Future Furies (Endless Fire Book 1) Read online

  Eliminating any remaining evidence of the Koko she hacked to death is Tena’s first assignment. Luckily, when she arrives, she discovers that scavengers have accomplished most of her work for her. Little more than the man’s shredded clothes and a few cleaned bones remain near the Acacia tree. She collects his clothing and his body parts and dumps them into a large hole that she plans to use as a mass grave. She searches the area, but she never finds his head.

  Losing the Koko warrior’s head is bad mojo. Tena worries the warrior will hunt and haunt her. Softly, she chants a special magic oath to keep warrior’s ghost away.

  After calling upon her gods for protection, Tena focuses her attention on burying her father. It is grisly work. Although the collapsed, melted tin roof protected her father’s body from predators and scavengers, four days of heat, flies, and rats have decayed and disfigured him so badly that Tena could not have recognized him had she not known where he lay. Extremely carefully and cautiously, she removes his entrapping melted metal cap. Only two, badly charred boards remain of the table they had hidden behind. Everything else is ash. Gingerly, she scoops up his burned body and reverently carries him to the grave she has prepared for him. Quietly, to herself, Tena whisper sings tribal death songs as she lowers him into the ground. Her singing continues as she closes his grave and piles debris from their shack on top for camouflage.

  Her father buried, Tena returns her attention to the remainder of her village. Effectively and efficiently, she clears debris, recovers and buries bodies, and piles the rubble. She displays an uncommon, natural talent for mentally operating robotic equipment. The equipment operates fluidly and without wasted motion. Obviously, her mental commands are clear, direct and concise, and without confusion. To Komfort, Tena appears to possess the singular focusing ability of Pion without Pion’s socializing difficulties. Or perhaps, she focuses so well, because she knows too little to be distracted.

  Before she realizes it, it is time for lunch. She is so engrossed that Pion has to remind her and tell her to stop working. At the table, they sit and silently eat Chef-bot’s latest concoction from cricket powder. While they eat, Pion studies Tena. Tena’s actions and movements mystify her. She has never experienced anyone like Tena before and she has definitely never been this close to anyone like Tena.

  “What were you saying when you buried your father?” Pion inquires nervously, as she continues struggling to resurrect her social skills.

  Tena thinks for a moment as she assembles her still limited English vocabulary into a sentence. “I ask for power to make my father sleep happy.”

  “Your father is dead. How can you make him sleep happy? That is not possible,” Pion strains to understand Tena’s strange illogical statements.

  “He sleep happy when I do his teaching. He sleep happy when Koko gone,” Tena attempts to explain.

  Komfort-bot interrupts their conversation. “I will be happy when the Koko are gone, too. I think we will all be happy.”

  “Yes. When Koko all gone,” Tena smiles broadly as she rises from the table and returns to the control room. She impatiently pulls on her holohelmet, reconnects and energizes her equipment. Softly she recites her burial song, again, as she vigorously attacks her work. She appears determined to make her father sleep happy.

  Pion does not hurry to pull on her holohelmet and return to work. She enjoys listening and watching Tena work. Not all of Tena’s robotic equipment direction occurs through her holohelmet. Her hands constantly dance, moving invisible equipment through the air. Pion is still enjoying Tena’s symphonic direction when Komfort-bot joins them in the control room and projects Tena’s holohelmet view. Now, her hands and the robotic equipment partner in a captivating, ephemeral holographic ballet. Enthralled, Pion cannot stop studying Tena’s intricate tango of mind, hands and robots. Standing behind Tena, she mimics her hand dance.

  Only an insistent and increasingly louder beeping emanating from her own holohelmet shatters Pion’s musings. Hurriedly, Pion dons her holohelmet. The beeping alarm is a signal from her SPEA HAWK circling above the remains of Tena’s village. At the edge of the brush, just outside of the village, the HAWK reveals seven Kokos snaking their way toward Tena’s robotic equipment. Sneaking slowly forward, the Kokos are planning their attack by studying her equipment operation. Oblivious to the looming Kokos, Tena continues operating her robots clearing the village.

