WAR PLAY
War play
Carlos hated these wars, but he knew he was the best qualified to play them. The stakes this time was the Philippines. Carlos scanned constantly for the enemy; long ago they had stopped being so obvious, except of course for the last war. He could not believe the French tried using antigravity belts to land on him... Then again the mighty French, always had strange tactics. The Japanese on the other hand, with their technology were going to be much more devious and harder to avoid.
Carlos had other thoughts on his mind, his wife; about ready to give birth. Being in a safe house, the Japanese could not use her to get to him. Carlos had promised her he will be there with her when she gave birth, Mother assured him he would notify him when she was ready to deliver.
Carlos stopped walking. He was so rapped up in his thoughts that he almost missed it. the little dog steadily approaching him, the hairs on the back of his neck raised, he took out this sensor. It registered normal, but something wasn't right. He ducked into a doorway, the building sensors admitted him.
A mechanical voice came through some hidden speaker. "May we be of service?"
"No... Wait yes you can. Is there another entrance?"
"Affirmative, there is a service entrance used by the Bi-droids." The automated voice said
"Good! Please have a travel car sent to me at that entrance."
"Affirmative, Travel car is on the way. Will you be needing anything else?"
"Yes... Do you have a viewer with which I can see the front entrance?"
"Affirmative"
An image screen came to life on the wall, he saw the dog sniffing by the entrance of the building. Carlos activated his com-link.
"Mother, 2XL here"
"Yes, 2XL, what is it?"
"The Japanese have something beating my sensors, stand by I am going to send you a feed of it." Carlos adjusted a dial and fed the image on the screen to Mother.
"Okay, 2XL, we got it. We'll work on it, and remember stay ahead. Midnight is not far off. We cannot afford to lose."
Carlos rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah I know Duty, Honor County, 2XL out. God I hate war" he said
"Sir"
"Yeah what is it"
"Your travel car is waiting"
" Show me"
"Affirmative"
The image on the viewer changed, to the rear of the building. He saw nothing but the car. Satisfied, he went out the back entrance and jumped into awaiting car.
A disembodied voice came to life "Destination please."
Carlos thought for a moment. "Take me to the Syracuse Amphitheater. "he keyed in his credit code, and settled in as the car smoothly took off. He wanted to go to the Amphitheater because it was easy to see anyone approaching, plus, with its wonderful view of the Lake, it made for a wonderful place to try and relax.
Carlos thought about his life, he didn't mind being a soldier (not really anyway). the prestige that came with being considered the best at avoidance was a wonderful bonus. His finely turned instincts were the most sought after throughout the world, but Carlos loved America, he could still recite the Pledge Of Allegiance. But now that his wife was about to give birth to their allotted child, he had thoughts of retiring. They had saved enough credits for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, a comforting thought.
"Amphitheater sir" the mechanical voice broke his train of thoughts...
"Damn that was quick."
"Apologies sir, but you did not request the scenic route."
Carlos grunted, "What the Hell is so scenic about Syracuse?"
As he opened the door, he noticed birds circling over head. The hairs on his neck raised
as a sudden uneasiness washed over him... He didn't know how, but he knew the birds were the
enemy, he slammed the door shut.
"Take off!"
"Sir?"
" Take off anywhere." He took out his com-link
"Mother, come in damn it, Mother."
"Yes 2XL, I am here"
"They are using birds now." Carlos said
"We've made some adjustments on your sensor, we are downloading now."
Carlos checked his sensor, he received the new mode.
"I got it Mother, now let's see if it works."
Carlos turned the sensor on the now fading birds. The sensor registered what his instincts
told him, but he could not believe the extent of the genetic manipulation controlling the birds.
Carlos called Mother.
"Mother here."
"Mother, the down load correct?"
"Yes, we have been experimenting in that field ourselves, but I'm afraid they are a few years ahead of us. From the information we were able to obtain, as of yet, they have not been able to use humans. We believe they will need at least another generation to perfect it."
Carlos whistled. "That close huh?"
"Yes, but don't worry, we'll have something for it by then. Keep your distance from all animals, You have four and a half hours of war play left. After that, you won't have to worry about them anymore."
"Mother, I'm going to have to go deep."
"We understand," Mother ended the transmission.
"Travel car"
"Yes sir?"
"I want you to drive around the city on your tourist mode. Whenever possible I want you to avoid animals and people, and above all, do not stop for any reason, understood?"
"Affirmative"
"Good!" Carlos settled back in the leather seats, he had not slept nor rested much in the last forty four hours. Four hours left, and the war would be over. Carlos sighed, "War, right!" Carlos found himself wishing for the old days when soldiers lived or died by their wits. Now when wars were fought, no one noticed. One or two lines in the morning paper, at the end , when the loser had to relinquish some territory, or forfeit some debt. No destruction, no loss of life. Now the only time a soldier got hurt was if he tripped over something.
