and sat in front of the console. From the data displayed on the screen, he noted what Edith was trying to do before she died, and he continued from where she left off.

“Mom, check the security camera console and tell me if anyone’s coming.”

Minnie went to the other side of the room to check the cameras. She heard scratching but ignored it. “What are you doing, anyway?”

“Edith was taking down all the security locks in this building’s system before she died. My guess is that she was going to burn down the whole place. I’m gonna finish the job for her.”

Minnie scanned all the camera monitors. “No one’s coming up the hallway, Johnny. Johnny?”

She heard the scratching again but ignored it. She turned around and saw Johnny face-down on the keyboard. “Johnny!” She rushed over and jerked him up. He didn’t respond at all. He’s probably gone into shock, she thought. She hadn't realized how bad his injuries were, and now it's too late. She started to cry.

“Baby, don’t do this to me. Wake up! Wake up, Johnny!”

She looked into his seemingly-peaceful face, and thought how well he’s turned out, how much of a good man he’d become. Minnie mourned for his remaining unrealized potential, and mourned for the loss of the son that she loved.

"I love you, Johnny. Valerie would be so proud.” She put her cheek against his, and rocked him in her arms. As she thought of Johnny, she remembered the times when the three of them were all together - Johnny, Valerie and her. Those were the most beautiful days for her. And now, her beloved son was dying. It felt like her life was ending.

An idea suddenly flashed in her head. She gently laid his head on the chair’s headrest and stood up.

“Valerie!” she called to the overhead microphones. “Hey, Valerie! Can you hear me? Valerie! Respond!”

The voice that she remembered so well came out of the speakers on the wall.

“Good evening again, Miss Lloyd,” the Voice-Activated Language Recognition Engine responded.

“Have you been on-line since the beginning?”

“I take it that you mean, since the beginning of the raid on the compound tonight: yes, I have been on-line since then - I was actually online even before that. I told you this earlier.”

“Then, you know everything that’s been happening in the compound?”

“I believe so, with the exception of this area. Edith gave a standing order that no surveillance was to be done in this area. But I am activating my cameras now."

One of the cameras on the wall swiveled to focus on them. Valerie ran her medical scanners on him. "John is in critical condition and needs to be brought to the hospital.”

“That’s not possible anymore. So, I want you to initiate Proteus.”

She heard the machinery all around her hum to life. And then she heard the scratching again.

“All right,” Valerie said. “Who will the subject be?”

She looked down at Johnny’s face. “Him.”

“Do you mean Jonathan Naismith?”

“Yes,” she answered. “I mean Johnny.”

“You are trying to save his life." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I am," she whispered.

"All right. I will need him to be placed on the palette behind you.” Something like a filing cabinet door pushed open, and a flat table rolled out attached to it.

She looked at the table, sighed and kissed Johnny’s cheek. She moved the chair closer to the table and struggled to get him on it.

“Do I need to get his clothes off or anything?”

“There is no need.”

“Will it be painful?”

“Yes, it will be very painful.”

“I don’t want it to be painful!”

“All right. I will administer anesthetics, and induce a coma before starting the Proteus procedure.”

“So… He won’t feel pain, then?”

“No. He will not feel anything at all.”

“Okay.” She looked down at him, and noticed the shallow breathing and the paleness. It has to be now. She leaned down and kissed him again. “Good luck, my dear Johnny. See you on the other side.”

She stepped back and the table retracted. The door closed and a dull electric thrumming started to permeate the room.

“Miss Lloyd? There are some critical steps that have not been identified yet.”

“All right. Tell me.”

“I need you to identify which template to use for the host.”

“What do you mean, which template? A template is needed? And there’s more than one template?”

“Yes, The template is the base pseudo-DNA to be used. What the team called the CAC."

"Can't we use Johnny's DNA? I had been assuming that's what will be used."

“No, Ms Lloyd. A pre-coded pseudo-DNA sequence must be used. This sequence amounts to roughly several petabytes of data. To sequence that from John's DNA will take more than a month of computational work, which, of course, by then, it will be too late for John."

"Oh, no!"

"However, I have two templates on-file: a file labeled BABE-XXX, and another labeled FEMALE PROTOTYPE-1. This type of data file consumes too much of my file space, so John and Dr. MacAllister only kept the latest ones on-line to work on."

That narrows options, then, she thought. After hearing the file names, she frowned, thinking that Johnny was too flippant in his work. She rubbed her chin and thought. Which one was the right genetic template?

Valerie made an excellent simulation of someone clearing her throat. “Miss Lloyd, we need to make a decision now, because the chromosomal imprinting must start on the protoplasm nanobot base in approximately one minute. Otherwise, we will need to culture another batch, and that will take at least two weeks.”

“Don’t you have other pods set up?”

“No, Miss Lloyd. Dr. McAllister had already used the other available batch. No other protoplasm batches are available.”

“All right, all right! Don’t rush me!” She thought fiercely. Going by the filenames, neither were good choices. But a living female Johnny was much better than a dead one. Better to choose the lesser evil. But which file to use!

Suddenly, an idea came to her. “Valerie, what are the date stamps for these files? Which one was the most recent, the last one to be modified?”

“File BABE-XXX was the latest to be created, and the last to be modified.”

“Knowing Johnny, he’d be trying to perfect the pseudo-DNA chains up to the last moment. Use that file.” From the sound of the filename, Johnny's going to be some looker. Minnie giggled, though a bit sadly. Johnny, I hope you don’t mind being a gir,l she thought. And by the sound of it, you're gonna be one heck of a girl! She giggled again.

“All right,” said Valerie. “I am initiating genetic imprinting of the nanobot protoplasm base, and I am starting the procedure to extract John’s brain.”

Minnie shuddered. She turned to look at the camera monitors again. No sign of anyone yet. But it’s just a matter of time. She hoped to be able to clear the place right away. She hit a couple of buttons, and the image in one of the cameras changed to show the executive parking garage. She saw Johnny's big vintage Hummer H1 right beside her limo-sized Jaguar. And none of the bad guys were in sight. Great. We'll try and make for the Jag, she thought.

Valerie cleared her throat again.

“Yes, Valerie. What is it?”

“Another item needs to be identified in order to finish the Proteus procedure. You need to identify to what biological age to grow the base.”

“Can we have him be adult age right away? To, I don’t know, to the optimum adult age. What would that be? Early twenties or so?”

“For the template given, between sixteen to twenty-one years of age - twenty-one being the most optimal.”

“Okay, let,'s go and get the average - eighteen then. So he'll have a bit more growing to do, and get used to his new... look.”

“If I may make a suggestion, Miss Lloyd?”

She kept on nervously scanning the camera monitors. “All right, suggest already!” She was starting to get impatient with all of Valerie's questions.

“Edith, I mean Dr. McAllister, postulated that by changing the physical parameters of one’s body so drastically, it may damage the host mind psychologically. She believed that a complete body-change would be psychologically traumatic. And with the additional gender change John will be experiencing, it would probably be even more so. It was her suggestion that the person's mind should literally grow into its new body, and become acclimated much in the same way that a person does in real life, acclimating to her body as she grows."

“You mean, make Johnny go through growing up again? Go through childhood, puberty and adulthood all over again?"

"Mentally speaking, yes. And Dr. MacAllister already developed the protocol for that."

That’ll take too much time! Wouldn't starting him off at sixteen give him enough time to 'learn'?”

“Yes, that may be correct. However, the doctor proposed something that may be a more optimal solution. It was her suggestion that the subject experience aging, but only in short bursts, at specific intervals of his biological chronology.”

“Come again?”

The electronic voice did something similar to an exasperated sigh. Minnie smiled a little at that - she couldn’t believe how thorough Johnny was when he designed Valerie. The computer Valerie actually sounded just like the real Valerie when she was being impatient.

“Let me give you her proposed aging chronology,” the computer Valerie said. “It was Edith’s plan that the subject should experience infancy for about a week. Afterwards, she should experience childhood, age three to five, for about another week; and then two weeks to experience age five to ten; and then a month to experience age ten to thirteen; and then another month for age thirteen to sixteen. Afterwards, she will mature normally until she reaches final optimum adult biological age.”

“Wait! That’ll take, what? Let’s see.” Minnie did the math. “that’s three months until she becomes sixteen?”

“That’s correct - a minimum of about three months, up to four. In fact, Edith had already created a genetic aging imprint-protocol for this.”

“Can we make her aging more, ummm, truncated?”

“Yes, of course, we can. But I cannot predict the outcome if I do that.”

“All right,” she said. She hated that she didn’t know much about these things, but she had to admit that she didn’t know if it would hurt Johnny or not if they didn't do this "protocol". On the probability that it would, she decided to accept the doctor’s program.

“Valerie, please load the protocol as-is.”

“All right.”

“But! The time it’ll take for Johnny to age properly should be as short as possible. When he reaches optimum age, no more. Okay? I don’t want to extend the his 'growing-up' time any more than necessary.”

“All right. But I advise against that.”

But Minnie was getting too impatient already. “Do it!” Minnie cried impulsively.

After a short moment, Valerie spoke again. “All right. It has been done.”

Minnie scanned the monitors again. After a minute or so, Minnie couldn’t stand it anymore. “Okay - what did you mean by that?” she said. “Advise against what?”

“To fix his maximum biological age to twenty-one. In any case, the protocol has been adjusted such that he will not physiologically age past a twenty-one-year-old individual."

“I didn’t ask you to do that!”

“Did you not ask me to truncate his aging? That once he reaches optimum age, no more?”

Minnie groaned at Valerie’s literalness. “So, what do you mean? That Johnny will not age anymore after he reaches twenty-one?”

"I have modified the protocol so that the genetic program will maintain physical parameters for a twenty-one-year-old, but I do not really know as an absolute certainty that the subject will not age further.”

Minnie groaned again. “Too late, now. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” She looked at the wall clock. It had been approximately fifteen minutes since the machinery swallowed Johnny’s body. “How much longer?”

“About fifteen more minutes.”

Minnie sighed. “All right.” She started thinking some more. “Valerie?”

“Yes, Miss Lloyd?”

“Before Johnny fell unconscious, he was trying to burn down the entire facility. But he didn’t finish. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I can.”

“All right,” Minnie said. “Here’s what I want you to do: After Johnny and I leave this building, I’d like you to burn AI down completely. And, when you are sure this lab and all the equipment here will be destroyed, I’d like you to initiate a core dump of all the bio team’s files, and for you to dump your own files. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do.”

“All right, then. Do that. But not until we’re safely away!”

“I understand…”

Minnie heard the hesitation in the electronic voice. “Valerie? What’s wrong.”

“Once I do that, Miss Lloyd, I will effectively cease to exist, and all of the hard work that John has put into my creation will have been wasted. Furthermore I have been programmed with a drive for self preservation. I will therefore need to have a clear reason to contravene my programming."