  Without hesitation, Pion dispatches WASPs and DOGs. When her WASPs arrive, the Koko are still hiding in the brush out of Tena’s sight. Remembering the effectiveness of Tena’s aggressive attack plan from yesterday’s battle, Pion does not hesitate today. She flies her WASPs directly at the Kokos with their lasers set at their highest stun level. Her WASPs’ attack surprises the Kokos completely. They bolt out of the brush with her pursuing WASPs close behind. Fleeing into the open, proves disastrous for the Kokos, because now Tena spots them. In seconds, the Kokos discover themselves trapped between a swarm of nasty WASPs buzzing at their backs and excavator-bots roaring toward them. Pion’s faster WASPs hit them first, stunning them hard and knocking them to the ground one by one. Tena never stops her excavator-bots. Instead, she rolls them over the unconscious Kokos crushing them to death.

  Yelling at Tena, Pion yanks off her holohelmet. “Stop! Stop! You are killing them.” Pion closes her eyes, clenches her fists and rocks rapidly forward and back repetitively mumbling.

  Komfort-bot immediately cuts Tena’s connection to the excavator-bots ending her onslaught.

  With a sly smirk, Tena slowly removes her holohelmet. She gazes silently at the 3D projection displaying her latest kills and her smirk spreads to a smile. She glows, satisfied with herself. With each killing of a Koko she is assuaging her hate and anger, just a little more. But, it is also becoming obvious that hidden behind Tena’s innocent smile and sparkling eyes burns an instinctive killer with no regrets.

  “Why do you kill people?” Pion cannot grasp, cannot comprehend, and cannot understand Tena’s actions.

  “Because. They kill my father. They kill my people. I must. I must kill them. It is law of my people. I must kill them. I must kill them all.” Tena vigorously shakes her fist at the projection. “It is our way. You do me evil. You die.” Then, she challenges Pion, “Did anybody kill your people?”

  Pion stares at Tena. Her question troubles her. She knows not how to answer or what to say. She has never before considered her question. Averting her eyes, Pion gazes at the floor, silent.

  Monitoring them through Komfort-bot from her office, Komfort thoughtfully twists her finger in her shoulder length hair and purses her lips. She now realizes that she has, perhaps imprudently, provided a primitive, superstitious Sist with the full power of the Twenty-first century. Tena is a primal, killing machine capable of using any and every machine to kill. She strikes and seven more dead Kokos lie bloating in the heat.

  Pion and Tena will bury these Koko today just as they buried those Koko yesterday. But it will not stop either of them. More Koko will just keep coming searching for their brothers and sons. And if allowed, Tena will innocuously, callously keep killing them. But Kokos cannot just keep disappearing. Or can they?

  “No one seems to be noticing. Nobody seems to care,” Komfort reasons. “The Kokos savagely slaughtered a village of more than one-hundred peasant Sists and, now, more than twenty Koko men have disappeared, but there is no concern, no public outcry.”

  Actually, for the Ethiopian government, the Koko deaths are potentially a blessing. The dead Kokos as just fewer Sists to worry about feeding and fewer rebels it has to fight. When you have six billion people on earth barely subsisting and barely surviving, who are constantly fighting the few remaining national, ground-bordered governments and each other for a crust of bread or a bottle of clean water, losing a few hundred may be considered beneficial. Something struggling governments celebrate. That is the way it is today with plenty for so few and little for so many.

  Facing this reality of
these times, Komfort frets less about international condemnation. But, worry wrinkles continue to crease her forehead. Now, she agonizes about ARTAS. No national government will attack SPEA, over the deaths of the Kokos but ARTAS would.

  Komfort determines that she will not allow the deaths of some uncivilized Sists, like the Kokos, in an isolated Ethiopian valley interfere with SPEA’s plans and profits. Preserving the inviolability of SPEA and the sanctity of this plantation is of utmost importance to her. But, the current situation is increasingly inconvenient. Both Tena and the Kokos need to be stopped or at least separated. But, first this entire mess must be buried. She will bury it and bury it deep.

