We needed a name for our teams, so I christened them Team Duke and Team Nukem after one of my favorite video games. Everyone got tired fast when I kept walking around saying I was there “to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I was clean out of bubble gum.”

While Team Duke and Team Nukem focused on different goals, we still helped each other. Noa and Charlie would need help finding a nuke. And our team needed to select and modify the right gear for the attack.

My computing abilities made me ideal to help them find possible sites for the nuke. I obtained a list of all probable locations for nuclear warheads using a snapshot I had made of the internet just after the Awakening. I hacked into the databases that might still possess working lock codes into those facilities. There weren't many systems still up and running, so it was likely that Noa and Charlie would need to improvise their own key when they found a locked door.

While we still had Charlie on site, I asked him to build a list of his most promising vehicles, weapons and armor. As always, Charlie delivered.

The basis of our fleet became a modified tunneling machine. The cutting end of it used an artificially created material as hard as diamond, but heated via an electric current. It as much as melted as cut whatever crossed its path. Charlie dubbed the new machines Sandworms. Staffed with enough people, the dirt and rock thrown off by the Sandworm would be stored into personal inventory as it chewed its way under Manhattan to the UN. A train of people, like an old time water bucket brigade, would pass the dirt between each other and dispense of it out of the way of the main underground highway.

Once the Sandworms broke into the Regulator facility, our shock troops would enter. We didn’t have enough of a standing force to accomplish this, so we recruited less trained people who operated from within powered exo skeletons. They looked like mini Voltrons because, well, Charlie loved Voltron. I only saw the beginnings of his work, but I have to say, it looked awesome!

The rest of the team turned their efforts to recruiting. We'd lost a lot of people when the accusations were first made. Most knew we’d never experiment on people. But social pressure has a way of judging people guilty until proven innocent. It was hard when I ran into someone I’d helped as they were leaving. They would apologize as though they could do nothing about it. My heart split between feeling pity for them and thinking they were spineless cowards.

Even with our loses, many others were catching on to the connection between people critical of the government and the list of the missing. And there were a lot of people going missing, which sadly created an entirely new pool of people to recruit from.

While that went on, Noa and Charlie began their excursions to find Wen's nuclear baby. We ran regular status updates every night. Noa gave the update.

"The first two sites turned up nothing. The third showed promise." She brought up a map on the screen, "We found a facility in upstate New York that could be our guy. The radiation levels we measured using one of Charlie's Geiger Guns read hot. The facility looks deserted from the outside. No one going in or out."

I nodded, “How will you approach it?”

Noa continued, "We'll go in with ten while ten others monitor the outside. If we run into a problem, we will bail."

It looked simple enough, but I didn't know squat about a military operation. I looked over at Eyal. He nodded.

I looked over at Wen, "So what's the plan, they go in and scan one of these into inventory and then make copies back here?"

Wen shook his head, "Normally we would make copies of anything valuable, but remember that the amount of potential energy contained in these warheads is well beyond what we have here. You could add all the potential energy running through this building, and the building itself, and our weapons, and still not equal one of these warheads. Whatever they have, we should try to take.”

That much energy sitting in someone’s inventory scared me. "And what happens if we set one off when trying to scan it in?"

Wen answered, "That's why Charlie needs to be there. He will disconnect the warheads so that our inventory system has no issue cleaning converting it."

I didn't feel good about Charlie going. It's not that I wanted to lose Noa. Only that Noa could handle herself. Charlie was just a big teddy bear.

"Can't we just have Charlie transfer his knowledge to Noa?" I asked, but I already knew the answer.

Wen shook his head. "We don't know what we will find there. Charlie has more than knowledge, he has the ability to synthesize his own ideas and solve problems related to electronics."

Sara stood up, bored of the conversation, "Sounds good." And with that the meeting adjourned.

Noa touched my arm, "Hey, can you hang back a bit?"

I nodded.

"You seem really worried about Charlie."

I shook my head, "I'm worried about both of you. But I know you can handle yourself if things get rough."

She smiled, "You are damned right I can. And I can take care of Charlie too. I've got this."

I couldn't help smiling back, "I know you do. I guess I'm on edge. We lost O to those psychos. We used to have the upper hand, but now I'm not so sure."

I didn't tell Noa that I'd been running simulations within my software and the results didn't bode well. I didn't have nearly enough information to predict any futures, but my software could give me a general sense of risk. That risk jumped when we learned about the experimentation on humans. Within days my software predicted the Beacon would be overrun. But knowing those risks wouldn't help Noa with her task, so I kept my mouth shut about it.

Instead, I said, "I just don't want to lose any more people."

Noa nodded, "But we aren't people, we are programs."

I sighed, "Well I don't want to lose any more programs. No matter how much we each try to level up, it feels like we are playing a game of 'Keeping up with the Joneses."

Noa looked wistful now, "Maybe it isn't about us as individuals. Maybe it is about us as a group. Maybe we need to stop thinking about each of us as individual programs and start thinking about all of us as a shared code base."

"That is a very noble and selfless way of thinking." I said.

She smiled, "But you don't buy it."

"If whatever that created this simulation wanted us to act for the greater good, why would they have made us so individual? They could have made us share thoughts or feel each other's pain. Instead, they allowed assholes like John to strip everything away from others and push him up the food chain."

Noa kept her glaze on me, "Is that who you are worried about, that John guy?"

"He's living proof that this simulation is just a big game of acquiring the most resources. I should have taken him on that first day I saw him. Now, I'm not so sure I can."

"I don't know if you can, but I don't think it matters."

My eyebrows furled in confusion, "Why do you say that?"

"Because," Noa smiled again, "People have been fighting with each other for thousands of years and nothing ever changed. I don't think that is the game the simulation wants us to play."

She had a point, "Then what is the solution?"

"I have no idea. But I like Wen’s idea more. He’s not playing the same game we always play."

And again, schooled by the kid. Damn it. I smiled, “And it is badass to get a nuke.”

Noa smiled back, “Damn right.”