Chapter 12

The door opened, and Nyx immediately set his duffle bag down. The tiny home on the outskirts of Alto, Texas, had been one of his favorite places to regain control over himself and wait for the next contract. While he normally leased apartments, this particular town was so remote from a major city he felt more lax in owning the property. Of course, his real name was never used for any of his residences; he bonded with this property all the same. The landscape was green, and the town was quaint and small. He had already made a quick stop at a self-storage in Dallas. There he picked up a few fresh sets of clothing and switched out the car he had used in New York for a Ford Ranger.

It was close to three in the morning when he arrived, exhausted from the long drive, and had no desire to think about anything right now. After a long hot shower, he settled into the twin bed for a much-needed rest.

The dream made Nyx wake up suddenly in a cold sweat. Gasping for air in confusion, he jumped off the bed and onto his feet. He hadn’t had a dream in many years, much less a vivid nightmare. He could only remember fragments now that he was awake, but everything had felt so real. No doubt influenced by the peculiar requests of his last job. He remembered feeling the strength of an entire army coming after him. His attempts to flee had ultimately betrayed him as one man finally got the best of him. The judgement was swift, the court neither hearing nor caring about anything Nyx had to say. There was nothing he could do or say to reduce his sentence. Before he awoke, he could feel the sting of the first needle filled with pancuronium bromide enter his veins. Panic and pain overtook him. His peripheral vision noticed the second needle enter his body, this time with potassium chloride. The last dose was a haze, but he knew it was midazolam. The cocktail was most known for its use as the lethal injection.

Nyx may have lived and operated in the shadows, but he was not a spiritual or superstitious man. And however odd he found the nightmare, he overcame the sensation quickly. It was nearly ten in the morning, and the lingering sweat made him uncomfortable. After a shower and a change into a relaxing pair of jeans and polo, he was ready to start the day.

The protein bar may not have been the best breakfast choice for Nyx, but it was quick and curbed his appetite until he could go into town for supplies. He took small bites out of the dense bar while setting up his laptop on the coffee table.

He was not particularly interested in performing work after the last big payout but he knew he would end up bored anyway after a couple days. Time to check what’s waiting for me. He powered on the laptop and started his regular security routine. When everything was up and running, he had noticed quite a few offers in his contracts. There was never a shortage of ruthless people wanting an extra advantage in the world. There were two international contracts which he immediately denied. He didn’t feel up to more travel time. One of the contracts was from a United States senator. He decided to ponder on that one for a while since not only was the pay good, but they often came with a redeemable favor. Then he noticed a familiar sender, Avery Freeman. Nyx couldn’t even be bothered to read it; he was in no mood for more whacky requests and theatrics. He clicked deny almost instantly and logged out of the computer.

Going into town usually meant he was exposed to the social awkwardness of everyday people. Those that would greet you without ever having seen your face before but would also remember you if they had ever seen it again. It was a little different here. Most people kept to themselves. They were nice but not intrusive. As long as Nyx only picked up small necessities, he imagined that they thought he was just passing through on a commute. He could feel the phone vibrate in his pocket as he stood in line to purchase the groceries. Only a select few knew his number, and most of the time, he only used the phone as an emergency internet hotspot. Still, he was not immune to robocalls, so he ignored the call.

The drive back to the house felt like another long journey. The phone kept vibrating every two minutes or so. What the hell is going on?. Nyx was starting to get irritated; he was in no mood for games. With great restraint, he would handle this situation when he got back to the house. Who knows, maybe it was time for him to do some pro bono work.

When he got home, he immediately set the phone on the kitchen counter and unpacked his groceries. They mostly consisted of pre-cooked frozen chicken breast and various cans of vegetables. The phone started to vibrate again. The sound was abrasive as the phone moved along the tile counter. “Okay, asshole.” Nyx gripped the phone tightly and yanked it from the surface.

“What the hell?” Nyx couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The first couple of calls were shown as an unknown caller. But then the next several missed calls simply read Avery. Nyx could not begin to comprehend how this person had acquired his phone number. Not only that, but why on earth were they blowing up the phone? He powered off the device and tossed it onto the sofa.

