Hours later, when it seemed he had finally arrived at the city centre Kyle’s base candidate search started in earnest.
“So what's my criteria for a good hideout going to be again?” Kyle said into his watch.
“First off, I can hear you from metres away if I need to. There's no need to whisper into me like an intercom” Winston said. “Here, put a earbud in so you might not look like you’re talking to your imaginary friend” with that a small piece of ear hole shaped material popped out from the side of the watch.
Kyle inserted it into his ear and said “Oh yea, this is perfectly inconspicuous. Now I'll only look insane to the 15% of people with eyesight sharp enough to notice a tiny earbud”. Still it was better than nothing.
Ignoring that Winston began “You're going to want to find somewhere central, unoccupied….obviously, secluded and, importantly, won't draw attention”.
The AI continued “I was also only given the resources that I require for this mission so my preplanned suggestions are all for Boise, fucking, Idaho. I've got a general map of the entire globe but I don't have street views here to make assumptions on.”
“So what you're saying is I've gotta keep walking around this city in the blind hope that we stumble upon something. Gee, that's just swell” Kyle said.
“Positivity Mr Lewis. I'll be mapping the city as we walk as well so it's not wasted time” Winston replied “And all the beautiful kinetic energy will keep the nanites and I nicely charged”.
“Glad to be of service” Kyle said drolly.
“You could ask a local for some suggestions but you're accommodation requirements might raise some eyebrows.” Winston said. “Look for rundown housing, abandoned offices, disused warehouses. That kind of thing. Off back alleys or narrower streets would be preferable”.
One or two locations seemed viable but the first had a street camera pointing directly at it and the second had way too many people regularly strolling past it.
“There has to be something you can do to help me out here Winston” Kyle said “It's dark, cold and I've been at this for hours”.
“There's very little I can do to assist if I wanted to but if I did it would hurt your mission accomplishment rate.” Winston said. “You don't want that”.
Kyle was expecting that response but he was getting desperate. He'd been awake for the day before the landing while 7i-Rubin (as the humans had christened their ship) passed near Earth and had now been walking since morning. He had more stamina than the majority of humanity but he still had his limits.
Exasperated, he looked again for a possible candidate.
Then he saw it. A 4 story, unfurnished office building by the canal with large well faded “For Rent” banners all over it. It looked as it was ready to be leased on the day it was completed but then never touched.
Maybe a few too many floor to ceiling glass panels but he was sure he could find a secluded room somewhere inside to set up shop.
“This is the one” Kyle said. “It fits the criteria and, most importantly, it's right in front of me, right now”.
“Proceed with caution Kyle. Remember I'm not assisting you until you complete all these first steps and this location could well be alarmed” Winston said.
“Yeah, yeah I know the drill. Do the work get the rewards, blah, blah, blah” Kyle replied “You don't have to keep ramming Conservatore dogma down my throat”.
“Careful Mr Lewis, if you a score to deduct from right now I'd be tempted” Winston warned with a stop sign emoji appearing on the face of the smartwatch.
Kyle rolled his eyes as he squeezed himself through a gap in the security fence.
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No security guards in sight and an ancient security alarm made Kyle's work light this evening.
He walked through the corridors of the building, his path illuminated by the light from Winston's watch face.
Eventually he found what he was looking for; a large secluded central room that was likely earmarked for the server room. It was dusty, smelled of mildew, had never seen a touch of paint and was perfect.
“Time to get to work” Kyle said as he rubbed his hands together. “Ready Winston?”
“It's not me who needs to prepare myself Mr Lewis” Winston said.
With that Winstons watch face flashed the words “Comms Deployment” in large red text.
Kyle regarded the message for a second before his whole body tensed as a portion of the nanites he was storing rushed out from his body. They burst out from his eyes, his mouth and under his finger nails. As they did they began to coalesce back into a swirling ball of dust before rapidly taking form.
First wire tendrils sprouted and ran towards outlets. The building wasn't currently powered but the nanites would take care of that.
Next another wire went towards the ceiling and burrowed its way up to the roof. This would form the comms antenna, disguised as a rusty satellite dish.
Lastly the remaining mass of minute bots flung themselves toward the back wall to form into a 50 inch television screen with a barely noticeable camera bump on top.
Once finished “Comms Deployed” flashed on the watch’s face followed by a bang of confetti and a new message “Mission Complete”.
