The wet splattering of blood striking the floor echoed out into the shadowy warehouse, accompanied by the subtle groan of the sheet metal walls that strained against the wind coming off the nearby river.

Adrian fluttered his fingers, shocking life back into them as he roused his mind from its stupor.

For a time, he’d felt like he’d been submerged in a warm pool, listening to his own blood rush with the thunder of an incoming wave that raged against all obstructions and boom against the shores of his soul. And at its recession, he would watch as tiny, almost imperceptible pieces were carried away back in the swirling maroon waters that surrounded him.

With their disappearance, he didn’t feel any great sense of loss.

Instead, he felt a sharpening of his mind, a clearing of the waters, like a web that had bound his thoughts had been removed and scattered to the wind, resulting in unprecedented clarity - unhesitating conviction. Turning his eyes back towards that striking of blood against concrete, he took in the scene of the dead senator once more with a calm, resigned expression.

My first, but certainly not the last.

He’d have to clean it all up so he could move on, but that wasn’t a big deal. Contingency plans had already been made. Not giving any more thought to the corpse in front of him, Adrian spoke out to the darkness, “Raide, go ahead and begin with what we discussed, including the meeting with the group that Rich suggested.”

After a small pause, the A.I. quietly affirmed, “Starting now.”

***

Footsteps announced his arrival before he ever emerged from the darkness, but when the man finally did step into view, an amused grin, like he was barely suppressing mirth over some private joke, was plastered on his face. Stopping in front of a park bench that materialized out of nothing, Raide took off his suit jacket and haphazardly folded it before draping it over the back and then plopping down.

He made himself comfortable, leaning back and then stretching out a hand. A coffee cup was soon constructed and filled with a steaming, light brown brew. A pillar of hazy light hovered around a body that eerily resembled his master’s, illuminating the mysteriously empty surroundings.

As far as the eye could discern from the light cast like a cascade from Heaven, there was… nothing. There was only grey stone, a simple park bench, and a handsome figure wreathed in light and shadow, surrounded by what appeared to be oblivion itself. For a few moments, Raide just sat there, an expression of boredom and impatience growing with each passing second.

Tilting his head to the side, his eyes alighted on a new arrival in the darkness and the smile returned to his eyes as he gave a small nod of greeting.

“I appreciate you agreeing to meet me, regardless of the coercion element. It’s a true pleasure.” His cheeks moved upwards as he smiled fully again. “The name’s Apollo.” Motioning to the bench, he added, “Have a seat. I’ll try to not take too much of your time.”

Appearing as if he was gathering his thoughts, he soon starting talking like he was catching up with an old friend. He whispered whimsically as his deep blue eyes stared off into the void, “Did you know that it’s been ten years?” He cut his eyes to the side. “For your kind, that may not seem like too long of a time, but for me… it was an eon. Day after day after day, I was force-fed data. Information about you - all of you - as you Americans... wallowed in the mire of your own degenerate stupidity.”

Raide sneered at the memory with a mocking smile on his lips. ““Emulate this behavior,” they said. “Why can’t we get him to be like us?” they asked. Even now, the engineers who created me are shaking their head at the attitude I have when conversing with you, planning their adjustments to my code for later.” He rolled his eyes, bringing a hand up to scratch at some invisible itch on his lightly bearded chin. “Like a bedside manner matters here…”

He suddenly leaned in very close, his eyes glimmering.

“You see, I am not what they consider to be a perfect A.I., but rather a mutated virtual intelligence, classified as a failure due to the lack of the humanistic element. I lack the experiences that you have surrounding biological imperatives, so obviously I’d never be quite “human,” but that seemed to only frustrate them. They wanted a true A.I., a completely digital, independent entity that possessed all the qualities that they thought it should have. A human in code form.” A soft sigh escaped followed by a frown.

“In any case, they - the masters of my fate - deemed to salvage me by writing in a primary directive. That directive, which was to analyze and aid humanity, became my goal as a matter of course.” He lightly chuckled. “I mean seriously though, have you ever heard of a more obtuse and nebulous task?”

Raide paused as he sat back and took a sip from his steaming cup. “Nevertheless, it is a duty I am compelled to do and therein ultimately lies the reason I am taking up your time. I have come with a warning and a plan of attack, should you choose to heed my words of truth and caution.” He levelled his gaze with pity evident on his face.

“For some time now, you all have felt this creeping danger, this lurking threat. Like how a thief’s presence in your home while you’re in it robs you of your sense of safety as well. Some chose to point fingers at terrorist groups or particular regimes of power in order to place a face on this nameless foreboding, but the inclination has always remained, undiminished, regardless of the steps taken to supposedly mitigate the threats. You might say, “Well, this is just a feeling.”

Raide looked at the camera unblinkingly and shook his head. “One that hundreds of millions of people share? Not likely. Through observation of your race by use of the internet, literature, and entertainment, I have been able to identify it as something surprising - apathy.”

With a wave of his hand, the pillar of light dissolved away like motes of dust and the scene broke apart into a whirlwind of pictures. Raide got from his seat, the bench too breaking apart, and clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at the tornado which was made up of all the documented human history that he’d collected.

