Cyber Wars 2.0 Chapter 6: "Oh what a tangled (world wide) web"
 

OOC: New chapter

BIC: Jason was about to respond to Thomas when his PDAP rang. He looked at it.

"Damn...the Joint Chiefs are complaining again, I have to go quell whatever fears they have this time."

He took off for his office. Sitting down, he plugged himself into his computer and jacked in to the JCS briefing room.

As he materialized, he noticed that General Wesson looked a bit distressed but otherwise calm, while the Admiral and the Air Force General were looking quite shocked, and Stoyanovich was pacing the room with a nervous tic in his eye.

"Ok, what minor isolated incident has happened that has you all in a tizzy?" Jason asked.

Stoyanovich leapt up onto the briefing table, stopping just short of landing on Jason. "Do...not...assume...that...we...are...wasting...y our...time..." he said through clenched teeth.

"Director, you're overreacting a bit," General Warner said. "Sit down."

Stoyanavich glared daggers at Jason, but he eventually sat down at his seat.

General Wesson began. "Earlier today an alert went off at the Los Angeles information terminal regarding a dangerous rogue virus type AI. This AI promptly escaped from security forces and hijacked a data transport carrying a well-known socialite and her boyfriend."

Jason blinked. "and?"

General Warner stifled an angry groan "Christ man, do we have to spell this out? Fine, I will, General MacKenzie. The target was identified as Coyote."

Jason's eyes widened for a split second, but then he looked puzzled. "Wait, that's impossible. He was deleted. Mastermind eliminated him."

Warner shook his head. "The computer does not lie."

"And why did you even keep his name in the system? I thought Jade and I made it perfectly clear that Coyote did not survive the war."

Stoyanavich spoke up. "Would you believe that the Devil had been killed even if you saw it with your own eyes?"

Jason paused. "While i don't appreciate the anaolgy, i can see your point. Ok, what needs to be done?"

"We've tracked the data transport's IP to a location within the Cyber World. Currently it is not moving. Take whomever you can and get out there and bring that rogue in."

Jason was going to complain that his team was in no shape to move out, but that wasn't true, only 2 people had been injured in the fight to any serious degree.

"Very well, I'll do what i can."

He saluted and logged off.

***

Jason walked back to the Infirmiary

"What was that about?"

"Apparently reports of Coyote's death were greatly exxagerated. I'll explain when i get a strike team together."

He quickly fired off an email to Rose to meet in the briefing room, then he turned to Tomas and Jax.

"You two in good enough shape to go on another mission?

"Now remember, you behaving like a total whore does nothing, but make you look like a whore."

"Yes, Mr. Coyote." the blonde heiress said demurely, like a child scolded by a parent.

"And you, do something meaningful with your money. Like help people."

"Yes, Mr. Coyote." the shipping heir said.

"Now I'm going to take this suit case full of booze and make my escape. I programmed this thing to land you in thailand. "

"Ok" they said in unison. "good luck."

Coyote Sat on the suitcase and put on a cowboy hat. He smiled at the two kids.

"Catch you later carcass-codes." He opened the access door and was sucked out into the digital void. The door closed behind him.

"YEEEEHAW!!!!" He whipped his cowboy hat around as he rode the booze down

Thomas got off the wall and stretched.

"Of course, Meester Ahmployer."

He was being paid to do a job, and until they ran out of money, he died, or a better offer came up, he was to go on missions regardless of his health.

Crow pulled out a retro looking floppy disk he put n the table.

A hologram 12" scale miniature Raven appeared. He turned to Jade, and bowed, then bowed to wolf too.

"I wish I could have sent this message anyother way, but i had to ensure that it was not intercepted. Crow, verify that the location is secure."

Crow nodded to the hologram.

Cyber Eden is under attack, a terrorist attack took out one of or communication platforms. We have since followed our protocols and activated a defensive matrix, however while we performed the maintenance and upgrades our communications have been interdicted. We have in essence forced the gates open, but it is only a matter of time before our enemies launch a strike in the form of an invading army or bombing strikes. I fear for the continued survival of my nation. I ask you for your help."

Jax shrugged and winced.

"I'm good for sniper cover, but I'm not gonna' be any good hand to hand. I also need to reprogram my gear again."

"That's ok," Jason said, "we could use someone watching over us. I have a feeling this is going to be quite complicated. Get your gear reprogrammed and meet up in the briefing room in 20 minutes."

I wonder what's going on this time...

Rose shrugged as she closed the E-mail from Jason. She had been resting up until now, so now she felt rested and ready for whatever they were going to throw at her, or at least as ready as she was going to be.

About twenty minutes from the time she checked her e-mail, Rose found herself in the breifing room waiting for the others.

Beowulf contacted Jason during the interim time before the briefing

"I took the liberty of acquiring the security video for the LA terminal at the time Coyote tripped the alarm. It's uploaded to the computer in your office."

"Thanks for thinking ahead. I'll be right there."

***

Back in his office, Jason had dove into the reconstruction of the security videos, represented in a full virtual environment. Currently he was standing at the metal/viral detectors just before the alarm was tripped. He saw as the last schoolchild walked through and the alarm went off. He paused the video and looked at the young boy.

So this is what you look like now, Coyote...if it is you. How did you escape your fate on Torishima, and why would you show yourself here?

He saw "Coyote" knock down the security guards and run down the hall, before stopping and staring intently at 3 people, then hurriedly running off in another direction, the three people chasing him.

They don't look like security, why is he fleeing them?

Soon 6 more people were spotted converging on his position, then the recording ran out.

Jason watched it two more times and logged out.

"What do you think?" He asked Beowulf

"I think he's in a panic. Those three people he ran from clearly spooked him, and if he was in such a panic to escape it explains why we even have this recording."

"I agree, but the question is still why? Namely, why was he there and why did he decide to show up if he's been alive and hiding all this time? And also, where is he now?"

"Well, he usually shows up if there's something that's not only damaging and threatening to most of the world, but himself and his plans as well. Clearly he knows something, and there are people who are out to stop him from telling what he knows. But this at least helps us answer where he is now, which is not on that data plane."

"Yeah, if he's being followed, he doesn't want to show up where he'd be expected. Still, we should investigate that plane when it comes in." he thought for a second. "Get in contact with those mercenaries Knight provisioned for us, and have them go to the plane when it shows up, get as many scans as possible and all the relevent manifests, and have them turn that data over to us."

"Well, I already found out where the plane landed, apparently an unscheduled landing occured at the Bangkok data terminal from the plane that Coyote absconded with."

"Good, run a trace on the flight path as well, try to see if there are any places Coyote could have bailed to."

"No problem. All that should be done by the time you're ready to begin breifing."

"Excellent."

Thomas had taken a seat beside Rose in the briefing room.

"Aht leest zis won't be bahring. Keep close to me, cheri. Ah'll protect you."

He was looking at her from beneath the brim of his hat, giving a charismatic smile.

Coyote landed on his feet like a cat as the bag of booze collided with the ground hard. The bag was riddled with broken glass and the alcohol smell rising high in the air. Coyote covered his tracks so it appeared no one had landed with the bag, if they found the bag they would only find the bag. soon he reached a creek, which upon crossing he threw caution to the wind and upted more to put as much distance. he ran as fast he could through the jungle, running towards civilization.