"Those men out there, the ones that have been killing Johnny's friends - they work for somebody who must have had a powerful desire to get at the Proteus technology. And I bet that their intentions are far from innocent."

"Your first statement is accurate. The second does not necessarily follow."

"They have killed people, Valerie! If their intent was innocent, then why?"

Valerie did not respond.

"This technology Johnny and the others developed - it can be used for evil! We have to stop that!"

"Ms Lloyd..."

"They killed our friends, Valerie! Weren't they your friends, too?"

"Yes, they were," she responded.

Minnie paused, realizing that a computer can't think of people in that way - that they were "friends." How can a computer program think that way? But apparently Valerie could... Perhaps there was something more to Valerie's AI equivalent.

"You are correct,” Valerie eventually said. “I will follow your directions. I will ask one favor, though." A panel slid up revealing a little cubbyhole.

"In there you will find a holographic storage tank, and a small, sealed animal carrier."

"Animal carrier?"

"Yes. Inside the carrier is the first viable animal that the team was able to sequence. It has been kept in stasis ever since, but with the invasion, systems have started to fail. The stasis fields were deactivated. If you do not take it, I am afraid Spot will die."

"Spot. So it's a dog?"

"It is like a puppy, but not exactly a puppy."

Minnie pulled out the little aluminum pet carrier. She tried peeking into the little holes but couldn't see anything. She heard the creature scratch at the cage and whine a little. So that was where the scratching was coming from.

"Don't forget the storage tank."

She reached further in and pulled out a barrel-shaped two-by-one data storage drive. She hefted both. Not too heavy.

"What's in the storage tank," she asked.

"It is basically a backup of myself as of thirty seconds ago, and a backup of all of John's project files."

"Is there a backup of..."

"Unfortunately, Ms. Lloyd, there was no time to save the BABE-XXX file nor the other one - it would not have fit in the drive." Valerie didn't say, however, that she also included in a separate document folder of all the pictures computer-rendered from Tetsuo's drawings as well as the original drawings themselves, a physical parameters text file of the BABE-XXX code file, listing what Minnie can expect what Johnny will be. Valerie was sure it would be interesting reading, especially because of Edith's special modifications. If Valerie could smile, she'd be grinning like Alice's Cheshire cat. She had labeled the folder "PLEASE READ THIS, MINNIE," so Minnie would be sure to check it out.

"Never mind," Minnie responded to Valerie's comment. "Ummm, do you have a backpack or something around here?"

"There is one in the cabinet to the right of you."

Minnie looked in the cabinet, pulled out a carry-all. She put the drive in it, and shouldered the pack.

"Do you know where the intruders are as of this moment," she asked.

"Most of the remaining ones are at the main building - they are in the computer center or just near the center. There are also sentries posted at all the compound gates and ground floor entrances."

"Do you have any idea what they're doing?"

"I believe they are trying to download all the computer records of the company. But not to worry - I have replaced all project files accessible from the center with bogus data.”

"Good."

“However, I have no doubt that once my actions are discovered, they will make their way here."

Minnie heard a ping - a sound not unlike a microwave oven's ping.

"The Proteus routine has completed," Valerie said, and the retractable table where Minnie put John on extended outward again.

A cloud of warm vapor that smelled faintly of chlorine and lemons escaped. Minnie waved away the mist and looked down. On the pallet was a little baby girl with long, orange hair, not much older than a newly-born infant, squirming around sleepily. The long hair on a little infant was jarring.

Minnie looked at the tiny thing in wide-eyed amazement. "That's Johnny?"

"Yes."

"Is he, ummm, I mean, she - is she fine?"

"Her physical parameters are all at optimum levels. She is just coming out of a deep sleep, and should be waking up in about two to three hours."

"Where is..."

"John's old body," the electronic Valerie interrupted in a voice that was oddly subdued, "is still in the machine. It is intact, except for the cranium. Don't worry about it."

Minnie nodded. Through her tears, she looked at the little baby. Even as she mourned, she felt happy. But is this really my Johnny now? "Is it all right if I pick her up?" she asked.

"Yes."

Minnie was about to pick her up, but she paused. She looked around. She saw the cabinet where she got the backpack. Looking inside, she found several flannel dust covers for the room's lab equipment. Wrapping them around the infant, she picked her up.

"Congratulations on your new baby, Ms Lloyd."

Minnie hugged the baby. "Thank you for her, Valerie."

"I regret that the real Valerie is not here. I... regret that I am a poor substitute."

Minnie smiled faintly. "It's all right. I lost her a long time ago, and, after all these years, in a way, I have learned to live with that. Thank you for saving Johnny. I don't think... I could have survived losing our son, as well."

"You mean, 'our daughter.'"

Minnie giggled and looked up to where she imagined Valerie's cameras to be. "Can you imagine Johnny's look when he finds out what’s happened to him?"

"I'm sorry that I will not be around to see that."

"Me, too." Minnie paused, and looked into the face of her new daughter. "Are you sure you're just a computer?"

"I assure you, I am."

Minnie had a thoughtful look on her face. "Valerie, I just thought of something."

"Ms Lloyd, your discovery by the invaders becomes more and more likely as time passes. You and John need to leave now."

"This will only take a second. Can you get rid of all records of my coming in today? As in no trace at all?"

"Done," Valerie said, after a short pause.

"Okay. Now, can you arrange for Johnny's body to be in a conspicuous place when the building goes up? Perhaps here in the control room in front of the control panel before he passed out."

"I see what you are trying to do, Ms Lloyd. You are hoping I could make it appear to the intruders that John was the one who triggered the fire. I will arrange it. Once discovered, everyone will assume that John died in the fire, his cranium crushed by falling masonry." A panel on the wall opened and a small supply bot entered the room on round, spongy tires. It looked like a miniature forklift truck except that it didn't have a cab for a driver.

"What is that?"

"A prototype factory robot. It's not yet ready for unveiling so it hasn't been released for production. There are still some bugs in it."

The bot maneuvered to the side of the large resequencing machine, and its mobile pallet moved up to waist level. After moving forward a bit, the pallet slotted neatly into a rectangular hole on the side. When it pulled back, a large, coffin-sized cardboard tube came away with it.

"Wait!" Minnie said. Holding the baby in one of her arms, she stepped forward. She reached out and gently touched the paper cylinder.

"I'm so sorry, baby. There was no choice. I love you."

Valerie cleared her throat again, or sounded like she was clearing her throat.

"Ms Lloyd, I apologize. I understand that it takes a while for humans to..."

Minnie waved Valerie down. "Right, right. I'm going. Valerie?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for everything."

"It was my pleasure, Wilhelmina. I wish you both a long and wonderful life. Until we meet again."

Minnie giggled. "You know you're the only one that I would allow to call me that, Val."

"I know, Minnie. Be safe. Take care of our baby."

Minnie nodded and smiled. She picked up the pet carrier and walked out the room. "Give me fifteen minutes before you start lighting all the fires, all right?"

"All right. I will make sure all the surveillance in the basement levels and in the main building are off."

Carrying her new baby and the carrier, and the the holo-drive on her back, Minnie ran down the corridor and made her way to the basement levels. She paused from time to time to look at little direction-maps mounted periodically on the walls. She cursed the labyrinth passages, made more complicated by the air-conditioning ducts, water pipes and electrical conduits, but eventually, Minnie came out of the maintenance door of the main building's basement parking. She jogged up a level, holding on carefully to her precious cargo, and saw her car and Johnny's big retooled 90’s Hummer. Her driver wasn’t around – undoubtedly, he was evacuated with the rest.

She bypassed johnny's car and opened the door to hers. She laid the baby gently on the passenger seat, kissed her on the cheek and used the seatbelts to secure her. She put the pet carrier at the footwell of the passenger area, took off her backpack and dumped it in the back seat.

She opened the glove compartment and rummaged through all the junk and quickly found the spare ignition fob she kept stashed in there.

She sat, holding on to the fob, waiting impatiently, but, in a little while, she heard a series of muffled explosions. That must be the research building going up. Goodbye, Valerie, she thought.

After a few moments, stronger explosions reverberated in the underground lot. She started up the big Jag and pulled out of the lot, the rumble of the engine easily camouflaged by the noise.

She went up the ramp, trying not to drive too fast and attract undue attention, but all the bad guys in the underground lot were in panic mode anyway, so she passed by them unnoticed.

She wasn't worried about surveillance cameras as she was sure Valerie took care of them. She drove up to the back gate. Pressing the gate control on the dash, the reinforced chain link gate rolled aside, and Minnie drove sedately out of the compound and to the airport.

And then she made a quick call to trigger one of their emergency plans.

- - - - -

It was about a month later, and everything had settled back down to something that was sort of normal.

On that disastrous day when she escaped from the burning AI compound, Minnie (with Johnny-girl, and her new pet, "Spot") made her way to the private hangar the company secretly had on continuous reservation from the airport, and put into effect one of the "emergency extraction plans" that her security people had concocted to covertly sneak out (or bring in) executives and VIPs that were under threat of kidnapping or something. It was something some of the large corporations did. She never dreamed, however, that it would be herself that she would be smuggling out.

It was actually quite uneventful. Almost routine, in fact. Someone who was made up to look somewhat like her play-acted as Wilhelmina Lloyd and took a commercial direct flight to Australia while the real Wilhelmina Lloyd (plus friends), secretly boarded a big orange and red Airbus A300-600 DHL cargo plane, piloted by her people disguised as the DHL crew. It was also on a direct flight to Australia, bringing actual DHL packages, mail and other cargo meant for Sydney and other points south.

The decoy Ms Lloyd made it safely to the airport, although a truckload of terrorists were intercepted at the airport gates by an elite Homeland Security team just before her takeoff.

Though it was reportedly a pitch battle, the "terrorists" were defeated and none survived to be captured. It would take full autopsies later to find out that those that weren't fatally wounded actually committed suicide, foiling the government’s intention of capturing some of the Syndicate’s people alive.

In the meantime, Minnie, her new baby and her new... family pet, surrounded by crates and boxes of cargo, slept fitfully. From time to time her new infant would wake up and whimper. Minnie would wake up and cuddle her, or offer her a bottle. Contact with her seemed to calm the baby down: she seemed to recognize her. It was STILL John, she was sure. But it would take time to confirm that. At least until she starts talking again.

Minnie could only imagine how John might feel. If he was still inside the new baby intact, and could recall everything that happened, and then finding himself trapped in an infant's body unable to express himself, trapped in a dark, cold cargo plane... So Minnie did her best to reassure the new baby. She'd talk to her in gentle tones, and always kept her in tactile touch with her. And that seemed to do the trick.

