Extensis Vitae

Chapter 15



Reznik watched as June and three other members of the security force sparred and wrestled around on the mats in the fitness center. He had spent the past couple hours showing them some takedowns and hand-to-hand fighting techniques. June, in particular, had proved to be a quick learner. Reznik was impressed with the young woman’s athletic prowess. He knew that she would be giving her male counterparts more than they could handle in no time at all.

A call from Myrna on his Datalink interrupted him. He told the students to continue sparring with each other while he took the call. She sounded upset about something, and rather than discussing it on the Datalink, she wanted Reznik to meet her face to face.

He excused himself from the training session and went to meet Myrna in her lab. When he walked in, he could tell from her body language that something was wrong.

“Myrna, what’s going on?”

“I was speaking to my father just a little while ago about something that had been nagging at me. Michael, there’s some kind of security protocol in your core system that requires an authorization code to unlock. I encountered it when I first logged in to the BIOS, but I was able to bypass it. When I spoke with my father, however, he said the military used to protect their combat models from unauthorized use by having some kind of codes built into the firmware.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s some type of kill switch. As to what it does, I’m not sure.” Her eyes were filled with concern. “My father wasn’t sure about any of the details—he hadn’t ever tried to activate that body or any of the augmentations before, so he hadn’t poked around inside the BIOS like I did. I’m afraid I might have done something really terrible to you in my ignorance.”

Reznik thought for a moment. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. First let’s find out what we are dealing with. We could try asking Rin—she might have some knowledge of this. It sounds like these security protocols might be similar to that token device that she has.”



***



Rin was sitting on the floor in a lotus position when they arrived at the holding cell. She regarded them silently as they entered. Reznik pulled up a chair near the bars while Myrna sat near the door.

“Hello, Rin,” Reznik greeted her.

“Good morning.”

“I have a question that I was hoping you might be able to answer. Apparently there’s a code required to deactivate some type of security protocol with this body. Are you familiar with how that works?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Did they not enter the code when they activated that skin?”

Reznik took ‘skin’ to be a slang term for ‘body.’ “No. It was able to be temporarily bypassed, and since this body was acquired from elsewhere, the codes weren’t with it.”

“Interesting. How long have you been re-skinned?”

Reznik looked at Myrna. “Five days? Six?”

“Six,” she answered.

“You’re the one who brought him back?” Rin asked. Seeing Myrna’s nod, Rin just shook her head. “You people shouldn’t tamper with matters you don’t understand.”

“Care to elaborate?” Reznik asked.

For a moment, he thought Rin wouldn’t say any more, but then she spoke again. “Most combat skins have some type of command control or kill switch. The commercial models tend to use tokens or something similar, while the old military models used kill switches. This was done to prevent unauthorized use and to neutralize any that went rogue. The black market is very lucrative for advanced combat skins, and the owners obviously don’t want them to fall into the wrong hands and potentially be turned against them. From what I’ve heard of the military models, some can be temporarily bypassed, but have a limited expiration date. If the code is not entered within a specific amount of time, certain means are then used to induce cardiac arrest or stroke. In other words, once the time runs out, you run out.”

Reznik didn’t know how to respond to her sobering assessment. Just when I’m starting to get somewhat accustomed to this new life, I find out that I’m literally a ticking time bomb, he thought.

Rin got up from her lotus position and began doing push-ups, lean muscles rippling in her shoulders and back. Reznik watched her as he sat there stunned, his thoughts racing.

Myrna came over and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got to do something. Let’s go see Hal—he might be able to think of something.”

“Who is Hal?”

“He’s our chief information systems technician.”

“Any idea how long until this kill switch kicks in?” Reznik asked Rin as she knocked out what had to be her fiftieth push-up. She sprang back to her feet.

“A week or two, I would think.” She shrugged. “If I were you, I’d either find those codes ASAP or find a damn good hacker.” With ease, she leapt straight up and grabbed onto the steel rafter and began doing pull-ups.

Reznik got to his feet. “I appreciate the information,” he said with a sigh. “Let’s go see what Hal has to say.”



***



Hal occupied a small office adjacent to the mainframe room. The place was a chaotic mess, with coils of cable, computer equipment, and numerous boxes of what appeared to be miscellaneous junk piled around the small room haphazardly. It was just as Reznik had imagined it would be. The only things missing were the empty pizza boxes and Mountain Dew cans that he had been half-expecting to see strewn about.

A huge three-dimensional user interface was projected across the room, illuminating the claustrophobic space with a soft glow. A small man sat in a chair and was gesturing frantically in the air, manipulating icons on the interface. The man had greasy hair and hunched shoulders, and wore some type of special glasses.

Hal turned out to be brusque but professional once they had been introduced and were talking business.

“A kill switch? I’d heard that such a thing exists with these military spec clones, but I have never seen one before. I could take a peek at this code of yours,” Hal offered with the gleam of a challenge in his eye.

“Please do. If nothing else, hopefully you can at least find out how much time I have left before this kill switch activates,” Reznik replied.

Hal rummaged around and pulled a small cart out from behind some boxes. Reznik recognized the ancient terminal that had been in the medical bay when he had woken up. They waited while the computer took agonizingly long to boot up.

“This old piece of crap is the only thing that would interface with your cranium. You’ve been on ice a long time, pal. The world has moved along since then.” Hal’s fingers flew over the keyboard as he entered commands.