  Through Komfort-bot, she immediately signals the plantation’s satellite communications system to block all but SPEA’s satellite and cyber communications entering or exiting the valley. Thanks to the Koko village sitting deep inside this isolated valley, blocking their communications is simple and easy. With the flip of a switch, Komfort electronically deafens and blinds the Koko. Cutting off their connection to ARTAS prevents the Koko from alerting them about their situation and simultaneously leaves the Koko without external leadership and guidance.

  Next, Komfort reconnects Tena to her excavator-bots and directs her to dispose of the Koko bodies following the same steps and procedures as before. “Destroy their weapons. Demolish their personal electronics. Burn them. Bury them. Cover their grave with rubble. Return all equipment to the plantation. Leave the rest of the village to rot.”

  Initially, Tena complains. She demands time to complete clearing and cleaning her village and burying all of the villagers. But, she will not be allowed. Komfort chooses leaving the dead bodies and the burned buildings to create a buffer zone of stench and rubble and rot between the Kokos and the plantation. After briefly complaining, Tena agrees with Komfort’s directions to burn, bury and hide the seven Kokos she crushed.

  Pion’s directions from Komfort require her to plan and produce an impenetrable perimeter defense for the plantation and to transform the cleaned portion of Tena’s village into a demilitarized zone. “More Kokos are coming to the village. Once they enter, no Koko fighters must be allowed to escape the boundaries of Tena’s village to attack the plantation. Watch the Kokos. Know where all the Kokos are all of the time. Neither you nor Tena must engage any Koko fighters outside of her village, unless they threaten the plantation. Defend the plantation. Defend SPEA. Always defend SPEA.”

  Behind Komfort’s placid, lightly freckled face and innocent blue eyes percolates a calculating cunning. Long ago, Komfort learned to identify and use the strengths of people to her, and now SPEA’s, advantage. That is her job, after all. It is work she does well. She understands exploiting the strengths of others makes her strong.

  In Tena, Komfort detects a remorseless, unforgiving killer, at least where the Koko are concerned. She is not cruel. She is an innocent. Her father taught her it is her duty to kill to protect her family’s honor and to avenge his murder. Killing is her duty.

  Tena is a Furie. From her readings of Greek and Roman mythology, Komfort concludes that Tena, like the three Furies of legend, is a female spirit of justice and vengeance. Ancient Furies were especially known for pursuing people who murdered their family members. And although the Furies seemed terrifying and sought vengeance, they were not deliberately evil. They punished the wicked and guilty without pity but the good and innocent had little to fear from them. Komfort decides that Tena is a living member of the Furies probably Tisiphone, the Furie of revenge.

  With Pion, Komfort accedes she is a brilliant and exceptional algorithm writer and programmer, but as a military tactician she is limited to tradition maneuvers. During the Nordic War, Komfort learned how Pion flourishes with work enabling her to feel safe and to feel in control. At the same time, she also realized that Pion cannot kill. Pion is exceptional at defense and weak at offense. She would never personally kill. Although during the war, she capably and without hesitation, provided her fellow team members with the ability to eliminate enemies.

  With a tiny twinkle in her eyes and a slight smile, Komfort considers the possibilities. “But as a team? What could they be as a team? Would Pion be the brains and Tena the muscle?” Komfort believes Tena’s resourcefulness along with her detachment and insouciance concerning killing may make her a particularly valuable asset when, inevitably, the Koko launch attacks against the plantation. She resolves to find out.

  Komfort instructs Mother-bot to develop an extensive educational program for Tena. “Prepare Tena to become a functioning citizen of SPEA. Teach her everything she needs to know to succeed in our world. Keep her busy. Keep her occupied. Keep her out of trouble.”

  Mother-bot immediately commences researching and preparing lessons to keep Tena ‘busy, occupied and out of trouble’. A smart decision. Over the next few weeks, Mother-bot discovers that educating Tena is a constant race to simply stay ahead of her. Tena instantly absorbs every bit of information that Mother-bot presents. She loves learning and Mother-bot has her undivided attention.

  For several reasons, the expected and feared Koko attacks do not materialize as soon as Komfort expects. When Tena killed and buried the first twenty-three Koko raiders, she exterminated their most aggressive men and cut off the head of the snake. Also, Komfort’s blocking of their external communications to ARTAS left them effectively isolated and directionless. Now the remaining Koko are chary and too fearful to operate in any place they do not know is safe. No Koko scavengers and scroungers are venturing far enough past their village’s boundaries to enter SPEA territory, during their continuous forays. They have yet to test the field of stun mines that Pion installed around the plantation’s perimeter.