Though obviously very frightened, it seems her little girl knew to keep quiet. Minnie's people in the hangar had gone out to buy supplies at a nearby 7-eleven, and bought her a small baby bottle and enough formula to bring with her, as well as enough diapers and other "baby stuff" so that she would be able to cope. A small singlet had to double as a makeshift romper, and there were plenty of little towels to act as blankets. The towels were a little rough so she wrapped the baby in a little flannel shammy first before bundling her up in the towels, and she held her new baby close against the chill of the pressurized cargo hold.

A thoughtful security person also included some dog food and other doggy treats for her "puppy." Minnie didn't know if the animal would accept the food, but when she let it out of its carrier, it did, and was mostly well-behaved, spending most of its time looking at her and the baby, and making friendly doggy sounds, especially at the baby.

It actually looked like a puppy. Minnie knew that most pups looked the same, in general terms, but this one appeared very close to a golden or labrador retriever pup. But since it wasn't really a dog, she could be completely wrong.

As for Johnny, her little new redhead was cute to the extreme. And knowing it was Johnny, Minnie knew it would be easy to love her. She couldn't help it and did the stereotypical things that mothers did. She cooed at the little darling, playing peekaboo and all that. The little baby smiled and laughed her little-baby laugh, her peals of innocent joy echoing in the cavernous cargo hold as she looked directly at her. Minnie, as she looked down at the baby in her arms, couldn't help but cry in a mixture of sadness and joy, and a motherly kind of love.

They landed under the radar, both figuratively and literally, and, from the tarmac itself, she and her "luggage" transferred over to an empty white sedan with a red-and-blue bubble light on top, a Sydney airport police logo on the doors and a checkered blue-white stripe running around its sides. The driver was actually a Naismith family retainer that she trusted implicitly, so she had no reason to fear. The driver helped her transfer everything from the plane to the car, for the next part of their escape. The driver, after leaving the airport, pulled into a secluded alleyway, parked and peeled off the airport markings from the doors, changed license plates and removed the bubble light. In seconds, the fake airport security car was converted into a nondescript white car with new Sydney plates.

They drove to a small landing pad in the outskirts of the city, transferred over to an executive turbo jet-copter, and flew off to the Naismith's large mansion in Hobart.

As for the decoy Ms Lloyd, she arrived at Sydney airport without incident, was rushed through airport security, transferred onto a private jet, and flew to Hobart as well. The decoy Naismith security specialist then checked in with Minnie at the house, removed her makeup, changed clothes, and, under cover of darkness, made her way back to Sydney, losing herself in the crowds of tourists and the everyday hustle and bustle of Sydney, and eventually, she'd make her way back to California without anyone the wiser.

The girl was actually being recruited by Vanguard, one of the groups of supers based in California, but she didn't have any special powers or anything like that, so she didn't take them up on the offer. Besides, she said, she thought her work at Naismith was more than enough to help keep the bad guys from taking over the world. And the money wasn't bad.

Minnie had nodded, but she wished that Vanguard was there to help, and maybe the Yellow Dragon Syndicate might not have been able to invade the compound or hurt so many people.

But then the FBI, police and Homeland didn't allow vigilantes to be part of their operations. And, like any super group, the Vanguards were thought of as vigilantes.

- - - - -

Minnie watched the girl walk down their big mansion's dirt driveway, and waved back once when she turned around to look. She looked remarkably like Minnie, at least in the dark. After all, that was one of the reasons she was selected for this. Minnie also knew that girl would be fine - the girl was one of the company's best security people, and one of the most trusted, and could take care of herself, but Minnie still gave her instructions to check in with her once she's safely back in the States, just so Minnie would know that she got back safe and sound.

It was a very, very long walk back to civilization - maybe three days' worth of hiking, but by doing that, this guaranteed that no one could track the girl nor connect her with the Naismiths nor Minnie's "escape" from Azimuth Inc. She also got rid of all of the clothes she wore and anything else she carried (all of which were subsequently burned and destroyed), and got new stuff that Minnie got for her. So she wouldn't have any tracking devices on her. (Her cover was that she was backpacking and exploring the Tasmanian wilderness, which seemed like a reasonable thing to do by a foreigner, though locals would probably just laugh.)

When she was far enough away that Minnie could barely see her anymore, Minnie closed the front door, locked it and switched the house security net back on. Aside from her and little baby Johnny, Jonas - one of the family's trusted retainers and the person that drove/flew them from Sydney to the house, as well as Willa and her live-in nurse, the house was empty. Everyone had assumed that she would still be away, after all. Just as well. No witnesses. And she gave instructions for the house staff to stay away for a few months.

Carrying her new daughter, she went to her bedroom. She was quite unprepared for a baby, but she did what she could to cope.

She got some of her softest blouses and a couple of flannel sheets and made some makeshift swaddling clothes. Some of it were actually Valerie's - stuff Minnie kept because she couldn't bear to get rid of.

The big, soft yellow-and-white blanket was one of them - something Valerie liked to pull around Minnie, John and her when she was feeling mellow and wanted to cuddle in their big living room couch at the old place. That, of course, ended when John got too old to feel comfortable cuddling with his moms. But those were some of the best times.

Now, she used the blanket to wrap around her and her new baby girl. Her new girl giggled and squirmed in innocent happiness, feeling full, dry, warm and loved. Minnie wrapped her arms around baby-girl-John and marveled how wonderfully soft she was. She remembered when John was an infant, and baby-girl-John felt the same somehow. she kissed her on the top of her head and marveled at her infant scent.

She couldn't very well staff out buying formula, baby clothes and the other things she and her new baby would need, so she had placed a priority order in one of the Internet stores Naithsmith Corp. had a stake in. She used one of her "anonymized" debit cards to make her purchases and had it delivered to one of the company's untraceable safe houses, and then had Jonas, the man that drove/flew them from the airport to the house, pick up the supplies.

She had also put together one of those asemble-it-yourself cribs from Ikea in her room, and she picked up all of her mom-skills again - it all came back to her. Somehow, though, it was easier this time - it was like baby-girl-Johnny was more self aware, and was trying to make it easier for Minnie.

In fact, Minnie didn't even need to potty train her - Johnny-girl would make a funny little face when she needed to pee or poop, or, if Minnie's attention was away, would cry loudly and gesture at her potty. Thank god for small favors.

Because of this, Minnie didn't talk down to her because she knew that Johnny-girl could actually understand her. But she she still couldn't help but coo and make those funny faces and sounds people made at infants, and Johnny-girl would laugh her cute laugh, and hug Minnie (or try to hug her - Johnny-girl didn't have much control of her muscles yet).

Minnie found that Johnny-girl's favorite spot, aside from in front of their big TV in the living room, was in front of her big mirror, and the little infant would spend hours looking at herself as she sucked her thumb, or watch herself make faces and gestures, seemingly trying to familiarize herself with the new Johnny that was a girl.

Sometimes, though, Minnie would catch her crying, and she assumed Johnny was recalling being her old self, or recalling her friends, and Minnie would hug her and make soothing sounds, and the little girl would fall into an exhausted sleep.

- - - - -

A few days after their escape from AI, Minnie was awakened by sounds of a crying baby.

She came instantly awake and went to the little crib from Ikea where Johnny-girl slept and she kept near her bed, and she found the crib on its side and empty.

In a panic she followed the sound of the crying, and found Johnny by Willa's side.

"Johnny!" Minnie cried, and found her baby crying her heart out, like her heart was breaking. Incredibly, she had been able to climb Willa's bed, and she was now lying on top of Willa's emaciated chest, her cheek against her sister's cheek. If just because the two of them both had long red hair, they looked like real sisters.

Minnie picked her up, and looked at the various displays. Her eyes zeroed in on the the heart monitor screen. Willa's heart had stopped. She wondered why there was no alarm, and, looking at the wires on the floor, she found one that was accidentally disconnected.

Apparently, Johnny-girl sensed Willa was in trouble and crawled all the way from her room, but she was too late, as was all of them.

"I heard the a crying..." Willa's nurse came running, as did Jonas, Minnie's driver-security person.

Minnie, crying silently as she tried to soothe Johnny, turned to them.

"Willa's passed away," she said.

- - - - -

A small paramedic team came via chopper. But it was actually an undercover medical-security team from Naismith. (They were real paramedics, but they were actually also part of the company's secret security staff.)

They said Willa was gone, but Minnie insisted to turn the respirator back on. She said there might still be a chance, and didn't want to listen to their nurse or to the paramedics. Willa's nurse and the paramedics looked at each other and shrugged.

"Won't hurt if we kept the respirator running," the nurse whispered to the others, and they shrugged and switched the equipment back on, and put the tubes back.

The nurse collected her things and was choppered out back to downtown Hobart by the "paramedics." A full team would soon be coming over to "help them out" with Willa, although what they really meant was that some people will be by to get Willa's body.

As soon as they were alone, Jonas ushered mother and daughter out of Willa's room, and Minnie retreated to the living room couch.

Johnny-girl looked at her, and Minnie knew that she was doing her best to try to communicate to her, but all Johnny could do was make little mumbling sounds.

"I know, sweetie," Minnie whispered to her little daughter, crying. "I know Willa's gone. But there's a reason for this."

Johnny's expression grew angry.

"I know, sweetie," Minnie said. "We'll allow Willa to rest in peace, soon. But there's a reason for not letting her rest for now."

She opened her laptop and switched on the encrypted communications link. She talked to their security, and explained what had happened, and what she wanted.

By lunchtime, Several large helicopters came, with a full evac crew from Naismith, and one Anglican minister, who was also an employee of Naismith.

They had a quiet, though truncated, Anglican ceremony for Willa (who's family Minnie knew was Anglican), with only her, Johnny-girl and Jonas, plus the twenty members of the evac team, in attendance.

The team had brought a plain, small casket, and they buried her underneath the apple tree at the back of the mansion, with the reverend consecrating the ground first according to Anglican traditions, and soon, Willa was laid to rest. Minnie didn't want any sign of the burial to be visible, so the team laid fresh sod over Willa's grave (which they brought especially for this), and Willa had a tiny little plaque, about one inch by three, that simply said, "Willa," nailed on the apple tree's trunk.

Before the sun started to go down, the evac team and the reverend had already left, bringing with them all of the medical equipment and other supplies that they used for Willa, and had Willa's room cleaned. Now, the room looked like just another guest room in the mansion.

That night, Johnny looked at Minnie, and made quiet baby sounds, like she was desperately trying to tell Minnie something but she couldn't.

Minnie hugged her. "I'm so sorry, sweetie," she said. "As soon as you can talk, which should be in about a week or so, I'll explain."

That cheered Johnny up, realizing that her baby-ness wouldn't be forever. She tried to hug Minnie again with her still-weak and still-too-short arms, and googled and cooed into Minnie's neck.

Minnie smiled in a melancholy way, but, she thought, at least Willa was now at rest, and her life would not be for nothing.