“Good Job Mr Lewis, you have accomplished the bare minimum of requirements to complete your first mission” Winston announced.
“Hooray” Kyle said weakly. Partly because he was still regaining composure after a couple million tiny robots just evacuated from his body but also because he barely gave a shit.
“Get to the good stuff. What's that get me in Ireland?” Kyle continued.
“All in due course Mr Lewis. It would probably be best for you to check in with Mr Mercer first. He'll be able to brief you on your current situation and we can see how best to proceed with upgrades after that” the AI said.
Kyle grunted in agreement. Mercer would definitely be interested to hear about Kyle's new country assignment. He was interested to find out some details on that too. Also, if Kyle was in Ireland, where the fuck was Matthews
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“Lewis! Good to see ya son!” Mercer said as he appeared on the newly created screen. ”What's this metadata though? Why in the fuck are you in Ireland?”
“That's what I wanted to ask you Commander” Kyle replied. “There's was some sort of glitch or interference on entry and when Winston resolved it our landing target had changed to a forest on the outskirts of Dublin.”
“God dammit son, what in fuck did you do?” Mercer asked. “Any sign of Mr Matthews? He hasn't checked in yet so I'm guessing you didn't buddy up on the way down?” he continued with his interrogation.
“Truly nothing sir. You can check logs if you need too. All was fine on the way down until it very much wasn't” Kyle said “And no sign of Matthews sir. Is there any chance he's in Idaho instead?”.
“Possible, who in the hell knows though?” Mercer replied. “Anything else of note to report?”
The drive from Ticknock with the woman from the Observatory was obviously something that should be probably bring up. But the fact that her, her colleague, and possibly others, had plotted his landing path from the short time he'd been de-cloaked didn't feel like something Kyle wanted to get into right now.
Kyle replied “No sir, all smooth….”but was interrupted by a loud buzzing and vibration from his watch.
The message read “Point Deduction Warning”. Fucking Winston, Kyle thought. He should have known he wouldn't be allowed avoid that. “…although there was one thing that might be an issue” he tried to roll into his train of thought but ended up shouting out a bit.
He recounted the lift with Ada and information she shared with him.
Mercer dragged his meaty hand down his face and began “Okay, you're gonna have to keep an eye on her and that Observatory. Just observe for now when you can but be prepared to act if you need to. Understood” Mercer said.
Kyle repeated “Understood” but he really didn't understand what he had just agreed to.
“And further more. From here on out, or until we can locate Mr Matthews, you are now the Conservator for Ireland” Mercer proclaimed in his best official cadence.
Kyle's heart sank. There were little to no career progression prospects in Ireland that he was aware of. His only hope now was to, as quickly as possible, take out the Myrmidon targets in the city and get a rapid reassignment to assist somewhere else.
Nevertheless, he needed to show conformity in front of Mercer if he wanted to get out of here any time soon.
“Understood too sir. Any additional objectives I should be aware of in this region?” Kyle asked.
Mercer seemed to ponder this for a minute “Not really son. Just the usual restoration of normality and eradication of external forces”. He beamed with nationalistic pride at the last part.
He continued “I'll get Mr Hamilton to transfer any available data on Dublin to your AI and you can start catching up ASAP”.
“Thank you sir, I appreciate that” Kyle replied with a gentle nod of his head. Maybe Nish would have something good for him or a least some helpful pointers.
“One last thing Kyle. Irelands a more covert region than you'd been planning for in the US. That means no weapons bigger than what you can conceal in your pocket and no explosives unless situationally approved by your AI.” Mercer said.” I trust I can expect an appropriate level of restraint from you to accomplish your goals here”. He finished the last part with a knowing smile.
And with that he ended the call and the screen faded back to black.
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“What's the word Nish?” Kyle asked.
“All good mate” Nish replied “Better off than you anyway. How've you gone and done this?”.
Nish's background looked like a tight but warm bedsit. He had his back up against some floral print wallpaper and the screen seemed relatively close to his body.
“Fucked if I know. I'm guessing you touched down in London as expected” Kyle replied.
“Indeed sir” Nish replied while doffing an imaginary hat. Kyle cringed internally.
“Well at least it's not been a complete clusterfuck” Kyle said “Mercer says you can fill in the blanks for us, what d'ya got?”