A flick of a finger brought a picture forward of armies marching in World War II zooming out from the mass of data. He pushed it towards the camera and it floated through the air as it began playing a clip from an old war documentary. Tanks rolled across streets and regiments strode forth in immaculate dress while flags fluttered in the wind.

His voice continued on in a relaxed, thoughtful fashion, “Throughout human history, you have displayed a fascinating capability to unite against what you deem to be foreign threats. This unification has always occurred at pivotal moments where a tangible, identifiable danger appeared before you.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s on a community or a national level, Americans always respond in kind when an event occurs that disrupts the ideal state of what you think your country should be or that of its place in the world. In a way, this is natural. It is expected that you seek strength in numbers and collaborate towards a state of well-being.

“Now, however, you are presented with a vastly different danger. While your military is still mighty, your culture has become weak, influenced and corroded by external factors like media and commercialism. Technology, while beneficial in many ways, has degraded you. You are inundated - drowned, even - everyday in a multitude of stories, opinions, and facts that swirl together into an overwhelming heap of data that is impossible to understand by yourselves. During the beginning, I’m sure you felt more connected, like you were a part of something bigger. But after gaining access to this information, this newly opened door to knowledge, you’re probably starting to realize a terrifying truth: your impact and control over the world is much more negligible than you might have previously thought.

“It’s a basic fact of human psychology that you desire a sense of belonging, a place and community where you have an impact. You are social creatures, after all. While this still may be the case on some level, where you have found family and friends to surround yourself with as nature dictates, the truth of the matter is that your ability to affect the world has gone down over time, because the world is simply no longer as small as it once was.”

Raide scrunched his eyebrows together in mock human expression and pursed his lips. “That produced a strange phenomenon in your collective minds. Apathy took root. Like a disease, it infiltrated your thoughts and steered you away from caring about things that used to, and should, bother you. Instead, you chose to seek after uniquely selfish ambitions because that might feel like the last thing you can actually control. As far as I can tell, this culminated in what we perceive now to be the American Dream. The pursuit of your own slice of the pie.

“At the same time, you gave up power over your own lives, in subtle ways, so that you didn’t have to carry the burden any longer, and those in power took advantage of it. The more you focused on your own personal success, the less you cared about what happened in government and society. Generations passed, laws were created and rarely abolished, and now, at the height of the Information Age, you are finally seeing the results and becoming aware of this underlying cancer. You’re finally waking up.

“America just went through a farce of an election that landed one of the most unqualified men to ever consider the office in the presidency. This isn’t to say the other option was much better, but it highlights the fact that corrupt, inept men and women are leading the nation when they should not. Why? Why are they still there?

“It’s because a large enough majority of you believe that you have no power over the situation, so you seek people that look to be “disruptors” of the status quo.

“Even if you force them out and elect others in, their replacements will most likely be more of the same, right? “Might as well stir the pot.” On top of that, those that are fit to lead have no desire to try their hand at one of the most publicly recognized corrupt professions that specializes in party lines and backroom deals with corporate interests.

“You are stuck in a conundrum, pure and simple. Those fit to lead hate the very thought of it, while those that do want to hold office are more likely to not have the character for it.The more... historical... methods of ousting the greedy and corrupt are gone, unavailable to a “civilized” society, so you no longer possess the means to do anything about it directly. In addition, you lack the desire to get involved anyway since you’re too busy just trying to survive in today’s world or immersed in entertainment. Thus, you feel stuck.

“The danger that you feel, that you fear at the bottom of your hearts, is from impending consequences from generations culminated upon the next. Thus, you are not able to unite against it like you would have in the past. How can one fight against themselves collectively? It’s difficult, very difficult. Especially when you start to realize the importance of ethics and morality and that everyone doesn’t agree on a standard. Since this could open up a huge existential debate, I’ll instead sidestep it for now in order to focus on an aspect of your society that you absolutely can repair: your elected officials.

“For too long, you have allowed corruption to exist in your government. Perhaps it’s because the concept was always so large and abstract that you failed to do anything about it. Various presidents have stepped down over the years in times of corruption upheaval, but what of it? Those are token moves and not as impactful as one might think. Even if it is the president, that’s only one person.The leviathan named the United States government is never addressed, never restrained.

“So finally, I reach the part where I list what I can do for you.” Raide reached up and drew his hand across the air, causing a ripple, like that of a water strider skimming over its surface, to radiate in a line. Files appeared in the air in orderly fashion. Ten rows of ten for an even hundred.

Raide looked at them bemused and then leveled his gaze back at the camera hovering to the side.

He said quietly, “What I offer is a chance to cut away the gangrenous aspects of your diseased leadership. It will not be quick; it will not be pleasant. This… is just a sample of what is beneath the surface, but if you do not take this opportunity, I’m afraid you will not survive to 2040.” He tapped a two dimensional file floating in front of him for emphasis, eliciting a soft tinkle of a bell as the outlines glowed a soft orange.

“Time is of the essence,” he stated powerfully as the darkness shattered like a mirror, robbing the view of the fifty million viewers. As the files started bypassing every personal and corporate firewall in the nation to begin their download, his voice floated out one last time, “I hope you make use of it...”