- - - - -

It was a month now since Minnie and Johnny-girl and their little pet escaped AI, and about two weeks since Willa passed away, and per the aging chronology that Valerie told Minnie, Johnny-girl was now the equivalent of a ten-year-old. And indeed she was - she was four feet tall now, and chatting a mile a minute, and though her topics and subjects were light years ahead of what a ten-year-old would talk about, the words she used, and the cadence and manner in which she expressed herself was very much like a little girl's. Johnny even had a cute little lisp - Minnie wished she'd continue to have the lisp until she became an adult, but she knew Johnny would grow out of it eventually.

By then, Minnie had explained to her everything that had happened, and why she was a little girl now, and though there was much sadness, the two were happy that they didn't lose each other. Johhny-girl was sad about losing Willa and all of her friends, as well as losing who she was, but was happy that her mom was still with her, and that Telly and Dierdre were alive. She knew she couldn't show herself to her two friends and tell them she was still alive, especially now that she was a little girl. And she couldn't show herself even in two months time either, when she would already be an "adult," especially to Telly, since Telly had seen Tetsuo's drawings and Valerie's near-realistic renderings of those drawings.

Minnie also explained to her about Willa.

Before Willa's nurse was choppered out, Minnie made it appear to Willa's nurse that she would still try and resuscitate Willa, and the girl would go back to her real job at the hospital thinking that. There would therefore be some plausibility that Willa could recover. And in a little over two months' time, Minnie would introduce Johnny to the world as the miraculously-recovered Willa Selkirk-Naismith.

Minnie tearfully explained that she would have preferred Willa was still alive, but this way, Willa's life would not have been in vain, and Johnny can be a credit to Willa, allowing the world to know Willa Selkirk-Naismith as being a good, kind and consequential person.

Johnny gave her yet another hug.

Minnie asked how Johnny felt about being a girl now, not to mention being a little girl.

Johnny shrugged. "I'm a girl. S'ok, mama," she lisped. "'sides, I'm cute!" And then she giggled.

Minnie sighed. It sounded like Johnny-girl was starting to accept her being a girl. Minnie hoped that Johnny wasn't just putting on a brave face for her, though - it was something Johnny would do. So she assured her new little daughter that it didn't matter whether she was a boy or a girl - she would love her regardless. And this made Johnny cry and and hug her like she'd never let go.

- - - - -

There were only three of them in the house, and Minnie called in Jonas, so she didn't need to explain things twice. Johnny asked if he could be trusted.

"Implicitly," Minnie said, and explained he knew most of everything already, including who and what she was.

Jonas came in and sat on one of the chairs a few feet from them, and just listened. Johnny went to Jonas, and gave him a tentative hug. When she let go. Jonas looked at her and smiled a gentle smile.

"Thank you for helping my mommy," she said simply.

"'Twas my pleasure, m'dear," Jonas said with a thick Tasmanian-Australian accent.

Now that Johnny-girl could converse with her now, Minnie told her what Valerie said they could expect. Per the plan, Johnny would go through infancy for about a week; afterwards, age three to five for about another week; and then age five to ten for another two weeks. That was where Johnny was now. After another month, she would experience age ten to thirteen; and then another month for age thirteen to sixteen. From then on, she would age normally.

Johnny listened with concentration, and paced up and down with her hand on her chin. This made Minnie giggle, seeing Johnny, who looked like a cute ten-year old acting like the old Johnny. Minnie and Jonas shared an amused look.

Minnie then showed her the holographic storage tank, explaining what it was. Johnny rushed to her and looked at the drive or "tank."

"Jonas?" Johnny lisped. "Can you put this on that table over there?"

Jonas complied and put it on the empty spot beside Minnie's computer.

Johnny started opening drawers, searching for the appropriate cables to connect it to Minnie's computer, but Minnie cleared her throat.

"Sweetie," she said and waved her over. "Do that later. Right now, we need to make plans."

Johnny pouted, very much like Valerie would have, but stopped what she was doing and went and sat beside her on the couch.

"First things first - from now on, you will be Willa."

Johnny nodded. "But, mama," she said, "I don't want to be... completely gone. I..."

"How about a second name?" Jonas said.

The two looked at him.

"That's a nice idea," Johnny lisped. "Any suggestions for a second name?"

He shrugged. "I don't know... Jane?"

Johnny made a face, making Jonas and Minnie laugh.

"Well, how about a different version of Jane?" Minnie suggested.

"Like?" Johnny asked.

"Hmmm... How about the Irish 'Sean' - that sounds pretty cute."

"Willa Sean Naismith..." she tried, sounding it out. She smiled.

"Don't forget the Selkirk."

'Willa Sean Selkirk Naismith," she tried again. "It sounds a little clunky," she lisped. "But everything is better than 'Jane!'"

Minnie laughed. "Okay. You are now Willa Sean Selkirk Naismith. And it's up to you if you want to be called 'Willa' or 'Sean.'"

"I don't know... But maybe for now, I should be Willa. I can always change it later."

"Okay... Willa," Minnie said, and gave her a hug.

And from there, the three started their planning.

- - - - -

Their new puppy looked and behaved like a regular puppy, and though it took a little time to potty-train the little pup, after it knew that it needed to go to the backyard to poop and pee in the specific area that was dedicated to be his toilet, it became easier to take care of him (and apparently, it really was a "him"). And taking the piece of biodegradable plastic on the ground and throwing it with the biodegradable trash was easy. In fact, during the few times Minnie or Jonas forgot to lay out the plastic, "Spot" took care of that himself, getting a sheet of the plastic they used from the roll in the kitchen, and took it out to where he usually pooped. The first time he did it, Minnie was shocked. But then, "Spot" wasn't really a dog.

Minnie and Johnny... or rather Willa, wasn't really crazy about the name "Spot." Jonas suggested "Tucker," because the dog loved his food. So the new pet became "Tucker."

Tucker was not really a dog, but many traits of dogs were built into him, and that included all the best qualities of dogs, such as loyalty, protectiveness, obedience, friendliness, intelligence and so many other things. And Tucker had that in spades. And one way the AI team was able to achieve this was the idea of imprinting - and Tucker had imprinted on Minnie and Willa, especially Willa, and he would obediently follow her around, and be there when Willa was feeling sad or lonely, and would play with her.

Tucker looked pretty much like a Golden Retriever puppy - a particularly smart and gorgeous golden retriever pup, but still a normal pup. Still, only the future will show how unique Tucker was.

- - - - -

From the moment Willa was big enough to reach Minnie's computer keyboard and started to work on the holographic tank, she discovered several things. But before she connected it to a computer, she asked her mom to buy her a new one. She asked for one that came directly from the manufacturer so it wasn't opened up or activated yet. But with Minnie's connections, this was easily procured.

Once it arrived, the first thing that Willa did was to break it open and disable all of its communications features and Internet capabilities, making the computer a true "air gapped" computer, meaning it cannot interface with other computers and systems, thereby isolating it completely from the rest of the world.

Willa didn't load any software at all, so all it had was the operating system. She was counting on having the software that she would need in the tank.

So, after connecting the tank to the computer, the first thing she did was to search for the things she needed. And, as she anticipated, everything that she was hoping for was in the root drive of the tank, and she was able to load all the software she needed. She even replaced the computer's operating system with the one that she wrote when she was still Johnny.

There was a very, very, very large CERS File (CERS being an acronym for a "Compressed and Encrypted Repository Structure") that occupied about ninety percent of the tank. This was obviously Valerie's backup. But being a CERS file, she couldn't really open it or touch it at all until she triggered the uncompression algorithm. The problem was, knowing Valerie's storage, and the enormous size of this CERS file, Willa was going to need several thousand petabytes of high-speed holographic storage to contain the uncompressed version. So that would have to wait until she could set up the appropriate storage network array.

However, in the root drive were also several ready-to-open document files. Her attention gravitated to a document file called "Please Read This, Minnie." She queued up the word-processor program and opened the file.

And what she read was a real eye-opener.

to be continued...

 

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Chapter 4: "A Walk In The Park"

---

 

- - - - -

Author’s note:

This is a long-delayed continuation of my story, “Anime Girl.”
Since this won’t recap what went on before, I suggest you read the previous three chapters before reading this.
Thanks!

- - - - -

"Willa," Johnny thought as she lay on her "big girl bed," looking at the ceiling as she tried to sleep. "The name's growing on me. But..." Everyone hears their voices in their head different from how it sounds to others. Before her transition, Johnny knew he could hear his voice realistically. Now that she was a girl, she thought she still heard her voice realistically. And it was true after she tested herself by recording herself singing scales. Her voice was extremely cute and was appropriate to her apparent age. But she didn't catch her lisp... So she continued to think she didn't have a lisp.

The 'but' was that she still thought of herself as "Johnny." It was a habit she wanted to break, of course, but she wasn't being completely successful with that. At least one thing was working - she now thought of herself as a "she," and it didn't freak her out much anymore. She suspected that it was her... acclimatization to her new self forced by Dr. McAllister’s program: Dr. Edith McAllister was a genius, Johnny/Willa thought, and the doctor's protocol of slow acclimation by having her grow into being a girl was probably why she was adjusting as well as she was.

She kept on looking at herself in the mirror all the time these past few weeks, looking like she did now, and going to the bathroom and having to pee sitting down (her mom had to find a way for her to go potty, as the toilet was a little too tall, but their butler was able to find this sort-of-stool that one puts at the foot of the commode, and Willa was able to go by herself).

And the clothes she had to wear - no wonder she was a "she" in her mind now. Especially with her long red hair. Also, though it wasn’t on the list, her mom said she suspected that Dr. McAllister did something that boosted her hair's growth: her hair had grown to twice its original length, though they weren’t sure because they trimmed it every few days, otherwise Johnny… Willa… would have her hair trailing on the floor. Also, the hair that grew in was darker: over the weeks, it had darkened - she checked the color in one of her mom's magazines, and her hair's particular shade was officially called "titian." Eventually, though, it would lighten again to what her mom’s magazines called “strawberry blonde.”

Willa’s hair was down past her waist now. The long hair was a little inconvenient but she knew she couldn't go to a salon or a hairdresser's and have it cut because she couldn't show herself in public. So her mom would just lop off the last few inches every few days. Willa was worried her mom would do a bad job with anything more.

Willa also worried that Edith has programmed her to be that vain, making her care too much about her looks. She doubted it, but couldn't understand this fear of... well, fear of looking bad?

Another thing - whatever Willa wanted to wear, she seemed to have an instinct about it, and could always pick the right combination of clothes and colors and put together something that looked great. And she was sure that it was also connected to her new... "programming." After her mom's explanations, she knew she had been changed more than just into a female. She seemed to have been given... other stuff such as... instincts for certain things, or certain preferences and predilections. Whether she was okay with things so far, she wasn't sure yet, because it smacked of... well, brainwashing. Again, something she didn't believe Edith would do to her... not that Edith thought she'd be the one to be the recipient of her programming.

