VOCOM

chapter XX

“This laptop isn’t very stable.” The AI’s voice rang out at me through the connection I tapped into with Quintley’s laptop. I had discovered that he had a much more modern, sleek and faster laptop, yet he kept the majority of files on the old chunky one. I didn’t question his motives. It was risky to move about broken files, after all.

“I know,” I mumbled. “But look at all this data.” my eyes scanned over the files and files of classified Kortan information—such as files only KASNA would have access to. Unfortunately, many of them had broken links or missing bases, frustrating me with error messages.

“I have all that, Vera. What do you need him for? And my files aren’t broken.”

“I don’t need him, he needs me. Or you, rather—“

“Ha!”

I gazed into the built-in camera at the top of the screen, knowing she could see me.

“Oh, I loathe cats.” She stated, just as Bootsie hopped up onto my lap.

I ignored her, continuing scrolling through all the folders. I wasn’t sure how he had gotten a hold of all this stuff, but even with his key local file missing, he still had access to various sources of data within the very streams of the codes provided. I knew VOCOM had all these files, so why did he need them completed? What did it matter now that Kortan had been destroyed? That I was more than curious about and it sent the little trust I had built up skittering back into a dark corner.

“Cream and sugar?” he yelled from the kitchen.

“Just cream!” I yelled back.

“Listen, Vera. I’ve needed to talk to you.” the AI’s voice turned low. I turned down the speakers to help her affect. If this was information that only I was to know, I didn’t want to chance Quintley’s eavesdropping.

“I figured.” I mumbled.

“I’m not joking. I pulled that idiot through because I knew he could help us.”

I glanced at the camera.

“Listen to me. Benlark survived—“

“What?!” I bellowed, causing the cat to dig her claws into my already hurt leg from sudden surprise and tense up. I hissed with the pain Bootise caused.

“You alright?” came his voice.

“Fine- just fine!” I called out weakly, clutching at my leg and debating whether to kick his cat or not.

“I’m going to make this quick before he gets back. He’s alive, and I’m going to tell you why. Everything other than his AI frame has been incinerated—that much you succeeded in. He had two maincores, and you destroyed the first one, alright. So now he’s using the second one—ensuring his survival.”

“You knew?!” I hissed, clutching at the desk’s edge.

“Yes. And before you go ape shit, let me explain. I knew he had two maincores, two main frames under the same file, because he was a paranoid old man and expected this. But I didn’t tell you because you’d go looking for the second mainframe, which you’d never find. By getting rid of the first one, he brought out the mainframe for us. Now all we need is for Quintley to weaken him, since now he’ll be extra precautious.

“He can get us in better than you alone. I’m stuck at your house.”

“How are we gonna destroy him?” my breath lagged, my tired thoughts already being looped into the infinite circle of worry and anxiety.

“That’s why he is here to help us. Who knows the Kortan system better than him? I can’t do anything because I’m no longer connected to that network. I can reach it, go into it, sure. But there’s no way he’ll allow an outside signal to even terminate—“