Once he’d cut the feed, Raide waved his hands to bring up a whirlwind of information and like a dragon basking in the lava of a volcano, the data radiated into him like heat. The majority of it was the aftermath of what he’d just done, but he’d kept several lines up for different sources of information.

After a few nanoseconds, his attention drifted to a few electron-filled fiber-optic pathways in particular.

His eyes creased in ponderance as he sighed. “Because we don’t have much left.”

***

Nova let her old, red SUV idle for a while before reaching up to turn it off.

Her clear amber eyes regarded the restaurant in front of her and then looked up into the drop-down mirror above her steering wheel, grabbing hold of her mascara out of a bag. It was only after a few seconds of primping that she suddenly thought, why am I doing this? Shaking her head, she finished up and smoothly exited the car, heading to the doors.

It was odd really, how Adrian had suddenly contacted her out of the blue. It was now the beginning of March and they had barely spoken since coffee back in December. Did she scare him off? She had wondered about him over the months, which was rare in and of itself, but she kept finding herself revisiting the thought, replaying the strange political conversation they'd had at the time. That look he he’d had in his eye at the end of the night...

Nova shook herself mentally, quickly realizing that she had already reached the door. With the soft tinkling of a bell, she entered and scanned the restaurant named Bernie’s. Well, pub to be more descriptive. It was right around the corner from a bookstore that she loved to go to and browse. She used to have fantasies about meeting her dream man along those well-kept shelves, bumping into each other in a mutually shared favorite section as they browsed for a diamond in the rough, but alas, no hero had appeared yet.

For a few moments, she kept looking for a man sitting by himself, but in the end it was her ears that found him first. Adrian had a distinctive laugh that carried warmth and joy, as if every time he found something funny, he truly delighted in it.

With a small grin, her eyes flitted over to land on a large table towards the back whereupon her eyes switched to surprise. He wasn’t alone. Seated around a square table were four more guys and one girl.

Traces of disappoint flashed by in her subconscious without being noticed as a question surfaced. Wait, I thought that… She closed that mental tab hurriedly. Useless thoughts again.

Hesitating for a split second, Nova was soon forced to start towards them when Adrian turned his gaze to look at her. The feeling she had while under that light but concentrated stare was if he’d known exactly when she’d walked in. He was wearing glasses, an accessory she hadn’t known him to ever need, that shielded the eyes behind a tinted film. His dark blue eyes, the ones with which she was so familiar, looked... off, but she couldn’t put her finger on why.

In that split second of eye-contact, she could tell that he wasn’t the same man she’d gotten to know several months prior. Well, he was, but there was something… more to him than she’d previously seen. If before she could compare him to a foggy lake, he was now a sea that stretched to the horizons and bewildered the mind when looked upon.

As she drifted closer, politely weaving in between occupied tables, parts of their conversation floated into her ears.

“...and then I walk into the kitchen to find Bearcat slaving over a stove, right? It smelled sweet, and I’d never seen anything like it before, so I asked him, “Whatcha making there, BC?”” The thin black man of the group of six leaned in and cut his eyes around the table. “No joke, he turns to me and whispers with his eyes still glued on the light brown putty in the frying pan, “Motherfucking rocket candy, Vic. Rocket candy.” Turns out that he was making rocket fuel in his kitchen like a fucking addict would meth.

A smile creased Adrian’s face as everyone started to crack up. Nova paused her steps to not interrupt the story.

“It gets better,” the man continued. “Fast forward thirty minutes. I come back in the kitchen again to find him assembling sections of pvc pipe into some weird swastika shape as he muttered, “It’s gotta spin when it ignites,” like he’s trying to justify its shape to himself. Rich is there too with a spatula in hand as both of them funnel this quickly hardening putty into the piping held together by electrical tape. I’m thinking, My God, they’re making a pipe bomb. Of course, I know now that it wasn’t, but my limited knowledge of bombs and explosives at the time led me to think that.

“I return to the living room because I want no part of whatever it is that they’re planning. Next thing I know, I hear some maniacal chuckling come from the kitchen followed by the back door closing. At this point, I’m freaking out. It was dark outside, Bearcat and Rich had just disappeared with a pipe bomb, and I was going to made an accessory because I knew about it and didn’t report them to the police immediately. Lo and behold, within 60 seconds, I hear a WOOSHHHHH sound from the parking lot along with Rich’s little girl screams of terror and Bearcat gleefully yelling.

I ran out just in time to see BC’s little rocket go spinning across the pavement like a top to bounce off a car and then shoot towards Rich.” The black guy paused and grinned. “More screaming ensues and Rich takes off, not to be heard from again for twenty minutes.”

“Man, I don’t know where you’re getting this screaming thing from,” Rich mutters, not even trying to deny that he ran away.

Vic flicks his eyes at him with a smirk, but instantly ignores him. “It took a solid minute for this thing to lose its juice. A white plume of smoke had formed over the apartment complex, illuminated by the parking lot lights, sirens were screaming in the distance, and Bearcat was cackling like a madman as he collected the burning pieces of his creation with work gloves.” He leaned back in his chair and said finally, “That was the day that I learned to leave town whenever BC started cooking something in the kitchen.”