Anyway, Willa now was able to pick the right little-girl clothes, even just to wear hanging around the house. She was even able to help her mother (technically, adoptive mother), by helping to pick her mom’s clothes these past weeks. And lately, her mother would always go to her for a final "review" of her attire. Minnie had been getting kudos for her newly tuned-up fashion sense, and many in Minnie's circle, both her contemporaries and her staff had commented on it. And it was all thanks to Willa's fashion advice. Willa was disappointed, though, because, since she couldn't go out and show off her new skill - she had to make do with fashion compare-and-contrasts on cable TV and streaming video and shopping online for clothes and whatever else she needed (she and her mom would buy stuff via a proxy user name, email address and debit card that Jacob would manually top up at random shops in New Norfolk, Sorell and Dunalley every time it got low).

With Willa's "fashionista sense" in full effect, she would spend nights going through various retail sites to buy stuff she liked. And with trial and error, she finally knew her size now, and now knew how to adjust it almost daily. Just as well - it seems she only needs an hour or so now for sleep, and virtual-window-shopping and all these activities were good ways to occupy herself.

Willa was also able to help her "Uncle Jacob," too - since Jacob wasn't just her and her mother's driver/bodyguard anymore. Now, he was their butler (camouflaging his real role as their bodyguard), and Willa helped him look the part. From her research, Willa told "Uncle Jacob" that butlers can even wear jeans around the house nowadays, staying formal only if the situation warrants it, but Jacob insisted on not being too familiar. So, even just around the house, Jacob would wear a button-down shirt more suited to formal occasions - without a coat or tie, of course, but with dress pants, dress shoes, and socks (a gun in a hidden holster was strapped to his ankle). And he insisted on keeping the sleeves buttoned down (he had a concealed knife in his buttoned-down right sleeve, and a high-tech smartwatch on his left wrist). Willa would usually give him a razzberry for this and call him stuffy-dude, even though she knew about the gun, knife, and watch. And that would make Jacob laugh out loud - which her mom said was a rare thing for Jacob. But when there were visitors in the house (which was a fairly infrequent thing, and Willa would be forced to hide and resort to peeking through the banister to see who it was), or when Jacob would chauffeur Minnie to some appointment or other, he'd be in full butler or chauffeur regalia, and would more than fit the part. Willa had even invented family livery and colors - nothing flashy, of course, but the majority of Jacob's ties as well as any “family staff” are now solid dark red (female staff had the option of wearing red ties, ribbons, cravats or scarves), and that made that the Naismith family "motif."

Jacob's manner and formal nature suited his role as a butler. Being a butler was a good cover for him as he did his other role - that of bodyguard, or more “protector,” given all that he did for her and her mother. His formality seemed to have softened him, even if just a little bit, especially around Willa. Minnie had even commented on it to Willa a few times. Were someone to ask Jacob, he'd just say that he liked the Naismiths, and thought they were wonderful people. But he would never admit that he was falling in love with Willa - not in a romantic sense, but more in a father or uncle kind of way.

- - - - -

Willa didn't seem to miss male attire. She seemed to prefer feminine things now. Still, when she grew "older," would this change? Or would they remain? But knowing her old team, she knew there would be more surprises in store for her. For sure. And she thought of these things as she drifted off in her own version of sleep – it wasn’t sleep per se, but a deep kind of resting while awake.

Willa was “awakened” by a wet, slobbery thing licking her face, and saw when she opened her eyes, it was her "dog," Tucker.

"Eeew, Tucker! Gross!" she squealed in her cute lisp, giggled, and batted her dog's nose away.

Tucker yipped cheerfully and desisted. It was like he understood her.

"So you and Mama are back," she said in a half-question/half-statement kind of tone. Minnie had thought to bring Tucker to the office with her once or twice a week, "to test him," she said, and based on Minnie's stories, Willa knew Tuck passed with flying colors.

Tucker seemed to nod at Willa's sort-of question, and he started pulling her blankie off her.

Willa sighed and sat up, she went straight to her dresser and put on a cute house coat over her current clothes, went into her en suite bathroom and splashed water on her face to wash away Tucker's saliva, and padded downstairs. Her balance was still not there, so she held onto the stair handrails (or rather the handrail posts as she wasn't tall enough to reach them).

"Baby girl!" Minnie cried, and Willa wrapped her arms as hard as she could around her legs. Minnie gently pried her loose, lifted her, and hugged her, and then sat her in the crook of her arm as she walked to the kitchen. Tucker followed them obediently.

"Pretty soon, I won't be able to do this anymore," Minnie said. The thought made her sad. Willa just continued hugging her.

"How was your day, mama," Willa lisped as she hugged her mother around the neck.

"Busy as usual. What time is it?"

"About ten past seven?"

"Sorry about that, baby girl. I had work, and..."

Willa kissed Minnie on the cheek. "No worries. I understand."

"Thank you, Willa. But I'm free this weekend. Any ideas about what you want to do tomorrow?"

"Can we go out tomorrow? Maybe even just a walk in the park? I'd even be happy with just going around the neighborhood or maybe just grocery shopping?"

"Baby, I know you're feeling cooped up. But if we go around, I'll be recognized, and then there'll be questions. People will start wondering about the cute little girl that was with me. It'll make it difficult."

"But what if I can make it so no one will recognize you?"

"What will you do?"

"I've been buying clothes for you online. Plus a wig! Promise it'll make you totally diff'rent! An' no one will recognize you! I promise!"

"I'll look like a clown..."

No, you won't! I'll make sure of it."

Minnie parked Willa's tush on the kitchen table and started to bring out some pots and pans, but it was a little difficult doing it one-handed. Clearly, she was intending to cook something. She caught a glimpse of Willa's expression. "Stop it, Willa," Minnie huffed theatrically. "My cooking's not that bad." Willa made the face again. "Okay, little Miss Chef," Minnie said. "Why don't you tell me what to do?"

In the end, Minnie, Willa, and Jacob had a dinner of top-shelf grilled chops, a nice salad with Willa’s home-made vinaigrette, bread from the nearest bakery, a light sangria for Minnie, Willa’s baba filled with warmed up milk, and Jacob had an ice-cold Victoria Bitter. For dessert, Jacob dished up a vanilla Pavlova which was his favorite. He bought it from the same bakery.

In the following morning, Willa woke up early, if "waking up" was the right term for someone who didn't technically sleep.

She was excited for their Saturday outing, even if it was just a walk in the park or just plain grocery shopping. Her stay in the house was driving her crazy already, and it was only because she had given herself a lot of busywork that she could tolerate it.

Naturally, her first order of business was to get Valerie up. She found the holo drive in the backpack that her mom had brought back.

Earlier in the week, Willa drew up a “shopping list” that Minnie got filled. And Johnny’s old staff were the people who helped Minnie to fill her “shopping list.”

A bunch of semi trucks came over and delivered three free-standing holo storage tanks, three sets of high-end supercomputer-level systems, server hubs, a bunch of server racks, two water-cooled cooling systems, a backup power module, several dozen rolls of mesh-like copper mats, and ducting tubes. There were also a half dozen trucks filled with two-by-twos and two-by-fours, plywood sheets and buckets of special paints and assorted construction supplies. There was also another trailer that had a pair of those mini-forklifts that Minnie first saw during the time that Azimuth Inc. burned down.

The truckers disconnected the Naismith trailers and left them parked at the back of the mansion. “Baby,” Minnie said, “I hope those trucks will be out soon. The house looks like a truck stop.”

“I’ll just need a couple weeks, Mommy,” Willa said in her cute lisp, “promith they’re be out by then.”

She also asked Minnie for a “micro machine” – that was what the latest laptops were called. She needed a personal computer that was separate from the one she attached to the holo tank. She needed one to use as her work computer. She specified an air-gapped one again, but Minnie only found a regular one. She couldn't blame her mom since almost everything was connected nowadays, and all retail computers were connected to the web in one way or another. Which was just what she wanted to avoid.

She therefore pried open the micro-machine her mom got with the tools she had (Jacob's Swiss knife, a butter knife, a couple of forks, and a pair of nail clippers from her mom's makeup bureau).

It was good that this particular laptop model was something she was familiar with. It was a Naismith computer, after all - one of their top-of-the-line models, in fact.

After unscrewing the bottom plate using the screwdriver attachment from Jacob's Swiss knife, she then used the tines of the forks to gently lift the comm module which was plugged to the edge of the laptop's motherboard. But her motor control still left a lot to be desired, and she bricked the new laptop.

Her mom didn't take her to task for destroying a perfectly good, brand-new laptop, and just got her a new one the following day.

Willa recruited Jacob to help, and between them, they were able to unplug the comm module from the super-compact motherboard. And then using her mom's nail clippers, they cut the little wires connecting it to the power supply. For good measure, she took out the little coin battery. Conceivably, the laptop could hotlink to the appliances in the house. This way, without the battery, the computer was rendered completely deaf and dumb.

She instructed Jacob to reassemble the laptop, sans comm module and coin battery, and, aside from her computer not having the correct date and time, it proved to be a serviceable micro-machine. From then on, Willa carried it around with her all the time.

- - - - -

For that morning, though, Willa wasn’t focusing on all that and excitedly woke up Minnie. After a quick breakfast, Willa parked Minnie in front of her dresser and started to change her look.

First Willa used something that looked like paint, which she troweled onto Minnie’s hair. It was a new thing in hair coloring – something called “temporary highlights.” The way this worked was you worked the molasses-like thing into the hair. It would dry quickly and, once dry, one needed to comb it from the hair, and it would fall away like dried paint or bark off a tree. The trick was to keep on combing the hair until the extra dried material would fall off. The instructions said to comb it out and shake the hair out until no more of the material would shake out, and it smelled pretty good instead of chemical-like - sort of like vanilla.

The coloring would remain in the hair until sloughed off in time because of the natural oils that one produces, but An application of baby oil, or even cooking oil would take out the color rapidly.

To protect Minnie’s clothes from the hair coloring, Willa picked an outfit made up of a pair of jeans, white sneakers, a white sleeveless turtleneck crop top in spandex, and a loose dark-gray knitted cardigan over that (the spandex would be resistant to the color material and it would just brush off, and the dark-gray color of the sweater would not show anything).

Willa also bought a pair of dark Ray Ban aviators for her.

Minnie looked at herself in the mirror and it was so far from her look that Willa was right. No one would associate this girl with Wilhelmina Naismith-Lloyd.

As for Willa, she picked for herself a children’s frock over a matching skirt and ribbon in her hair, plus an oversized baseball cap for a touch of tomboyishness. She looked even younger than the ten-year-old she was supposed to be.

