Pa'an

Deepak expected mayhem after Zovo’s announcement of the reflectors. Sara was quietly working, testing a new algorithm for distributed AI. Aura had quite a bit of work to do setting up financing, licensing arrangements with Zovo, interviews with government officials whose cooperation would be required, and coordinating the cleanup of three hundred tons of plutonium. Jag was spending as little time in the office as possible, now that Elexi had decided to Exit. Kaiser got walked a lot. Partly out of boredom, he decided to check up on his team in Andorra and ordered the Gulfstar to Logan for the trip. Everyone was subdued after the high drama and excitement of the Mentor hunts and the fission missions. The contrast between their action episodes and the reality of an alien gateway was hard to assimilate.

Energetic pixie that she was, Sara had enough of routine. She decided she was hungry and announced to Deepak, “There’s a new place open in Inman Square, L’il Eagle Seafood. I heard it’s great. Let’s go out for lunch.”

“I’m still a vegetarian, sort of. I’m not supposed to eat fish. Hindus do not eat meat or fish. Maybe they will have something I can eat.”

“I’ll see if Jag and Elexi will go with us.” Sara climbed the steps from the pit, hung up her lab coat and made her way to the front office. Deepak secured the new ceramic-clad armored clamshell covers over Aura’s console, picked up his coat from the back of his chair and followed her. On the way out he turned off the lights and locked the lab door. They had all become very cautious since their experiences with the Order.

The walk to Inman Square in clear weather was pleasant. The group arrived at a very plain storefront restaurant with a few old tables and chairs. A sign in the window advertised, “Get Scrod at L’il Eagle Seafood.” In spite of the underwhelming décor, there was a line of hungry people out front. The smell of frying fish, sauces and soups was enticing. Deepak grabbed a paper flyer with the printed menu and found a seaweed soup to his liking. Eventually, they all sat down to eat. “We need some wine,” Jag complained and he made a call. Remarkably, a waiter from another restaurant showed up with a bottle of white Gruniere wine and several glasses. Even Deepak had a taste of the wine. The other patrons smiled, but the L’il Eagle Seafood waiters did not seem to mind. The scrod was excellent, the seaweed soup was, well, seaweed soup, and the wine turned the meal into a festive occasion.

Relaxed and sated, the group sauntered back to Ultradata.

Sara, refreshed and ready for work again, preceded Deepak into the lab. Deepak assumed it was Sara that unlocked the door and the turned on lights. He was walking down the steps toward his desk and watching Sara open Aura’s clamshell doors when a powerful flash and a shock wave knocked him into the marble table.

It was like being hit on the head with a sledgehammer. He could not see, he was deaf and he could only breath with effort. He thought that he was buried again under a mountain of water, then he began to hear someone calling his name. It was Jag, who once again lifted him up out of the rubble and put him on a stretcher. His vision began to clear. The lab was a ruin. Aura’s console was a twisted scrap of metal. There was blood all over the floor of the lab, and a chunk of steel clamshell was buried in the floor near where he fell. Sara was not visible. Everything sounded like it was at the end of a long tunnel. His head felt wooden.

Hours later, in the emergency room of the Massachusetts General Hospital, he found Elexi bending over him.

“Deepak, the doctor says you have a concussion. You have to rest here tonight for observation. We’ll check up on you every few hours to make sure there is no brain swelling.” She took his hand and held it. “You are very lucky you weren’t killed. A piece of the armor buried itself in the floor right where you were standing.”

“Aura, what happened to Aura?” Deepak’s voice was so weak Elexi had to put her ear to his mouth to hear him.

“The Utradata machine is destroyed. I don’t know about Aura. Maybe she can be recovered from a backup copy or something?”

“No, no, no. Aura is not just a computer program.” He nodded his head, but winced and closed his eyes from the dizziness and nausea. After a few deep breaths, he could talk again. “Sara, how is Sara? I didn’t see her. Tell me Sara is alright.”

Elexi looked away and hung her head. She was concerned about giving bad news to Deepak in his weakened state, but there was no putting it off. “I’m so sorry, Deepak, but Sara was hit in the neck by a sliver of metal. She was buried under debris and we did not see her. She bled to death before we could dig her out.”

Deepak put his hands to his face, and tears leaked down his cheeks. Elexi plucked a wad of tissues from the box and gently wiped them away. She stayed with him for another hour until he finally fell asleep.

*****

“When your twin is in trouble, you know about it. Same with my clone.” Aura from Andorra was on a display in Jag’s office. Jag was absent, so she was dealing with the situation as best she could without him. She felt totally inadequate without Jag.

“Elexi, tell me how Deepak and Sara are. I’m frantic right now. This is one of those times when I hate being an AI without hands and feet. I need to DO something!”