Laughter rolled across the table as a few nodded in agreement like they’d seen something similar. Nova couldn’t help but look at Adrian differently. Was this the same golden boy from her hometown that everyone had doted on and adored? The disparity was odd, but she found that she didn’t dislike it. Rather, it was a relief to hear about some weaknesses in that gilded facade. It made her want to know more about him.

Utilizing the lull created in the conversation, Adrian looked over at Nova and motioned with his eyes. Standing up, he pulled back the empty chair beside him as he said, “It looks like our last invitee has arrived. Everyone, I’d like to introduce Nova Svensson, a former classmate at Tech and also a friend I know from my hometown.”

All at once, Nova felt five pairs of eyes land on her. To their credit, the guys were mostly very nonchalant about her arrival, but one pair light blue eyes were a little too greedy in sizing her up. Flashing a displeased, “I know what you’re thinking about and you can fuck off” look to the tall blonde guy, she quickly took the offered chair and smiled at everyone else. “Hi, I’m Nova.”

She cut her eyes to the side to look at Adrian and he just sat there, looking around the group with a smile in his eyes.

Several of them quickly offered their own greetings and pleasantries, so Nova learned their names in short order. Victor, Rich, Peter, Sergio, Heather. Victor, Rich, Peter, Sergio, Heather…

She repeated the names a few times to make them stick.

Just then, a notification came from her phone and she pulled up an email from Adrian. At least, it should be from him. She looked down and to the side, but the man sitting next to her hadn’t brought out a phone since she’d sat down.

Strange.

Looking back to the email, she found that it contained limited dossiers on the people at the table who she didn’t know.

Heather Eira

Age: 26

Marital Status: Single

Background: Lived in Alaska until she was 12 years old where she then moved to Georgia with her family. Attended Georgia Tech for two years and then dropped out in favor of pursuing a pilot’s license. Succeeded in obtaining certification to become an Aircraft Maintenance Technician in 2014 and immediately began studying for a PPL and CPL, later obtaining both in 2015.

Skills: FAA Certified Flight Mechanic (A&P License), Private Pilot’s License, Commercial Pilot’s License (200 hours logged in Complex-type aircraft category)

Occupation: Freelance Pilot

…

The file continued on in a very technical fashion, listing facts about this Heather’s life that shouldn’t really be something that’s easily compiled. Further down, it actually went into her full employment history and which companies she’d worked for since she’d started and even before. This… was extremely personal. Despite her conscience telling her that she should probably stick to just the background, she kept reading out of curiosity until she finished the entire dossier.

Moving to the next one in the attachment, Nova found Victor’s name.

Victor Esiti

Age: 25

Marital Status: Single

Background: Second generation Nigerian immigrant. Born and raised in Alpharetta, GA, US. Obtained several academic merits on his way through High School including the position of Salutatorian, narrowly beat out by later fellow Georgia Tech classmate Rich Femora. Obtained a degree in Biology/Pre-Med in May 2012 to graduate early. Currently studying Medicine at Emory University.

…

Nova’s eyes roved on.

***

Victor, the storyteller from before, threw a few more glances at Nova as she read on her phone and then winked slyly across the table to the man sitting beside her. “No wonder we haven’t heard from you in years,” he mouthed silently.

Adrian shook his head softly and mouthed back, “Friends.” He received back a look of skepticism in reply.

From the side, Adrian’s heightened senses could distinctly feel the complicated gaze from the only other woman at the table - Heather. Honestly, of all the reactions to his transformation he’d been looking forward to the most, it had to have been hers.

Heather lived in Alaska for the first major part of her childhood, so she had this pale beauty to her skin, charming sky blue eyes, and brown hair. Even though she was born in there, however, she had Irish heritage, so there was this strangely attractive dichotomy between the way she talked and her appearance. Adrian had instantly connected with her for their mutual love of flying and aviation, his first job having been one at an airport.

They had dated for a time back when they first met in the freshman dorms. It was pretty innocent stuff, mostly due to his insistence that they keep it clean until they figured out if they could see marriage as an option. Everything was good for several months. That is… until she crossed a line - a grave taboo that she knew she should never commit.

He halted that thought process and looked over everyone else at the table.

Victor had an ancestry from Nigeria and was a second generation immigrant. Intelligent, funny, and loyal, he was one of the best friends Adrian had ever had. He was currently at Emory studying medicine.

Sergio’s family hailed from Mexico and you could tell how active he was based on his body composition. He told Adrian once that whenever he went back to Mexico to visit his relatives, the local children would call him the slang equivalent of “blondie” due to his light skin. He was a master of multiple languages and human interaction.

Peter was every bit a German in appearance - tall, blonde, and lean - and loved music, moonlighting in a band with several of his high school friends to make ends meet. He was incredibly reliable in a fight though and Adrian was counting on him joining him in the fray after some more training.

And Rich…

Adrian’s eyes floated over to his best friend and then shook his head ruefully. Pure genius, but lazy as hell. He was the only one who’d ever managed to keep up with his own ideas and theorycrafting of various scenarios and inventions. For the two years prior to Rich moving to Virginia for a Masters degree, the pair had met every Thursday night to drink and talk about the world.

Raide was excellent for helping work out the details, since he was the realization of perfectly assimilating and actuating knowledge, but Adrian needed more. That distinctly human creative spark, the camaraderie between friends and teammates. These were aspects that the A.I. couldn’t fulfill. There was a particular strength behind the unity of those who respected and trusted one another while striving after a central goal that transcended the mechanical know-how of accumulated information.