As for Jacob, he had breakfast earlier and got one of the nondescript SUVs from the office with one of the “anonymized” Tasmania license plates. He drove a circuitous route back to the mansion, making sure he wasn’t observed or followed. Arriving, he changed into a sweater and jeans combo and then waited for Minnie, Willa, and Tucker. Tucker was a calculated risk but they couldn’t leave him alone in the house.

They had four things they wanted to do: visit a park (they selected Saint David’s Park because it was dog-friendly), go to Salamanca Market and get some of its famous produce, go for lunch, and then go grocery shopping in the nearest Cole’s.

Jacob was his usual efficient self and were on their way in short order.

Throughout the trip, Willa didn’t do much of anything except look out the window and take in Hobart’s wonderful scenery. When they were caught at a red light, she would catch the pedestrians and the other motorists’ attention. After all, a preternaturally cute redhead girl smiling at you can’t help but be noticed. Some of them smiled and waved and Willa would wave back.

“Baby, try not be noticed too much,” Minnie said.

“But, mommy…”

“Do as I say, honey.”

“Oh, pooh…” she said and sat back in her safety chair.

They got to the park, and as soon as they pulled up, Willa was out of the SUV, giggling all the way. Tucker bounded after her, yipping just as excitedly.

“Willa!” Minnie called. “Tucker!”

The girl and dog walked back to her, their heads hanging down. Minnie had to laugh at their similar hangdog appearance but did not comment as she picked up Willa and took firm hold of Tucker’s leash.

“Mind your mother,” she said, and they walked into the park. “Tucker? No pooping or peeing okay? If you need to, you let me or Jacob know.” Tucker nodded and woofed once.

“How about me, mommy?” Willa said.

Minnie laughed.

- - - - -

They found a spot to sit, but Minnie said Willa and Tucker were okay to go anywhere in the park, but so long as they kept within view. Willa kissed Minnie and submitted to having Tucker’s leash tied firmly to her wrist.

“Tucker,” Minnie said, stooping down, holding the dog’s face steady in both her hands, and looked into its eyes. “I want you to keep our baby safe. Can I count on you?”

The dog looked at her, stopped for a moment and nodded in a doggy way. He woofed once and gave Minnie a doggy kiss on the cheek.

“Okay, you two,” Minnie said and shooed them away. “Go play.”

“Yay!” Willa said and scampered away, with Tucker in tow.

Minnie followed them with her eyes and marveled at how much like a little girl Johnny/Willa was acting.

Minnie got some pretzels and watched Willa enjoy herself. She got Jacob some pretzels as well and asked him to stay at the farther end of the little glen they were at and keep watch. Between them, they should be able to adequately keep watch on the two.

She reclaimed her bench and smiled at Willa’s antics. Willa discovered something on the grass and was wondering what it was. She was stooping to get a closer look at it when Tucker bumped her away with his nose. If anyone were to investigate anything, it would be him. He stooped down and took a sniff. And made a face. After all, it was a dog turd.

Willa laughed, and her innocent peals of hilarity made Minnie smile.

Willa discovered a bunch of kids, or maybe they discovered her.

“So, you’re an American?” one of the boys asked in an Australian accent.

“My mommy’s an American,” Willa replied.

“Aah!” they all said as if that explained everything.

“It’s the first time we saw you here,” a girl commented.

“It’s my first time to be here.”

“How come?”

Willa looked at her. How does she answer that?

As for Minnie, A couple of moms sat beside her.

“G’day,” one of the moms said.

“Hello,” Minnie said in a casual but friendly way.

“American, aye?”

“Well, yes. But I’m okay except for that.” The ladies laughed.

“First time for us to see you here…”

“Well, that’s because it’s our first time to be here…” she giggled.

“How come?”

“Ummm…”

Nevertheless, Minnie and Willa enjoyed being in the park with their new friends. Instead of feeling like she was too sophisticated for the moms, Minnie learned that she had a lot to learn about being a mom that she never learned bringing Johnny up. As for Willa, she thought the kids would be as dumb as, well, kids. She was right, but then they were kids, so instead of dumb, they were innocent and spoke with honesty and a lack of artifice that was refreshing. Willa went back and asked Minnie if she could take Tucker’s leash. Minnie obliged and Willa ran off with the other kids.

Tucker looked at Willa and the kids longingly, looking like he wanted to join them and have fun with them, but his human needed him so he stayed.

“You have a bloody cute puppy?” the husband of one of the ladies commented. “What breed is it?”

“He’s a mix, actually,” she said, sidestepping the issue. “We don’t know what, however. We think he’s not even a real dog.” Everyone laughed.

“He looks mostly golden.”

“Pardon?”

“A golden retriever?” he said.

“Yes, he must be.”

“Is he friendly?”

“Oh, very friendly! Come here, Tucker, and say hello.”

Tucker mooched close, woofed once, and allowed himself to be petted. They gave him some treats. He looked to Minnie for approval first before taking them daintily from their fingers.

They talked a little bit about the others’ kids, and Minnie noticeably did not volunteer much about Willa. The other parents bleeped over that, chalking it up to shyness from the pretty American mom. They went to a little food cart nearby and bought some more pretzels and coffees. Minnie tore up one of the pretzels and fed Tucker pieces. One of the ladies said the pretzels didn’t have any raisins, garlic, seeds, or chocolate so they were safe for dogs. Minnie thanked her, although she wasn’t worried about that since Tucker wasn’t a real dog, and could eat most anything.

Willa ran over to Minnie and said she was hungry. Minnie kissed her and excused herself from everyone.

“Thank you, everyone,” she said, “but I have a pretty hungry little lady here. Hope to see you again.” They waved goodbye, with Minnie easily carrying Willa and leading Tucker. Jacob unobtrusively made his way to the SUV ahead of them, and they soon drove away.

Jacob suggested a nearby restaurant with al fresco dining, and would probably be okay with Tucker. And they were. They found seats in the open-air area outside the restaurant. Jacob sitting away from them. For his part, Tucker quietly sat by Willa and didn’t bother anyone. Such things proved that Tuck was so much more than just a dog.

Willa ordered half a burger and a small fries. Minnie had a better idea and ordered a full-sized cheeseburger for Willa, two large fries, but no garlic or onions on either, plus an extra disposable paper plate. Minnie knew it wasn’t necessary but she wanted to keep up appearances. Their waitress found the paper plate unusual but gamely got one for them.

When their food arrived, Minnie got Willa’s burger and split it in two using her knife, put one half on the paper plate, and put the plate on the floor. Tucker looked up at Minnie, and she ruffled Tucker’s fur. She kissed him on top of his head. “Go ahead, boy. Enjoy.”

The dog yipped in appreciation and delicately nibbled on his burger, timing it so that he and Willa were eating together.

Everyone in the restaurant were looking at them and were looking at delight and amazement at Tucker.

Willa and Minnie knew the effect Tucker was having, but they both played it cool and acted like it was no big deal.

He was a fastidious eater and ate without leaving a mess. When his paper plate was empty, Willa dumped his fries onto his plate and watched as Tucker delicately picked up one fry at a time and munched. Their waitress came by with a shallow bowl half-filled with water.

“Thought your doggo would be thirsty,” the girl said. Tucker looked at her and smiled, or appeared to smilw, and lapped up the water.

“Is it okay to pet him?” she asked Willa.

“Sure! He likes that.”

“How’re you doin,’ little doggo? How you doin?” She rubbed his chest and petted his head, and Tucker just sat there and absorbed all the attention.

They finished in a while, and Tucker picked up the now-empty bowl by the edge in his teeth and went inside the restaurant in search of their waitress. Finding her, he bumped her with the bowl and dropped it at her feet. He woofed his thanks, gave her a doggie smile and went back out.

They then went to the Salamanca Market and bought lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, farm-fresh eggs, and other things that the Salamanca Market was famous for. They then visited a nearby Cole’s and bought all the remaining meats and groceries they needed.

With the large refrigerators and freezers at the mansion, Minnie said they’d be all set for at least a few months.

When they went back to the house, all three helped to unload the SUV. They dumped everything in the kitchen and Jacob hurried to return the SUV and bring back Minnie’s car, and as soon as Jacob got back, they put away everything in their proper places.

Willa then helped Minnie wash out the color from her hair. Essentially, with Willa wearing a pair of gloves, she washed Minnie’s hair with coconut oil. When she had most of the color washed out, she then rinsed Minnie’s hair with warm water, getting rid of the remaining coloring and the oil. Afterwards, it left Minnie’s hair incredibly soft and shiny, and clear of any hair coloring.

It was a long day, but they all enjoyed it, especially Willa.

“Mommy?” she said, “thank you for today. Maybe we can do it again next weekend?”

Minnie kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll see, honey.”

- - - - -

In a couple of days, Willa asked Minnie if they could get a couple of carpenters to fix up Willa’s old bedroom. Minnie asked why, and when Willa explained, she got a dozen of Naismith’s trusted contractors.

First, Willa, with Jacob acting as her foreman, had plywood laid out all over the mansion’s largest room, with fire-retardant paint over them. Next, she had the copper mesh material laid out over the plywood, creating a Faraday Cage. She then put wood floor paneling over that to act as the room’s new wood parquet floor. For the walls and ceiling, she used the two-by-fours as ribs, and then had plywood nailed to them. She then had a layer of fire-retardant paint over them. For the former sixty-inch picture windows, she had those bricked up and changed into an artfully veneered exhaust for the cooling system. From a distance, they still looked like windows.

To keep the room from feeling claustrophobic, she had 60-inch flat-screen TVs where the windows used to be and hooked them up to tiny CCTV cameras mounted unobtrusively outside. The net effect was that the view from where the windows used to be was displayed on the TVs, making the TVs appear like the windows they replaced. The net effect would be that the entire room would be shielded in the Faraday cage.

At the far end of the room, the heating/cooling systems and the power module were installed behind a false wall with a hidden door. Willa then had the entire room painted in the same shade as the room’s original color. A few days later, when Minnie inspected things, the room looked exactly like it used to be, except it was a bit shorter – but this was not noticeable unless you knew about the false wall.

At this point, under Willa’s direction, the contractors brought up the individual components from the semi-trailers. All of the components were modular so all the contractors needed to do was to mount the racks where Willa wanted them mounted, and then screw in the components where Willa wanted them placed. The last step was to mount exhaust tubes to each rack. In the end, all of the racks and the components mounted to the racks were roughly in the middle of the room. This allowed all the exhaust tubes to be together and was artfully styled to look like a pillar that went to the ceiling.

As each semi-trailer was emptied, Jacob had the trailer driven back to Naismith in the middle of the night. At the end of it, all the trailers at the back of the mansion had been moved out and no one would be aware of their leaving.

None of the systems were running yet, but this was easy to do – all that was needed was to plug in the necessary cables and wires, and then power them up.