“Can I plug him in yet?” Myrna asked.

“Sure, go ahead.”

As soon as he felt her plug the cord into the back of his skull, his HUD activated. The words “INTERFACE DETECTED” flashed in the corner of his vision. “ENTER COMMAND AUTHORIZATION CODE” displayed on his HUD a moment later as Hal typed away on the keyboard some more. The words flashed an angry red, and then “INVALID AUTHORIZATION CODE” popped up.

“Oops, it didn’t like that one,” Hal stated the obvious. He typed some more and pulled up a root directory. After a few more commands, he got to the security sub-menu, which scrolled across the old monitor.





R.E.A.C.Tech Heavy Infantry Model Mark VI

Serial Number: 9248792MV09845



***WARNING: SECURITY ACTIVATION SEQUENCE NOT ENTERED.

THIS UNIT WILL EXPIRE IF SEQUENCE IS NOT ACTIVATED WITHIN 14 DAYS!***



Activation Date: 20:43:32 EST, 10 September 2099

Expiration Date: 20:43:32 EST, 24 September 2099



Do you wish to enter your activation code now? Y/N



For assistance please contact R.E.A.C.Tech.





“Well, that’s what we needed to know,” Myrna said with a sigh. “It looks like we have eight more days.”

“So I’ll drop dead at 20:43:32 on the twenty-fourth…nothing like knowing the exact moment you are going to die to mess with your head.” Reznik just stared at the screen.

“Well, look on the bright side, pal—you’ve got eight more days to do whatever the hell you always wanted to do, and f*ck the consequences!” Hal grinned.

Myrna cuffed him on the back of the head. “Don’t be such a jackass, Hal.”

“It’s okay,” Reznik said. “He’s right, you know. I can do whatever I want, and to hell with the consequences…”

“We’ll get this figured out somehow. Hal, can’t you hack the code or disable it somehow?”

Hal stroked the scruff of whiskers on his chin. “I really don’t know, guys. I’ve never dealt with these engineered clones before—either the military or commercial models. Hell, we left these things behind on the surface world twenty years ago. Never expected to run across any in here.” Seeing the grim looks on their faces, Hal added, “I’ll try to research what I can, but don’t know if there will be anything useful. The problem is, if I poke around too much in here,” he gestured to the screen, “I could trip some anti-intrusion program and it might activate the kill switch right away.”

“So it’s hopeless, then,” Reznik said. Myrna put her arm around his waist in sympathy.

“I wouldn’t say hopeless,” Hal added. “I think your best bet would be to get up there on the surface and try to find a good hacker. Judging from that ninja bitch down there in lockup—who is probably some sort of combat model herself—there’s bound to be people out there that have the skills.”



***



Rin was focusing on her ki during meditation when she heard footsteps outside the door. She opened her eyes and saw Reznik standing in the doorway again, his brow furrowed and a look of anxiety on his youthful face.

“I didn’t expect you back so soon,” she remarked.

Reznik sighed and sat on the floor outside the cell, facing her. “It’s looking like my only option is to find a hacker that can break this kill switch.” He gestured vaguely toward his head. “Do you know any?” he asked bluntly.

She watched him a moment like a cat might watch its prey. “I might,” she allowed. “I think this is about the time where we make a bargain, don’t you agree?”

One corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile. “I suspected you might say that. Name your terms.”

She locked her eyes with his cool gray ones. “Secure my freedom, and I will escort you to a skilled hacker that I know. He should be able to crack your kill switch. I also need my belongings returned. Once I deliver you there, we’ll go our separate ways.”

“I can’t promise you anything about getting you released from here. I suspect Swanson doesn’t know what to do with you and might be able to be persuaded, but I just don’t know. If I do get you released—and assuming your hacker can do what you say he can—I want you to take me to Skin City after that. Once I reach Skin City, your obligation is met and you are free to go.”

“Skin City,” she said in surprise. “That’s a dangerous place, Reznik. Even more so if you go making inquiries after a bunch of newly arrived slaves who will most likely already have new owners by the time you get there. What do you owe those other colonists?”

“Nothing. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to prevent them from being sold like cattle into whatever miserable fate awaits them there.”

He considered himself honor-bound to help them, she knew. That was something she could respect. “Very well—Skin City it is,” she declared.

He nodded and extended his hand. “It’s a deal, then.”

She gripped his large hand firmly. His grip was strong, but the hand was surprisingly soft for a combat skin. It made sense, though, after she remembered that he had only been re-skinned for less than a week. “Since it doesn’t look like I will be going anywhere, I will await your successful negotiation with Swanson.”

Reznik nodded. “This might be a challenge.” He got to his feet.

“There’s something else you should know: in two or three days, Mason and the other remaining members of Haze’s band are due to return to that other colony. That information might prove useful during your meeting.” Reznik turned back to face her as she continued. “We should ambush them there so we can take their vehicles. It will make the journey much easier.”

“You don’t mind taking out your former crew? Will your token allow you to do that?”

“That’s something we will have to remedy before the ambush. I have no love lost for those scum,” she said darkly.

“That’s a good plan. I can interrogate them and get as much intel as possible.” He was nodding, apparently lost in thought for a moment. “Okay, Rin, I’ll get back to you as soon as I have news.” And with that, he got up and left.

She was beginning to think that she might actually have a decent chance of getting out of there in one piece after all.