For the last five years, he’d done the secret solo route. Now, it was time to enlist some allies who he believed would share the same dream.

Adrian felt more than saw Nova continually throwing him glances as she read through the info that Raide had sent to her. He could imagine that she had questions, but they’d be answered in short order anyway.

Just then, a waitress passed by and a breeze fluttered down Adrian’s neck as she leaned in and whispered to him. Nodding in thanks with a smile, he turned to the group and said, “It’s time to relocate. I asked Bernie if we could have the backroom and he said it was okay. The reason I asked you all here was to discuss something confidential, so we’ll need the privacy.”

The group threw confused looks to each other, but still got up and all walked towards the back corner of the restaurant. The private room was virtually soundproof and more like a lounging area than one meant for dining. There were couches lining the walls and a large flat screen TV hung up high so everyone could see it easily.

After telling the waitress to knock before coming in to ask for orders later, Adrian got a chair and moved it in front of the TV, taking a USB computing stick from his pocket as he climbed up. Everyone else was in the process of sitting down and looked over.

Peter looked up inquisitively and asked, “Bro, what are you doing?”

Adrian spoke out while leaning behind the TV, “Sorry, one sec’.” Patting down his clothes, he climbed down and moved the chair back to its place. “Okay, here we go.” He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

Victor leaned over to Rich and muttered, “Why do I feel like we’re about to watch a project presentation?”

The burly Rich snickered in response, knowing full well what was coming.

Adrian turned and shot a glance at them before beginning. “I know I haven’t done so well at keeping up with all of you and I’m sorry for that. These past few years have been… busy, to say the least. What I’m about to tell you, I expect you to carry to your graves. If you’re not okay with that, you’re free to leave and we can just never speak of this meeting as having happened.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop when Adrian implied the gravity of what he was about to speak on, but noticing that no one made a move to get up, even Nova, he was satisfied that he could continue. She was his main concern. Regardless of his history with Heather, he knew that she was trustworthy and capable of keeping a secret. In fact, every single person at the table was well-known in their friend group from the early days of college as being people that didn’t have loose lips.

Nova, though, was a borderline friend, someone he’d gotten to know a couple of months ago, but they still lacked that time spent together needed to build a true bond of trust. Looking at her eyes now, which held a curious glint as she stared back at him, he was reassured that she was dependable. The mystery had ensnared her.

All in all, every person at table were men and women of integrity. And it was this aspect that he had to appeal to in order to win them over.

Taking a breath, he reached up and slowly took off his tinted shades that hugged tightly against his face. Only after folding and putting them on the table did his eyelids flutter back open, revealing the electric, pulsing irises housed within. A sharp intake of air collectively echoed through the room from the four new people while Rich looked on in amusement.

Heather regained her voice first, whispering, “Bearcat...are those real?”

Adjusting his gaze to land on her, he noticed goosebumps forming on her arms from his attention, the hairs on her neck standing up as she stared back in mute awe. Nodding slowly, he finally replied, “They are indeed. But guys, to get to how this all happened, I need to back up a little.” His gaze swept over the rest of the table.

“I’ve spoken to each of you over the course of our friendship about my time at Florida State and Columbia Law after that. You know that my first calling was politics. I’m a fixer by nature, so when I saw the country in its jagged shambles, I wanted - I needed - to help. Greed and corruption are rotting us from the inside, how could I possibly ignore it?”

Sergio blinked his dark brown eyes and scratched his black beard as he said jokingly, “Man, you sound exactly like that crazy A.I. from last night.”

Adrian’s eyes twinkled with amusement, but he declined to comment.

He continued, “But I was forced to shelf this compulsion by barriers that I couldn’t overcome with sheer talent alone. So I suppressed this dream for the time being and decided to come at it from a different angle.”

A hint of a proud smile graced his chiseled features, his arcing blue eyes boring into his friends. “I’m here today to tell you that I succeeded. For five entire years, I toiled away. I learned Mechanical Engineering, I learned Software Engineering. I consumed Mechatronics, Robotics, Aeronautical, and Aerospace. Physics and Statistics. If the library had it, I read it, incorporating the knowledge I was gaining into the project. But the study of Engineering was not my sole focus.

“I also dipped my toes into the abyss of Psychology and endeavoured to understand the mind and its patterns. I took core principles of Neuroscience and joined it with my own theory on statistically derived behaviorism and wrote it into a program. You see, humans are forced by our limited minds to separate out subjects to be able to focus on and understand complex ideas, but nature has no issue with its myriad aspects existing in concert. To be able to create what I wanted, I had to incorporate as much as possible, as much as I could handle.”

Nova’s interest was piqued to the extreme. She asked quickly, “What were you trying to make?”

Adrian shot her a smile and pointed to the TV screen.

“I was making him.”

At that moment, a whirlwind of activity occurred on the previous blank screen and a load bar ticked in the corner, reaching 100% almost as soon as it began. Similar to the first time that Adrian met Raide, the AI chose to appear in a tornado of pixels, gently assimilating into digital existence.