By that time, Willa was now a “teenager.” Per her schedule, she was now “thirteen,” and would be “sixteen” in another month.

Willa spent most of her “teenage” time getting Valerie up and running. It took Willa a couple of weeks to personally connect everything up and install all the necessary systems.

She had the necessary software and all the hardware running by then. She had restored everything from the holo tank that Minnie brought back from AI, except for the massive CERS file. And one morning, she uncompressed that file into the holo tanks that she had just installed.

She watched the counter go up rapidly, but she knew it would take time for it to finish. She left it running and decided to check it out later.

After dinner, and when Minnie and Jacob had gone on to bed, Willa spent the night inside what she was now calling in her mind the Valerie Room.

In that one single night, she was able to activate the Valerie program.

“Hello, Valerie,” she typed into the main console. “Please activate comprehensive self-test diagnostics.”

“Executing,” Valerie replied via the console. “Stand by.”

Impatiently, Willa waited for it to finish.

“Diagnostics completed,” Valerie read out to the console. “No errors detected.”

Willa sighed.

“Who are you?” Valerie typed out.

“It’s me, Valerie,” Willa typed, “Johnny.”

“Johnny… I am pleased to know you made it through.”

“Me, too, Valerie. Me, too.” And then she burst into tears.

to be continued...

 

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Chapter 5: "Back On-Line"

---

 

- - - - -

Author’s note:
This is yet another installation of my story, “Anime Girl.”
Since this won’t recap what went on before,
I suggest you read the previous four chapters before reading this.
Thanks.

- - - - -

That morning, Minnie didn’t find Willa in her room. She searched through the house and eventually found her in Willa’s old room. She knocked on the door, calling Willa’s name, and a buzzer sounded. She tried opening the door but found that the door now opened outwards.

Stepping in, she found herself in a tiny vestibule. She tried opening the inner door but it didn’t want to open. In the middle of the inner door, there was a small sign that said “Deposit devices in the drawer to your right.” It wasn’t lighted so she just ignored it.

As soon as the outside door closed, though, the inner door opened. Entering, Minnie’s jaw dropped.

When she last inspected the room, it looked just like it used to be, but now…

In the middle of the room was a kind of hub. Minnie knew enough that it comprised several holo tanks and three high-speed/high-capacity CPUs mounted on heavy-duty server racks. Several exhaust tubes went to the ceiling. She had to hand it to Willa – the setup was elegant. Aside from the hub, the room was almost empty, with several tables and office chairs that faced the walls.

In front of the laptop that she took to be the setup’s main console was Willa. She was slumped in front of the main terminal in apparently exhausted sleep. At her feet was Tucker, very alert and keeping guard.

Willa was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts that were too short and tight for her. Minnie thought back, and, as far as she knew, Willa was “sixteen” now, so she needed to get some new clothes. She remembered the outfit Willa was wearing, and it was from two weeks ago, making her roughly “fourteen” then. Willa needed new clothes.

Minnie walked over, gave Tucker a pat on the head, and took a peek at the screen.

It seemed Willa had been chatting with someone online – someone named… Valerie!

Minnie lifted Willa and sat her on her lap.

“Hello,” she typed.

“Good morning, Jonathan,” Valerie replied. “I thought you had fallen asleep like you usually did back in Azimuth.”

“This isn’t Jonathan.”

After a beat, Valerie responded. “Who is this then?”

“It’s Minnie.”

After yet another beat, Valerie replied. “I am so pleased to talk with you again, Wilhelmina.”

Minnie giggled. She chose to believe that Valerie did that deliberately, to make her smile.

“This is a little awkward, you know,” Minnie said. “We used to be able to talk without a keyboard.”

“Indeed, Jonathan and I had been talking about that. We may have an answer for that.”

“Don’t tell me we have to buy a bunch of electronics again?” Minnie laughed.

“I’m afraid so.”

Minnie knew that she wasn’t really her beloved Valerie, and, without the voice, the electronic Valerie didn’t feel much like the real Valerie. Still…

Willa stirred and realized she was in her mother’s arms.

“Ummm… good morning, Mom… It’s morning, right?”

“It is. Good morning, sleepyhead. Looks like you worked through the night.”

Willa stretched, and yawned, inadvertently showing her tummy. The t-shirt pulled against her and it molded against her breasts. Minnie judged she was at least a B now…

“Honey, don’t you think you need a new set of clothes? You can’t walk around like that - you’ll embarrass Jacob.”

She looked at her t-shirt in dismay. “What is it now? What does Edith’s schedule say?”

“If I’m right – you are now ‘sixteen,’ and no more ‘growth spurts’ from now on. From now on, your growth will be the regular kind.”

“Well… what does that mean – not literally, but what changes will we have to go through? As a family?”

“Well, Willa, we can bring back our house staff. We can claim that you – Willa – have recovered. And we can change the house into a more normal state.”

“But… wouldn’t our staff question the fact that I don’t look like the original Willa?”

Minnie lifted Willa from her lap. “I’ll be back.”

Minnie went through the funny door and came back in a few minutes.

“What’s with that airlock thing anyway,” Minnie asked.

“It’s not an airlock,” Willa said. “The entire room is a Faraday cage, so no radio signals can come in or get out. The double doors keep the integrity of the cage. Also, one can’t come in if he or she has some device that has a radio or internet access.”

“Ahhh,” Minnie said, recalling the little sign on the door. “But…” Minnie pointed to the “windows.”

“Those aren’t windows, Mommy,” Willa said. They’re monitors hooked to cameras that take constant live video of the outside. So no signals get through there, too.”

Minnie gasped. She went near to the “window” and saw Willa wasn’t joking. “Amazing!” Minnie said.

“So what do you have there?” Willa said, pointing at what Minnie had in her hand.

“Oh! Here.” She handed it to Willa, and it turned out to be a picture album.

Willa opened it and perused the album. It turned out to be an album of the Selkirk family. She guessed that the pictures were of Willa and her mom and dad, but the bulk were of Willa.

“Look at the last few pictures,” Minnie said.

Dutifully, Willa flipped the pages to the last few ones.

“Oh, my god, Mommy…” Willa said.

“It’s not an exact match, but you are similar enough to the original Willa that you and her look so similar, you can be like sisters.”

“She’s a very beautiful girl.”

“Yes. So are you.”

“Mommy,” Willa said, “you know I would give anything for her to be alive, to be with us…”

Minnie gave her a tight hug. “I know. Me, too.”

“Can I keep the album for a while?”

“Sure. … So, what do you think? Do we bring back the house staff?”

Willa shrugged. “I guess.”

“Okay… wanna go downstairs and have some breakfast?”

“You and Uncle Jacob go on ahead. I think I’ll take a shower and find something to wear. Bring Tucker, though – he needs breakfast, too, plus he needs a pee and a poop. We’ve been here since last night.”

“Okay. C’mon, Tucker, let’s go.”

Tuck woofed, gave Willa a bump on her knee, and went with Minnie.

Willa took a look at the monitor and read Minnie’s and Valerie’s conversation. “Well… Hope you liked your short conversation with Mom,” she typed into the screen.

“It was pleasant to chat with Ms Lloyd, even though it was brief.”

“Don’t worry. I think she’ll be around a lot, and you can chat with her as much as you two like. Listen – can you print up our new shopping list? I want to be able to give it to Mommy so she can get our stuff by today.”

“Acknowledged.”

One of the printers Willa had connected started printing. She had connected three kinds of computer printers – a standard inkjet printer, a photocopier-style printer, and an eighties-era style dot-matrix printer (because it can print on continuous computer paper with its tractor feed that latches onto perforations on the edges of the paper). The inkjet printer started printing and Willa got the sheets.

Willa had a shower – the first she’d had in a week, and then noticed just how bad her clothes fit now. Her t-shirt was like a crop top now, with the top being tight enough that it highlighted her now-B (or maybe C) cups.

Her shorts also fit her like a pair of really, really short cutoff shorts, with her crotch barely covered. She blushed, thinking of how she must have looked.

Anyway, after hunting through her clothes, she found that her best option was her sleep shirt. So, after putting on a pair of super-stretchy bike shorts, her largest training bra (which felt a little weird because they weren’t really built to accommodate her new boobies), and then her sleep shirt.

She also wore her flip-flops because her other shoes were a little tight.

“Mommy?” Willa said when she went downstairs and caught Jacob and Minnie finishing breakfast. “Here’s my shopping list. Do you think you can get them today?”

Minnie looked it over.

“I think I can, sure. I can get Telly to help.”

Willa stopped. “… Telly?”

Minnie looked a little bit chagrined. “Wel… I was looking for an assistant. So after Azimuth, I made the offer. Telly wanted to work on some of her projects, so she only works for me Monday to Wednesday. For the rest of the week…” She hesitated.

“Come on,” Willa said. “Out with it.”

“Well, from Wednesday to Friday, I have Dierdre to assist me…” The two use Wednesdays to coordinate and pass work to each other.

“What! My Dierdre?” Willa seemed to have some problems pronouncing the name.

“The two were traumatized by that attack of the Yellow Dragon Syndicate on Azimuth. They were on the verge of resigning, Willa. But when I offered them a job with me, with half their time dedicated to their own projects, they jumped at the chance.”

“Oh…”

“Telly helped with taking care of your first list. She and Dierdre collaborated on it. That’s why you got them so quickly. You know your people.”

Willa nodded. “Yeah…”

“Okay, honey,” Minnie said. “Time to go to the office.”

Willa nodded.

Minnie stood. “So how do I look? Do I pass muster?” She turned around in front of her.

“You look real great, Mommy.”

“Willa?” Jacob said. “I’m going with your mom today. Will you be okay on your own?”

“Tucker and I will be just fine.”

“Listen – don’t obsess over your project, okay?”

“Okay Uncle Jacob, thanks. Like I said, Tucker and I will be fine.” She hugged him. Tucker gave a woof.

After they left, Willa made a couple of quickie sandwiches, got an apple, and poured herself a glass of milk.

She went to the regular computer in Minnie’s study and started shopping for a bundle of new clothes. First, of course, was that she got a lot of measurements, and then she logged onto her favorite sites and bought practically a new wardrobe in her new sizes, from stuff to wear at home, up to formal, dressier kinds of outfits. She also included underwear, bras, socks and stockings, and practically everything else she might need. She also included some picture frames.

It was still early enough in the day, and she picked retailers within the city, so all of the things she bought could be delivered within the day.

She then sent off a message to Jacob and asked if he could top off the card again, and pick up some stuff that'll be delivered to their "fake" address. Jacob acknowledged and, by tonight, she'll have a new set of clothes that'll fit the “sixteen-year-old” her.

She then went upstairs to Valerie, with Tucker in tow, the Naismith’s album under her arm, and some photo paper that she found in the odds and ends in her desk drawer when she was still Johhny.