“Straight down to it. That's the spirit Kyle” Nish said with a broad smile.
“Let's rip the plaster off - Ireland isn't high on our priority list. I know you need more but there just isn't that much happening that we can see” Nish continued.
“Suuuuuuuppppper” Kyle said. He knew this was coming but it was still hard to hear. “There's some leads to follow up right? There's gotta at least be one Myrmidon around somewhere”.
“Oh yeah mate. There's definitely something fishing going on. All pretty standard but there's something. ” Nish entused.
“First off, increased drug trade around the city centre. Dublins a large enough European city and has had the same drug problem as anywhere else over the last few decades but somethings changed in recent years. It seems like the quality is far superior now. Dublin was always known for getting the dreggs of whatever was left when Europe was done with the package but not anymore. Worth a look” Nish continued.
“Find a dealer. Punch a dealer. Got it” Kyle said.
“Secondly, an apathetic police force. Or the Gardai as they're called locally. It's not that uncommon but there's a sharp decline in arrest figures over the last 2-3 years. And infiltration of policing institutions has always been a Luyten special.” Nish said “People are easier to bring onside if you can restore the peace locally. Take a look into that. No suspect names but a new hire in a high enough position could be someone to investigate”.
“Find a cop. Punch a cop. On it” Kyle said.
“And lastly there's a new party “slash” movement gaining traction. Here in the UK and over in Ireland. Calling themselves Centre Alliance. A lot of Luyten-esque talking points from them. ” Nish said as he began to list. ‘No love for the weak or infirmed, increase global dependencies, blame the rich and the government’ “You know, the usual hivemind malarkey. Good chance there's at least one of them in there”.
“Find a politician. Punch a politician, keep punching a politician until he's no longer a politician. No problem” Kyle smirked.
“Is there any chance you can ask them some questions first before the punching begins. Did Mercer mention the covert-ness stuff in Ireland?” Nish asked with a bit of a grimace.
“Actually yeah, he did and I need to talk to you about it” Kyle said. “I've trained with American guns and explosives and stuff. What the fuck am I using here? There's an awful lot of Gun Control by the looks of it”.
“Some might say a correct amount Kyle” Nish added” But yes, any kind of semi-automatic weapons or high explosive can't be deployed over in Dublin. Or most of Europe really”.
“So what do I get to use? I was pretty much joking about the punching. I'll need some weapons” Kyle said in a tone that he thought was mock-panic but was giving off real-panic tones.
“Winston can walk you through it. I've sent on the data, potential objectives, rewards paths and payouts. I'd go for the cloak first if I was you by the way” Nish said.” And I know it's not what you were expecting from a posting but ya never know what could happen. Matthews might show up on your doorstep any minute now.” he beamed at the last part but Kyle could see the pity in his eyes.
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“Okay, what we got Winston? Gimme something good” Kyle said raising his hands up in the air in faux enthusiasm.
“Temper your expectations Mr Lewis. All you did was go for a walk, break into a broken building and plug in a television. You're not getting jump boosters for that” Winston replied.
“I CAN GET JUMP BOOSTERS” Kyle couldn't remember anything else the AI had snarked.
“Not now you can't!” Winston replied. “You can currently use your credits on the following:
**Increased stamina - Level 1** - provided by the nanites.
**Increased strength - Level 1** - also provided by the nanites.
**Remote surveillance cameras** - provided by the nanites but linked too me.
**Temporary cloaking equipment** - provided by the nanites…temporarily.
**Or temporary shielding** - you guessed it, provided by the nanites and centred squarely around me with a bit of you too.
“Is that it? No weapons at all? Not even a blade?” Kyle said outraged. He closed is eyes, took a breath and exhaled. He knew what Winston was going to say already so he got in there before him.
“I’ve got enough for these 2. Gimme the increased strength and the cloaking”.
“I would have preferred the shielding but it’s your choice. Best of luck doing this without an AI if a stray bullet pierces my casing” Winston said.
“I’ll take my chances on stray bullets in Dublin thanks a lot” Kyle replied, his nosed scrunched up as far as it would go.
With that it was past time to settle down for the night.
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Kyle found a roll of loft insulation and lay it out in the server room floor as his bed for the night. One of the larger “For Rent” banners would be his makeshift blanket.
It would do — he’d definitely slept in worse conditions.