"Well I guess it's better than the land and its people being ravaged."
"Sir?" The mechanical voice asked
"Never mind, just talking to myself."
Carlos returned to his thoughts. which focused on a mormon billionaire vice president, who upon the death of the president, himself became president. The people of the United States, exhausted of multiple world conflicts, gladly adopted his executive orders halting or withdrawing from all conflicts. When he proposed to the United Nations that conflicts could be settled using a childhood game, he was accused of regression into a second childhood, but then the world, also tired of wars, started taking his peaceful and environmental ideas seriously and within one hundred years, his ideas were adopted.
Carlos glanced at his chronometer, he had been driving for a little less than an hour, leaving three hours till V-Time, meaning the Japanese were going to try something soon.
"Travel car" Carlos called
"Yes sir"
"I want to go to the Erie Canal Museum in the old historic Syracuse district."
"Yes sir"
The adrenaline flowing, now that he was in the end, game. He knew the Japanese were going to get more aggressive. When he arrived at the museum Carlos told the travel car to drive around and return in twenty minutes.
Carlos entered the building, at this hour there were not many people about, he liked it that way. Once in the foyer, a disembodied voice came to life.
"Welcome to Erie Canal Museum "
Carlos ignored the voice and the tour lights directing him, instead he went up to the second level chamber. After keying in an access code he stepped inside closing the door behind him, he went to a scope like item protruding from the wall, placed his eye to the eyepiece, once scanned. In a few seconds a panel slid open revealing a keyboard, where he punched in the appropriate keys, causing a rear wall to slide open revealing another room. On the side of the entrance a small glowing square flashed red, he placed his hand on the square, and the flashing light turned green. He waited a few seconds, till a familiar disembodied voice spoke.
"Good evening, please submit for voice identification."
"2XL, looking for support."
"Identification verified please enter."
Once inside, the wall slid shut behind him. Carlos scanned the safe house. He went to the wall that had multi screens.
"Viewers on”
The screens came to life. On them were views of all the entrances and corridors of the museum. Carlos watched the entrance where two dogs sniffed around the doors. A travel car pulled up to the curb, a tall women got out and went to the entrance, the dogs looked up at her, then turned and walked away.
"So I finally get to see one of them." he mused
Carlos went to a side panel and pressed a button. A closet opened revealing an exact duplicate of himself. He fed in the activation program through a terminal and the man-droid came to life. Its eyes opened, an uneasiness washed over Carlos, he never felt comfortable using his man-droid duplicate.
The man-droid stretched and yawned. "Well, well, well, look who needs me again." It spoke in what Carlos would describe as a most arrogant voice.
Carlos rolled his eyes, "Look cut the chatter, I need a decoy."
"Well duh! Like you would activate me for anything else. Well no matter, I am the best"
"Yeah, yeah, like you will ever let me forget. Just get going." Carlos said
The man-droid went to the clothes simulator and changed into an identical set of clothing that
Carlos was wearing. It stepped out of the simulator and looked at itself.
"Man you have to update your wardrobe."
"Get going." Carlos repeated
The man-droid went to the exit chute. It turned to Carlos,
"Well Don't get tagged, you do not want me to look bad do you?"
"Don't worry, if you do your job right we will be sitting pretty."
"Like I could do anything less. Well like they say, Banzai!"
With that, man-droid went down the chute. Carlos shook his head. He could never understood why the man-droids personality was so different than his, after all the man-droid had his brain grafts. He once asked a psyche-tech and was told that when they implanted Carlos's brain tissue into the man-droid, it exhibited some of Carlos's repressed behavior patterns. Carlos called the psyche-tech a quack.
Carlos tracked the man-droid as it walked out the building and into the awaiting travel car. It took off as soon as the door closed. A few seconds later the woman ran out, jumped into her car and went after the man-droid.
Carlos smiled. "Works every time!" He looked at his chronometer. "Two hours left." He was about to eat, when his communicator went off.
"2XL here. What's up? I am suppose to be deep."
"Yes, Carlos, but I have some news. Your wife is going into labor. Are you clear?"
"Clearer than a baby's cheek!" Carlos responded
"Ahem... Yes well you better burn then. Mother out."
Carlos went to the exit chute, smiled sheepishly to himself and yelled "Banzai" on the way down the chute.
Carlos, deep in thought as he was heading to the command medical facilities. Genetic manipulation; considered the ultimate goal for any nation. Gene splicing and altering (like plastic surgery in the twenty first century) became common place and all the rage of the twenty second century. Families having traits and characteristics implanted or removed in their children became the norm. But to program a being to be born with an instinctive drive to obey or with certain ideas, was what frightened Carlos the most. Something else was nagging at Carlos. It was what Mother had said about Japanese not being able to manipulate humans until the next generation. He wondered...