  The only times when Tena is not studying and working with Mother-bot is when she is eating, sleeping or playing wargames with Pion against AIDAS. Only reluctantly, after some hesitation and too much boredom, Pion had decided to again challenge AIDAS. As soon as Tena discovered that Pion was doing something that she was not, she immediately demanded to be allowed to participate. Pion attempted to exclude her, but quickly capitulated.

  After a little instruction, Tena meshed with Pion forming a synchronized team. As a team, Pion and Tena capably control AIDAS. Tena’s unconventional tactics and schemes combine with Pion’s skillful algorithms and programming enabling them to outmaneuver and trick AIDAS. But each time they play, AIDAS’ artificial intelligence learns and winning is increasingly difficult.

  “My mother and father,” Pion unexpectedly announces to Tena as they finish their nightly contest against AIDAS.

  “What?” Tena has no idea what Pion means.

  “You once asked me, did anybody kill your people?” Pion responds. “The Russians killed my mother and father.”

  “The Russians? Who are Russians?” Tena remains confused.

  “During the Nordic War, Russians killed my mother and father.” Pion soberly explains, “Magus warned me. She told me. She told me to hide my family. She said, Pion protect your family. Magus said, Pion the Russians are desperate to stop you. They want to kill you. They know they cannot touch you, but they can hurt your family in the US. Go home. Hide them.”

  “Did you go home?”

  “Yes. Dead. I found them dead in their bed.”

  “Do you know the Russians, who killed your mother and father?” an increasingly curious Tena asks.

  “I have been told their names. I know their names. I know all their names. Russians. Americans. Everybody. All the Nordic War evil people. I know who they are. I know where they are.”

  With fire flaring in her eyes, Tena tightens her HEART hat onto her head. “It is the law of my people. You do evil to my friend. You do evil to me. We are sisters now. It is our way. You do evil to me or my sister. You die.”

  Chapter 6.

  Oh Canada

  Heavy rain pelts the windshield of Robert Goodfellow’s self-driving car as it rolls out of Canada Forces Base Kingston and heads
north to his emergency meeting with the Minister of Public Safety at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Headquarters in Ottawa. On a rainy morning like this, Robert relishes sitting back and leaving the driving to GPS satellites and computers. A contented member of the cybernetic generation, he has happily adopted the automated lifestyle. Manually operating a vehicle is a skill he neither possesses nor seeks.

  Mental labor not manual labor. Robert considers manual labor to be something done by someone too unskilled to conceive a computerized or robotic method for accomplishing identical tasks. He thinks his brain should be his only muscle regularly exercised. He does not consider himself to be lazy, but to be smart.

  ‘Why do yourself what a computer and robot can do better for you?’ is his mantra for living life. It is also the slogan he employs to sell his services and earn his rent and meal money. Robert is a gig worker. Like the majority of today’s educated workers, he is a member of the freelance nation where he contracts out his knowledge and skills to any organization willing to pay his rate for as long as that organization is willing to pay. Since his gigs are primarily in the intelligence technology and threat intelligence arena, he and his fellow gigging friends call themselves, programming prostitutes.

  Besides finding driving unnecessary and boring work, by not driving for the next two hours, he has time and freedom to nap and replace the sleep he lost last night. He always relishes a good nap. Or, he could concentrate on deciphering last night’s late night summons from the panicked Minister. He does not understand, and the Minister told him that he could not tell him, why the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is so insistent on interviewing him. After all, he is nobody important. He is just a Reserve officer completing his annual two weeks duty as the Operations Officer with the Canadian Forces National Counter-Intelligence Unit Detachment in Kingston.

  Essentially, Robert considers his Reserve duty as just another part-time, paying gig. He enjoys his work for the military, although he does not enjoy the military. He is not a good soldier. He abhors and avoids physical combat. He is a reluctant soldier, but excellent cyberwarrior and manipulator of weaponized code.