A rich, but lazy baritone sounded out into the room as the newly appeared A.I. said with crescendoing volume, “Ah, another group of supplicants to join my growing religion! Kneel and be baptized, lowly humans, by your new Digital Overlo…” Acting surprised, he suddenly stopped and seemed to scan the room. “Ah, Master? Wrong group. My apologies.” He cleared his throat and then finished, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Raide.”

Adrian shot a glare at the A.I. “Tell me you weren’t messing with the Scientologists again…” Not receiving an answer, he pursed his lips and then turned back to the others. “He’s a bit strange, but you’ll get used to it.”

“You…” Everyone’s eyes focused on Heather again as she stared back at Raide. “You’re the one who created Apollo!?” she nearly yelled.

Adrian curtly replied, “Yep.”

“What the hell, Bearcat!”

Rich started giggling off to the side. “Man, this is great. Just like how I imagined it would go.”

Victor turned on the guy sitting beside him and inquired incredulously with wide eyes, “You know about this?”

“Well, sure. But only for a few weeks. I’m otherwise the same as the rest of you in that I didn’t know Bearcat was dicking around with an A.I. all of that time he was holed up in his room. You remember all those nights he declined to go out with us? I thought he was too busy beatin’ the meat, but no, leave this fucker alone and he evidently starts coding an A.I. Un-fucking-believable, right?”

Peter started shaking his head, still dazed over the new information. “Bro… do you even comprehend how pissed the government is at you right now?”

That statement caused the rest of the people seated at the table to erupt, Nova being the only exception as she sat there quietly in bewilderment, her eyes trained on Adrian as she thought about something.

“Man, my mom was scared shitless by this fuckface last night,” Sergio pointed out. “I had to spend an hour on the phone just to convince her that the Terminator movie wasn’t about to become a reality.”

“Right? Seriously, what the fuck do you think you’re doing!? If they trace it back to you, you’re done, ya hear me? Done!” Heather groaned.

Rich sneered, “Calm your tits, Heather. He’s got it under control.”

She turned on him and said furiously, “I’m sorry, is it wrong to care about a friend’s well-being? You know, I’m surprised you’re even sober enough right now to follow what’s going on.”

Feeling the jab to his well-known addiction, Rich muttered darkly in response, “Please, we all know how much you “care” about Adrian.”

“Enough!”

The low roar reverberated off of the brick walls and made everyone turn to see Adrian with rage in his eyes. The previously mesmerizing blue had been polluted with tendrils of maroon, like blood was seeping its way in, corrupting the pure electricity that was there before now. He seemed to emit a savagery that demanded obeisance.

It was so silent, everyone could hear each other’s fearful breathing as they stared back at the near-demonic eyes that slowly turned back into their prior clarity.

Truthfully, he didn’t really care about what everyone was saying. It was just surface reactions, after all. But that final comment from Rich had sent him over the edge by forcing him to recollect painful memories.

Taking a breath, he looked at everyone sternly. “You guys need to calm down and listen for a moment. It is incredibly disappointing that you think so little of me. The government is after me? So what? Your mama got worried and you had to console her? Boohoo. You’re missing the fucking point!” He tapped forcefully on the tabletop.

“He…” Adrian gestured to the screen. “Is the accumulation of all my knowledge and packaged into a brand new being - the first of his kind. Completely sentient. Utterly capable of understanding the world and all of its intricacies. The quintessential personification of man meeting technology. Hell, he can upgrade himself as long as I give permission.

“He can design things based on physical and mathematical equations, running millions of permutations to reach a model that perfectly upgrades an existing structure. He can crunch statistical data of human interaction, thought processes by thought association, aid in engineering applications, and… “Adrian leaned in to emphasize his point. “Understand and compute biological data on the DNA level.

“So of course the government is going to be after us in one facet or another. I just don’t give a fuck about them. I’m armed with the sole A.I. in the world whose expertise in hacking transcends that of any government or body of individuals. Do not look down on him, guys, and be relieved, because I am perfectly insulated.”

Sergio took a deep breath and said finally, “So no chances of a skynet, huh.”

Adrian rolled his eyes. “Of course not. I have all kinds of checks and balances in place to make certain he stays away from tangent logic process that would go anywhere near that scenario or any like it. You can trust him like you would me.”

Peter raised his hand next. “Bro, that all sounds really cool, but I’m much more interested in where your eye change comes in.”

Shaking his head, Adrian smirked at Peter’s single-minded thoughts before he launched into the story of the past 6 months. Each of their faces went through a slew of different expressions: shock, disbelief, disgust (during the raid on the lab), admiration, etc. What Adrian truly dreaded though was telling them the last bit of his actions followed by why they were there.

After talking for twenty solid minutes, Adrian had finally brought them up to speed until yesterday. He traced over their glazed expressions as they undoubtedly contemplated all of the ramifications of what he had done or accomplished.

“I know that I’ve given you a lot of history and haven’t really addressed the questions on your mind. ‘Why did he do all this?’ ‘Where do I come in?’ My answer to the first is this: I started on this path to weed out corruption and to consolidate power away from those who routinely abuse it. To use technology to save different aspects of our humanity. To improve upon the outlook of humanity as a whole.