Carlos wife, Lisa smiled in between the contractions as she watched her husband enter the stasis field.
"I thought you weren't going to make it. How's the war going?" She asked
" Going great. How's yours going?"
Lisa grunted as another contraction passed.
"Doing fine!"
Carlos stepped out of the stasis field when the indicator cleared him from contaminants. He went up to his wife and took her hand, Lisa grunted as another contraction passed.
"We turned into a bit of a narcissist haven't we?"
"Well when you're..."
The med-tech entered the room.
"She will be having the baby in three minutes and 37 seconds."
Carlos glared at the med-tech.
"You sure know how to set the mood don't you?"
The med-tech ignored Carlos's sarcasm. "Three minutes."
The contractions started coming faster, Lisa could feel the baby coming. She grabbed Carlos's hands. The head started showing. The med-tech worked the remover. The head started slipping out. Lisa grunted but did not cry out. The shoulders were making there way out, followed quickly by the rest of the body. The baby, a boy, was out. The med-tech supervised as the remover cleaned the baby, cut the umbilical cord, and remove the after birth.
Carlos kissed Lisa. "Good job, honey you gave me a son!" The med-tech brought the baby up to Carlos. Carlos was about to take the baby when the infant opened it eyes and grabbed Carlos by the wrist and said
"Tag... Our end game"
"I beg to differ, it's our end game, boy you Japanese are sneaky" Carlos smiled at the infant. "Well we can be just as sneaky."
Carlos brought his hand to the side of his face, he pressed a hidden catch and his face sprung open like an old jack in the box, revealing the wires that made up his circulatory system. The baby looked dumbfounded and went into a temper tantrum Lisa stared at her husband in shock. The man-droid closed his face, and handed the boy to the med-tech. Lisa started protesting.
"Where are they taking my baby?" She screamed releasing some of the hysteria building up. The man-droid ignored her question
"Mother, Carlos you can come in now."
Lisa grabbed the man-droids arm "I SAID WHERE ARE THEY TAKING MY CHILD?"
"Mother was the first to respond to her question. "Do not worry Lisa we are taking the infant to isolation and deprogramming."
"Depro..."
She stammered as the two men came through the stasis field. She looked at Carlos, then at the man-droid whose arm she was holding. The man-droid gently removed Lisa hand from his arm as he spoke
"It worked like a charm boss. The geek never knew what took him." Lisa exploded :That so called geek is my son, and I want to know what is going on? What deprogramming are you talking about?"
"Don't worry about it babe, we just..."
Carlos grabbed the man-droids by the arm. "If you don't mind I will like to explain it to my wife, thank you. Why don't you see if you can assist the med-tech."
the man-droid shrugged his shoulders. "Touchy ain't we! No matter, sure I'll go help the tech." The man-droid winked at Lisa and turned and left. Open mouthed Lisa watched him leave. "Who, or what was that?" Carlos reached down and grabbed her hand. "That was my man-droid. He is a decoy."
Lisa glared sharply at Carlos. "Decoy! Just like me a decoy? Just like your son a decoy?"
Carlos started protesting. "No... No... it's not like that... Not like that at all..."
Mother, placed his arm on Carlos shoulder. "Why don't you let me explain." Mother went to the other side of Lisas bed. "Lisa, I am very sorry about this, but it appears the Japanese were able to infect your child while it was developing inside you with a genetic manipulation gene. Its only purpose was to Tag Carlos for the end game. Now that he failed, we believe we can remove the effects of the gene, and your son will be normal."
He turned to Carlos. " I will never know how you figured out what they did to your son.
"Well it was mainly a hunch, and the rest instincts." Carlos replied
"Just look at you two, patting yourselves on the back." Lisa snapped
"Well I'm telling you mister, it's either top solider and world savior or my husband! Which one is it?"
Carlos looked at Mother somewhat embarrassed. "Lisa please..."
"Which one?"
"Lisa, honey please..."
Mother placed a hand on Carlos's shoulder. "Listen son, maybe she is right. You've been avoiding for a long time, maybe it is time you retired."
Carlos was stunned. "But who will replace me?"
"Don't worry, we've a replacement that shown very good potential."
Carlos looked down at Lisa, relief evident on his face. "Well honey I guess it's decided!"
Mother turned to leave, at the door he glanced back at the couple smiled and walked out.
"Epilogue"
Mother was sitting at his office desk going over some files when the intercom buzzed.
"Excuse me sir, 3XL is here to see you."
" Send him in."
The door to the office whisked open. "What's up big cat?"
Mother glared up at the smiling man-droid disapprovingly. "I have asked you to stop calling me that, now please take a seat."
The man-droid rolled his eyes and slumped into a chair.
Mother inspected the facial features of the man-droid and nodded his approval of the surgery.
"Now we can get on with the briefing. Great Britain has declared war on United States and the starting times is...."
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