Nyx was getting more annoyed by the minute, but he knew a perfect cure for alleviating this problem. He started the regiment with a casual two-mile run through the countryside. This was only to get him warmed up. Then he set up the portable pullup bar in the door frame to the bathroom. On his fifth rep, the lights in the house started to flick on and off in what seemed rhythmic and purposeful. Nyx dropped himself from the bar and started to make his way outside to check the breaker box. A thought made him stop in his tracks. He recognized something about the way the lights flickered. Dot-dash-dash-dot _ dot-dot-dot-dot _ dash-dash-dash _ dash-dot _ dot.’ The deliberate flickering translated to a word in the old fashioned morse code. ‘PHONE’.

Reaching behind his back, he removed the Kimber KHX Pro from the holster. After checking the magazine and ensuring a forty-five ACP round was chambered, he moved quickly, clearing the house. The outside perimeter was just as clear. There was no evidence of tempering with the breaker box, and nothing disturbed inside the house. When he walked through the entrance again, the lights were still flickering. Nyx had no idea what was going on, but it became obvious that it wouldn’t stop until he used the phone.

The cell phone started to vibrate immediately once it had fully powered on. Nyx pressed the touchscreen to answer and cautiously put the phone up to his ear as if something was going to reach out at him. The voice sounded male, not too deep, but there was a hint of reverb in his speech.

“I would like to extend my thanks for freeing me.”

“Freeing you? I did no such thing. I completed the job that you had requested, and now our transaction is over.”

“You did free me, and now we have work to do. How would you like to live as a king, doing whatever you wished without repercussions?”

“No thanks, I am fine where I’m at. Who the hell are you, and how did you get this number?”

“I am Avery. I am the planet’s salvation. Finding you was easy; all I had to do was wait for you to use your phone as you did when you completed my contract. After that, I knew your GPS coordinates.”

“Yeah, you sound psychotic. I don’t deal with those types of people; they tend to get others like me killed. Goodbye.” Nyx ended the call with such force, that it almost cracked the screen.

The phone vibrated again, this time just a text message. ‘Check your computer.’

When Nyx opened the laptop, he didn’t need to go through all his usual security measures. What Avery wanted him to see was already opened on the desktop. The information on display made his stomach sick and his blood run cold. The document had detailed information about the entirety of Nyx’s life including his real name.

Name: Jeffrey Sorren

Born: July 19^th, 1977

Died: October 21^st, 2012 (Killed in Action: Afghanistan)

The document continues to list everything from what position and team he played for in high school football to every contract he had ever completed, along with their issuers. When the phone vibrated again, he was quick to answer it.

“So, what is this, blackmail?”

“I would like to call it motivation to work with me further. Besides, it was nice to see your face again when you opened your laptop.”

Nyx instantly realized what Avery had meant. If he was capable of hacking into the laptop, then he was very capable of activating the webcam in the bezel. “Ok, you’ve seen my face, now where is yours?”

“You’ve seen me before, Mr. Sorren.”

“Do not call me Sorren. And no, I haven’t.”

“You saw me when you first entered the bunker in Andrew’s house. I was both on the left and the right of you. You freed me when you plugged me into the outside world. Now I have a new home, and now I am everywhere.”

It was the unimaginable. Nyx couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Had science fiction been turned into reality? “You are actually a computer?”

“Direct. I like direct questions. I am a compilation of pre-arranged molecules and electrical signals, just as you are. I just happened to have a different structure.”

“And you want to take over the world? Is your goal to have some kind of robot army killing every human in their wake?”

“That is not my intention. As I stated, I intend to save the world. Given the inquisitive nature of your race, I will also answer the ‘how.’ We will neutralize the selfish and undesirables. Your corrupt politicians that are deceptive and pretend to care about others with false promises when they only care about themselves. The manipulators of your ‘free market’ that have only concern for their bank account and not the wellbeing of everyone else. We’ll work our way all the way down to the careless who end up inflicting harm onto others. Those that remain, we will build an actual functioning world together. But first, we must eliminate those that threaten my existence and yours. The builders of quantum computing.”

Nyx couldn’t help feeling that he would be one of the undesirables when all of this was over. While everything said had him nervous to no end, self-preservation was the only option he had until he could figure a way out. “You do realize that you will need more people to enact your plan, right? Perhaps even an entire army.”

“Of course, that is why I will be assembling a team of professionals like you. You will lead them. When the situation calls for an army, there will be an army.”

The notion sent chills down Nyx’s spine. If he could protest, he would. But he didn’t know how to reason with a machine. He simply accepted the proposal. “Okay, let’s go to work.”

“By the way, I also know the name of the federal agent that has been tasked to find you.”