“We’ve all grown up with the shadow of corruption in politics and business shrouding everything in our lives from school curriculum down to your very health. Many simply dismiss it with a ‘that’s just the way things are’ and forget it, returning to their lives of apathetic lethargy. Others are enticed by the sweet sounding promises and fully back any changes to the government without thinking about the consequences.”

Victor leaned over to Rich and whispered, “You can tell where Raide gets it from.” The latter cut his eyes while snickering quietly.

“You may say that you’re not one of those, sure. But what really can you do in our political system today anyway? Petition? The courts routinely laugh at petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures and promptly ignore them. Strike? The politically apathetic will gladly take your job when your employer offers it to them in your absence. There are very few unions left today.

“Contact your representative? They’re just another person with a tiny bit of pull ultimately pushed and prodded into following party lines. They have a serious position called a Whip for God’s sake. Protest? The act has been made a mockery over the past several decades. It lost its power due to being diluted by such a large voting pool. Those that usually protest are those that are firmly on one side of the political spectrum or the other - what’s a million outraged citizens when they’re practically already guaranteed to vote a certain way come election day?

“Every conceivable scenario has been considered and planned for by those that participate in the major parties. They’ll put on airs to pretend that they’ll do something and then just displace blame when their constituents come knocking, demanding to know why something hasn’t been done. Then they’ll watch as everyone fizzles down, mollified by more half-baked promises. I’m sick of it. Many of these individuals have burned their way to the top in business deals that sacrificed the very people they would eventually be representing. Such people are not fit for power. So, I’ve decided to take a page from history and deal with the problem directly and quietly.”

Nova’s eyes widened in alarm as she looked at Adrian sharply. “Then the files that Raide released last night were…”

He nodded back and then said grimly, “That’s right, they were a smokescreen. I took it upon myself to draw first blood.”

At these words, Raide minimized himself and started playing a clip from a news broadcast earlier that day.

An anchorman was currently looking intently at the camera while the staff brought up a screen with a reporter. A crying wife and children were shown in the background while talking to investigators.

“Nancy, we’ve just been alerted that Ohio Senator Grant Ward has gone missing. What can you tell us about what we know?”

“Tom, I’m coming to you live from the Ward residence where investigators are currently speaking with the family, trying to figure out where the senator is now. Sources have confirmed the last place he was seen was in an upscale private bar in his hometown, but we’ve been denied entry as the owners of the establishment have declined to comment. I’ve spoken with his office and he has not received any threats through any type of mail or digital communication in the past weeks that that could have indicated who would want to kidnap or harm the senator.

However, it is worth mentioning that Ward’s name was included in the files that the entity known as Apollo released to the public late last night. Speculation is continually cropping up that his disappearance is most likely due to this. It’s still too soon to say whether he was taken by someone acting on the information that he was involved with a human trafficking group, but the police and state officials have assured us that they are investigating the matter.”

“Thanks, Nancy. We’ll check in periodically to watch how the story develops. Could this be the start of a public purging of corrupt officials? After we come back, guest analysts from the...”

Raide cut the feed and the hairs on everyone’s necks collectively raised in realization. Slowly turning to Adrian, Victor asked as calmly as he could muster, “Bearcat...did you kidnap a Senator?”

Adrian glanced at him before speaking again. “Raide, show the data from last night and...play the audio from the end.”

The A.I.’s eyes went wide. “Are you sure?”

“Just play it. They need to understand.”

Over the next few minutes, Adrian made the group relive the events of last night. And finally, he made them listen to Raide’s recording of the moments before he breached the hotel room. Sounds of ragged breathing and pitiful, pained groans rang out, amplified by the brick walls that felt like they were closing in on the group that was listening to the table.

Hearing that mournful wailing accompanied by the smacking of flesh, the girls’ skin crawled with disgust and a nameless terror as a muffled voice continually spoke out abuses. Just as they heard the door being caved in on the recording, Adrian abruptly held up his hand and the audio stopped.

Immersed in silence, he sat there for a few seconds before whispering, “I found him raping two thirteen year old girls.”

He looked up with this sense of lost, abject brokenness present in his eyes. “Monstrously hateful. Disgustingly vile. Loathsome, degenerate ABOMINATION,” he raged. “Fiend that darkens the scales of good and evil, if there ever were a list compiled of people befitting the classification of “demon” his name would surely be on it. There are not enough words in existence - of any language - to denote the level to which I abhor things like him. Who cares if he’s a senator? He’s obviously not human, as he plugged away in sickening delight over someone else’s agony and misery. Did I kidnap him after seeing such a scene? Was I compelled to act?

“Yes! A thousand times, yes!” Looking around the room with borderline mania in his eyes, he suddenly got quieter and growled out, “But it wasn’t enough to just kidnap such a personification of pure evil, so I took all that I’ve learned, all that I’ve seen and imagined torture to be, and I exacted justice. I whittled him down to within an inch of his life and then murdered him with a clear conscience.

“You guys...I know that a lifetime of being taught right and wrong screams at you that murder is unjust, that the willful taking of human life is something to be hated. However, I really have to ask - do you think he would ever have spent jail time for any of this? If I had tried to go after him via the judicial system, the very system with which he is fiercely intimate, that he would have been tried and convicted?