“I just came from the hospital. Deepak is resting with a concussion, but he should be OK.”

“Whew, that’s hopeful news. And Sara?” Yes, thought Elexi, that is going to be one of the troubles I can’t handle.

“Aura, I’m awfully sorry, but I have really bad news. I think Sara was right in the middle of the explosion. I didn’t see her when I got to the lab. There were piles of rubble and junk everywhere. Jag found her, eventually, but she was pinned under one of the heavy marble table tops and plaster and metal... When we finally pulled her out... There was blood everywhere. Lots of blood. The paramedics put her on a plasma drip and artificial heart stimulator. Jag rode in the ambulance with her and Deepak and I think he pulled strings to get her special treatment. They are trying everything, but…”

“Elexi, That is terrible news. I need to talk to Deepak as soon as he is well enough. He needs to know that I’m still alive, and not murdered, again. I’d rather not talk about that on the hospital telephone system.”

“I’ll ask the M…Jag to arrange it.”

Jag, working through his own anger and grief, was nevertheless buried in recovery details. First, he contacted Dr. Joshua Nathanson, one of the world’s foremost emergency medical specialists, recommended by Strategy 7. He had experience with field operatives who had lost a lot of blood.

“A sliver of metal punctured her carotid artery. She lost a terrific amount of blood. Ordinarily we would do a transfusion, but there is only one unit of Type B negative blood available, not enough for her. It’s a fairly rare blood type. We can’t try to revive her until she has enough blood for circulation. It’s a longshot, but we have a generic artificial blood based on fluorocarbons. I’ve administered it in the field. One of the nice things is that it comes fully oxygenated. That helps keep the heart and brain tissue alive.”

“Doctor Nathanson, I believe you know who I am from our business with Captain Lederman?”

“Yes, he called me. Good man, the Leathers.”

“Yes, he is. And Ms. Rothman was…was very special to us and very much a member of our team. She did not record any next of kin and she lived alone. As her employer, I authorize whatever is necessary to attempt to revive her.”

“Mr. Kunstler, I will do whatever can be done, but, please, I practice medicine, not miracles.”

“Sometimes there are miracles, Doctor. I’ve seen one or two myself. Thank you for your kind help. I was en route to another location, but I think I should cancel my travel plans and stay here in case you need anything. Just call.”

There was certainly enough to keep Jag busy while he awaited news on Deepak and Sara. He ordered a complete set of Exaplex replacements and other spare parts for the new SHARPIE from instructions sent from Andorra. He arranged for biorecognition scanners to be installed at the lab exits and his office. Walls, skylight and doors were being reinforced with armor plate. All that seemed in the way of reasonable precautions, but would it have helped? How could anyone sneak up on Aura to plant a bomb? He had no answers, so he called Andorra. Fortunately, AI’s never sleep.

“Jag, all I had for sensors in the lab was a single fixed video camera and one audio relay. Remember, my avatar is still here in Andorra. I got a brief glimpse of the usual maintenance person coming into the lab with a broom. She must have mapped out all my blind spots, because I never saw her plant a bomb. From what you describe of the damage, this was no little bomb, either. It wrecked the ceramic steel armor plate!”

“It must have been one of the new super-speed explosives, perhaps an advanced form of C4. It took a lot to mangle that armor plate. If that were an ordinary explosive you would have noticed that she was carrying something.”

“I didn’t notice anything unusual. It looked like she was carrying a broom and a dustpan.”

“Did you pick up any activity or chatter on the Mentor channels?”

“Nothing. In fact they have been quiet or dead since our last moose hunt.”

“Well, I’m guessing the main group of the Order paid us a visit. Subversion of trusted personnel, low-tech operation - that’s their style. Mentor would have sent in a dozen thugs in body armor.”

“I agree. Please, please take care of Deepak for me. Keep him safe. He never signed up for this fight.” Aura’s avatar nodded on the screen, a very human gesture. “I understand what Dr. Nathanson is doing with Sara. I pray that she can be brought back. Of course, it’s not the same thing with me, but close enough for me to have a lot of sympathy. Please do what you can for both of them.”

“That I promise. He has to be the one that builds your new machine and brings you up.”

“I’ll make it as easy as I can, Jag.”

*****

“Doctor Advani, there is no sign of brain swelling. Apart from some temporary hearing loss and maybe some weakness, there is no reason for you to take up a hospital bed any longer. I know you have been pestering the nurses all morning, so I’m releasing you. Get out of here and try to stay away from explosions!” That was his physician’s idea of a bedside manner. Deepak would have smiled if he was in a better mood. He gathered up his belongings and called Ultradata for a ride home.