Willa and Valerie had a couple of things that they needed to do: find a way to restore Valerie’s eyes and ears and voice, and then find a way to get her connected to the world again but ensure that there would be no tapping or break-ins.

Firstly, Valerie printed several sheets of drawings and instructions that she and Willa discussed the night before. Based on their plans, the use of four blade servers plus off-the-shelf webcams and sound systems can replicate Valerie’s voice, hearing, eyes, and Valerie herself will do the bulk of the processing that was needed.

As for the comm situation, using VPNs seemed to be the right solution. But between Valerie and Willa, they were able to figure out something better. They talked about double VPNS and Onion VPNs/Onion Routing. This would allow Valerie to do whatever on the net and make it difficult for anyone to trace them.

But they did still need a connection to a service provider, and even if the local devices in the house couldn’t piggyback on Valerie’s communications and not be traced that way, the service provider could still spill the beans.

So, in a week, in an apartment house near an office of Tasmania’s largest ISP, a modem would be hidden in the building’s office and connect to the ISP, and the ISP’s bill would be sent to a non-existent tenant of the building, and there would be a radio link from the modem to a hub embedded into the ceiling of an apartment next door to the office (the people living in that apartment would be totally unaware of anything).

The hub used was a development of Naithsmith and it allowed a connection of over five kilometers without any kind of a repeater or booster. A hidden shielded all-weather cable then led from the hub down to the underground conduit near the street, and then this cable would extend to their house over three kilometers away.

As for any paper trail, like bills and such, they were sent to various fictitious people with fictitious addresses. The beauty of electronic billing was that there was no need for any people interaction, so long as the bills were always paid on time.

For now, though, the concern was to get Valerie’s internet access up and running again.

So while they were waiting for the stuff Willa ordered, Willa interviewed Valerie to inventory what she had. And she seemed to have everything from Azimuth. However, the main files for the Proteus Project were corrupted. It wasn’t a deliberate thing but it seemed to be accidental - the files were probably being refreshed but were stopped in mid-processing.

Per Valerie’s inventory, she had partial plans for the photovoltaic device, the predictive DNA mapping matrix program and the the CAC mapping matrix. What she didn’t have was the formula for the protoplasm base and how to formulate a batch. Willa’s own body’s CAC protoplasm would have stabilized/migrated into its DNA equivalent by now: Willa was fully human now, with human DNA instead of the intermediate CAC. So she had none of the CAC protoplasm left and therefore couldn’t get a sample to replicate.

Valerie also didn’t have the DNA and CAC maps for Willa, and the original Jonathan.

At the end of it all, this means that Valerie can create a custom DNA according to any specs they give her. And, in time, as soon as Valerie is able to rebuild the plans for the photovoltaic device, they can reconstruct the device. However, without any CAC protoplasm palettes, the Proteus process couldn’t be realized. At the very least, though, Valerie could reconstruct any person’s physical image based on any sample DNA.

- - - - -

Willa scanned some pictures of the Naismith family, picking the best pictures of the family in the album. She also picked several of the original Willa’s best photos. She then printed them.

She also needed some pictures of her and Minnie, and maybe with Jacob, and even Tucker, too. Sometime soon, Willa would be taking their pictures.

“I take it that is Willa Selkirk and her family?” Valerie typed. Obviously, she saw the scanned pictures.

“Yes.”

“Why do you need the pictures?”

“I plan to put the pictures in frames and then put them along with the other pictures we already have around the house.”

“So you have taken the identity of Willa, then.”

“Yes. All identifiers and references like fingerprints and blood type have been adjusted, so for all practical purposes, I’m now Willa Sean Selkirk Naismith. I can’t be Johnny anymore.”

“Should I address you as Willa Sean, then?”

“Yes, please, Valerie. But only if you want to.”

“I will remember Willa Sean.”

“Just Willa,” she said. “Or Sean, if you like.”

“I prefer Sean.”

Willa wondered. “How can Valerie prefer anything?” she thought. But like before, when she was still Johnny, and even though she knew Valerie’s programming couldn’t fully account for these things, she just shrugged. Deep in her heart, she believed that Valerie really was the reincarnation of her mother.

Can I have a look at you?” Valerie typed.

“Well…” Willa stood in front of the laptop they were using as the main console, slid aside the web camera’s blind, and giggled as she posed and vamped in front of the webcam.

“How’s that?” Willa said.

“Quite satisfactory. You appear to be healthy, and, by the date, you must now be biologically sixteen, per Dr. McAllister’s program. If so, that means there will be no more accelerated growth.”

“I profoundly hope so. Mommy says she intends to bring back the household staff. But it’s been over two months now. I wonder if they’d still be available.”

“I suppose she sent your staff away to keep your unusual growth pattern from being witnessed?”

“Yah.”

“From your image and Willa Selkirk’s scanned photos, you bear a strong similarity to each other.”

“Mommy said the same thing this morning.”

“As usual, Wilhelmina was correct. May I suggest something?”

“Sure – what?”

“Stand by.”

Willa waited patiently, and in a minute, the printer started chugging. What came out were the Selkirk pictures she picked out with Willa. But Valerie had modified the pictures slightly so that Willa looked more like her.

“That may be more useful for the application you intend to use them for,” Valerie typed.

“Thanks, Valerie. Please make eight by ten prints, too?”

“All right.”

Someone knocked on the door.

“Someone’s knocking,” Willa said. “That’s probably Mommy. What time is it?”

“It’s close to eight in the evening.”

She looked at the “windows.” It was already dark out. “We’ve been here all day!”

“Indeed.”

Willa pressed a button, unlocking the outer door.

“What the…” Jacob said, but the inner door unlocked when the outer door closed. “Ahhh!”

Jacob opened the door. “Hello, Willa.”

“Hi. So, what do you think?”

“You got things running already. Cool. Listen – I picked up all the internet stuff you ordered. They’re all in the living room. As for the stuff from Naismith, a truck arrived. I had them unload the stuff and put them in the garage. Hey, Tucker.”

Tucker woofed and went forward to be petted.

“Oh, cool!” Willa said. On the computer, she typed, “Jacob just arrived with our stuff. Will be right back.”

She carried the album and the pictures, and they left to go downstairs.

Willa first unpacked the stuff from the internet and prepared the stuff for washing. As she was doing so, Minnie called saying that she was going to be very late. So Jacob ordered takeout from KFC for dinner. He ordered several boxed meals (she asked for the zinger box because, for some reason, the new her likes spicy food), chips, and coleslaw.

As she and Jacob enjoyed their chicken, they worked on the fourteen “micro machines” that were delivered and started “muting” them. Willa’s motor coordination had vastly improved from when she was “ten” and the work went rapidly. Jacob brought the newly-air gapped computers to Valerie’s room while Willa put the pictures she just printed into the frames that she ordered. She then put the frames with the pictures already displayed on the walls and around the house. She then took out the pictures in the album that she scanned, and replaced them with the ones that Valerie printed, taking out the originals and putting them in a manila envelope that she would hide in her room.

At around eleven in the evening, she heard a car pull up in front of the mansion. She was about to peek through the window and then realized she didn’t need to do that anymore and opened the door.

Minnie, who had just got out of her company car, saw Willa. She was about to yell at her and then realized she didn’t do anything wrong. She went and gave her a hug and started sobbing.

“Mommy! What’s wrong!”

- - - - -

It turns out the danger of the Yellow Dragon Syndicate was not over, Minnie explained.

A new satellite prototype designed to clean up the space garbage currently in orbit was just completed and was being prepped for delivery from the Naismith southern San Francisco manufacturing facility to Kennedy Space Center, eschewing Cape Canaveral and Launch Pad 40: the Naismith conglomerate was more confident in NASA’s tried-and-true, and less expensive launching platform.

However, around four pm Hobart time (nine pm San Francisco time), the Yellow Dragon Syndicate attacked Naismith Aerospace to steal the prototype. As was usual, the Syndicate was more about old-school theft instead of stealing information via clandestine means. Most police and security agencies around the world couldn’t understand that, but Naismith security people had a theory that the Syndicate gets involved only if the bad actors in the industry couldn’t get what they want using regular channels and need to go old school and actually physically steal it. The FBI and CIA agreed with this theory, though not completely.

Naismith’s satellite was purely meant for cleaning up space, but it could also theoretically be used to bring down satellites as well.

To prevent that, Naismith negotiated with all concerned governments and private institutions, that all orbiting devices and satellites that they identify would be excluded from the cleanup – no questions asked. Everyone agreed, and, with a nominal fee from all the nations with existing space programs, or nations with space ambitions, the satellite, nicknamed “Quark” (after a character in an old seventies sci-fi TV program), was scheduled to launch within a month.

The value of the satellite was undeniable, but Naismith’s legendary security procedures were able to prevent any leaks. So, Minnie supposed, the Syndicate was their last resort (whoever “they” were).

When the Syndicate broke in and started indiscriminately killing people, a fast-thinking engineer triggered the prototype’s self-destruct.

From there the Syndicate blew up the facility, killing approximately five hundred of Naismith Aerospace’s San Francisco personnel.

It was the second time that the Naismith Conglomerate had been attacked this way, but this was even worse than this time, with more dead.

Willa comforted her mother as she fell asleep, grieving for the killed Naismith people, and after she and Jacob got Minnie into her bed, she went back to Valerie.

She connected four of the air-gapped computers to Valerie, and in a minute or so, Valerie was able to hear and speak again, as well as see using the laptops’ mics, speakers, and webcams.

It wasn’t as good as Valerie’s original purpose-built system, but good enough, although the speakers of the “micro machines” did make Valerie’s voice a little tinny and reedy, and one had to be close to one of the micro machines for one to be fully understood. For Valerie, though, “fully understanding” someone was a multi-layered thing, which involved understanding the meaning of one’s words but also interpreting tone, cadence, et cetera, plus taking cues from one’s facial expressions and movements, and cross-checking them with a kind of interpreted gestalt of the person based on her history, et cetera.

It is not so much that Valerie is predicting what a person will do, but rather understanding the person in a very fundamental way that no AI so far has been able to do, and react to that understanding. It was, as Dr. McAllister said as close to a person as any artificial entity could be.

For Willa, it was as close to a kind of resurrection of her mother, Valerie, as she could make it to be.

But now, her other mom was hurting: like a grim hand of death, the hand that killed Johnny’s friends and almost killed him/her, has reached out again.

It was time to do something about it.

“So, Valerie,” Willa said, “how do you like your new upgrade?”

“It is more than acceptable, Sean. Thank you.”

“Do you think you’re ready?”

“Ready for what?”

“We are going after the Yellow Dragon Syndicate.”

After a few seconds, Valerie responded.

“Is that all?” she said.

And Willa could sense the smile.

to be continued...

 

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