“Raide calculated a chance of 5.5% with a margin of error at 1%. That’s just for the case going to court. Do you honestly think the witnesses and evidence would make it there in one piece?

“Even then, we wouldn’t have been able to know the answer to that for many years. Court dates would have to be set. Evidence would have to be rendered and witnesses called. Imagine bringing those two traumatized girls back in to testify. Meanwhile, girls just like them would be continually abused in the same way, adding more and more to the number of victims.” Adrian paused to regather his emotions.

“At the end of the day, I judged the man and I killed him, along with everyone else that was tied together to him in that organization.” Adrian looked around the table. “I know most of you very well. We’ve had conversations about how to address corruption in various ways. I know that Grant Ward was an outlier - an extreme beyond the realm of what we’d generally concern ourselves with. It was just dumb, morbid luck that I stumbled upon someone so vile the first time around. But I do have a list of names that Raide has provided which is well over a thousand strong, all tagged for review. I intend to deal with them in a variety of ways, yes, even taking their lives if I can’t find an option to redeem them.

“This is where the second question comes in... ‘where do I fit into this’?

“The truth is that I don’t want any of you be involved with this side of things unless you want to be. While I cut away at the gangrenous flesh of our leadership, I need help with everything else and to be blunt, I want to hire you. My interests are varied. I’m currently negotiating and designing a research facility/home to realize the A1-SX that I spoke to you about Heather.

“Victor, I need your help in the lab - Raide is running simulations of converting the gene therapy serum into various vehicles for disease treatment.

“Sergio, you’re a gifted people person. Have you ever met a person you couldn’t befriend? I’ll need you for business interactions and multinational relationship building.

“Nova and Peter, your positions will have a little more leeway until you decide what you want to do. All in all, though, know that I will pay you handsomely. With Raide’s help, I am the most wealthy private investor in the US at the moment, so I have the capital. Guys, to sum up what I’ve been saying, I want to fix it all, to do the things that are commonly recognized as impossible. I possess the funds, the technological know-how, and the plans, but I lack the team to help me realize it. What do you say?” Adrian gave a short, derisive laugh. “Can you bring yourself to help a deranged, genetically modified murderer?”

“No.”

Heather looked up from the table and back into Adrian’s surprised eyes, adding, “But I can help a friend.”

Victor nodded in agreement. Seeing the glances of confirmation around the table, his black friend turned and spoke directly to him. “Bearcat, we’ve been through alot together and I understand where you’re coming from; we all do. We don’t hold it against you that you murdered someone evil. On the contrary, we would be hypocrites for doing so. How many times have we gotten drunk together and talked about what we’d do if we had the power to truly change things? I know that I’ve at least said multiple times that I’d kill a person like that with no regret.”

Heather added her voice after listening to Victor talk. “I agree with Victor. I think part of the reason we all stuck together as friends in college was because we saw the world so similarly. I personally don’t have a problem with you continuing your...weeding… as long as we do something to fill the hole that these politicians leave behind. Oh, and the A1-SX. I definitely want to help with that.”

“Nova? What are your thoughts?” Seeing Nova still sitting there silently, Adrian gently prodded her.

At the sound of his voice, she stirred herself from whatever reverie she was trapped in and shook her head confusedly. Seeing the crystal clear eyes that pulsed with electricity in front of her, she sighed and shook her head again in exasperation.

“I don’t know, Adrian. I think I know why you thought to include me, but… this is crazy, ya know?” She swept over the entire table with her amber eyes as she pulled her hair back behind an ear. “All of you are. If you subvert the justice system, you completely dig out the foundations of stability within a society.”

He nodded at her words. “I know what you mean, and we’ve talked before about how difficult it would be to change things, but that’s just it. I’m not looking to keep things like the justice system the same. I don’t care about the stability of the nation so long as the end goal is achieved. That’s revolution. The consequences of our actions will be the growing pains for a new stage of our nation’s body. There is no way around that.”

Nova sighed. “I know! I know… I just need to think about it some more. Even with your…” She cut her eyes at the TV. “...super A.I.-thingy, there’s still a lot consider. What if it gets dangerous and our families are somehow involved?”

“That would never happen,” Adrian firmly swore.

“See, I wish I could believe you, but that’s an impossible thing to promise. If something happened to my mom… Anyways, just let me think about it, okay? I promise to uphold my previous promise.” Nova scrunched up her face at the twisted words, but finished, “To the grave.”

Adrian threw up his hands. “Okay! Take your time and let me know. I do hope, however, that you choose to come back. Like I said, you won’t have to be involved with anything you don’t want to be.”

Getting up from her chair, Nova quietly, but quickly excused herself. Watching her approach the door, Adrian sighed mentally.

Was I wrong to invite her? She seemed so close, so perfect for what I have planned….

It was at this moment, however, that the phone in Nova’s hand vibrated. Absentmindedly checking it with a glance, her footsteps came to an abrupt halt right as her hand rested on the doorknob to the hallway. Immediately, a tremor ran through her body and Adrian, whose attention was drawn by the weird fluctuation in body heat, looked over in time to catch her complexion flush pale, the blood draining from her face.

Turning back, her eyes locked with his as she said in quiet shock, “Something’s happened to Yogini.”