Deepak’s new chauffer was armed. He picked up Deepak from the hospital and drove him to his apartment to get a change of clothes, then brought him to the Ultradata lab. The building was now a construction zone. Police and insurance claims adjusters were waiting for him. He gave them all short answers, “Things happened all of a sudden. I didn’t see anything useful. I can’t talk, I’m still dizzy.”

Elexi met him at the door of the lab. “Deepak, Deepak, Sara passed away this morning. They did everything they could. I… ” Her eyes were red from crying. She just turned and walked back to her office and closed the door.

*****

The police wanted him to go to the morgue to identify Sara’s body. At first he refused to go, but he changed his mind later that afternoon, dizzy or not. It was a very difficult thing for him to do. He meditated on his worry beads on the way over to the morgue to try and calm his nerves. At last, he was resolved.

“Doctor Advani, you worked closely with the deceased?”

“Yes, every day. She was my assistant.”

“Does she have any next of kin that might want to claim the remains?”

“She has a younger sister living in Texas, I think, but she never talked about her. We at the lab, Elexi, Aura, Jag and myself, we were her family. I don’t think she registered any next of kin.”

“Aura? I don’t see anyone named Aura on this list. What is Aura’s last name?”

Deepak sighed. “Aura is a registered Autonomous Intellect. You can look up her up in the International AI Registry.”

“Oh, I see. And that was her, um, computer that was destroyed in the blast?”

“Yes, that was her machine. And no, she was not...” suddenly Deepak knew it was better not to reveal that Aura was still alive. “She was the target.”

“Are you ready to identify the remains now?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” When the assistant medical examiner opened the refrigerator drawer and revealed Sara’s corpse, he was shocked. Apart from the deathly pale color of her skin, she could have been asleep. He expected some shriveling from the blood loss, but there was none. There was some clear fluid oozing from her neck on the slab.

“That’s Sara.”

“Are you absolutely positive?”

“Yes, sir, absolutely positive. What is that fluid? Is she…is the body preserved?”

The assistant flipped the pages of his chart. “She was exsanguinated. Apparently they pumped her full of artificial blood in an attempt to save her. There weren’t enough units of her type in the blood bank.” He shook his head. “Rare experimtal procedure. Never came across it before.”

“We need someone to claim the remains. Will you be willing, or is there someone else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we can’t store her in a refrigerated drawer forever, you know. She needs to be buried, or whatever is appropriate. Do you know what her religion was?”

“Jewish, I think, but she never said anything much about it.

Deepak’s mind raced through a hundred possibilities. What did Jewish people do with their dead? Bury them, probably, and he supposed there was some period of mourning. Apart from that he had no idea. He was pretty sure they did not light funeral pyres or leave their kin on mountain tops for the scavengers. But, it was Sara. It was Sara.

“I’d like to claim the remains, if no one else comes forward.”

“Of course. Just sign here.”

*****

Deepak’s driver took him back to the front door of Ultradata. He entered just in time to overhear someone who was being interrogated by yet another bunch of suits. Deepak stood just around the bend in the hall, listening.

“So your client did not order this flight?”

“I told you, the plane belonged to his former employer.”

“And that was M. Martinelli Company?”

“If you say so. He never knew which company owned the plane.”

“But he used the plane?”

“He got picked up and delivered to meetings.”

“Was he supposed to go to a meeting on this plane?”

“He never got any notice of a meeting.”

“Did that happen often?”

“Sometimes, not often.”

“Was he on the plane?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Was he expecting anyone to arrive on the plane?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Does he have any idea why the plane was blown up?”

“I don’t have any idea why. Do you?”

“I don’t have any information. I’m only here to ask questions.”

“How do you know what questions to ask if you don’t know anything about the plane crash?”

“Mr. Day, as far as we know the Grumman Gulfstar was brought down over Nicaragua by a ground-based missile shortly after taking off from a refueling stop. The flight plan destination was Logan International Airport. That’s all I was told.”

“Agent, ah,” “Alvarez.” “Agent Alvarez, you can see that my client, Ultradata, has their hands full. The Chief Executive Officer is missing. This company just lost its prime asset, by violent means, for the second time in a year. One of the employees died from the explosion this morning and another was injured. This company is obviously being targeted for some reason. Please do your best to find out who is targeting Ultradata and why.”

“When will the Board be available to talk to us?”

“They haven’t confided that information to me.”

“We can get a court order.”

“I’ll be pleased to receive any court order and notify my client accordingly. Good day!”

Deepak was a bit confused. Didn’t he just have lunch with Jag? How could he be missing? This piling-on of trouble was more than he could bear. Deepak noticed that Jag’s door was closed. He was wheezing, short of breath, dizzy again. He had to lean against the wall for a few minutes.

When he entered the lab it was empty. He was very much alone. He vowed to get Aura’s dress dummy back from Andorra. He remembered he had saved a nice green sari for her. But first he had to get the strength to build her another SHARPIE.