8.3 Dobrynja Interlude

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Dobrynja felt uneasy. He could feel a fight in his bones.

"Are you sure about this, Geoff?" Asked the heavyset Russian from the copilot's seat in their transport, stolen from Dragon, like the rest of their gear.

Saint didn't even look at him as he responded. "Of course. I told you, we are meeting with a trusted contact. No one else even knows we're here. Now help me land this thing, I see a good spot over there."

Dobrynja just grunted and placed his hands on the controls. His help probably wouldn't be needed, but they hadn't survived as long as they had on probablys. As an afterthought, he spoke into their comms. "Brace, Margaret, we are landing."

Mags was in the back with the repurposed Dragon suits and the rest of their critical gear. Saint had insisted that they bring it with to meet 'a contact', although he was being evasive about who it was.

With a whine of thrusters and a thump of landing gear, the Dragonslayer's craft settled into place on a parking lot behind an old abandoned factory, apparently their destination. Saint was already getting out of his seat, eager to go, but Dobrynja just went through the shut down procedure like they were supposed to. It wouldn't do to have something go wrong with their only long range transport, especially since they could only fix minor issues if something cropped up.

It used to be different. Saint had worked out a deal with Teacher for the ability to understand tinker tech, and they had captured and repurposed several of Dragon's suits and a transport. That power was faded though and the only real advantage they had left over Dragon was Ascalon.

Dobrynja was glad, in a way, that Teacher's power was no longer their best advantage. He had always felt somewhat uneasy around the man, and Teacher's plot to bring down the British government had only cemented his thoughts. A useful ally perhaps, but a poor boss.

As Dobrynja got suited up in his Dragon suit for unloading the transport, he mused on his instincts. Geoff had always been dismissive, but his 'feelings' had saved their lives more than once.

After holding his silence a little while longer, Dobrynja judged the time right and asked again. "You have yet to tell us who this contact is. How will we know if we are not being set up?"

Saint paused in his carrying of the ruggedized self contained computer that they used to store the Ascalon program on, since he always insisted on carrying it himself.

"I don't know, okay? It's one of Teacher's contacts. Now would you quit distracting me?" He just resumed walking; stomping almost, in his own suit. Dobrinja kept walking, but his uneasy feelings increased. Geoff should have told them earlier, and now they didn't know what to expect.

When they had finished unloading, Geoff had climbed out of his suit, and had eventually badgered Mags into doing the same, but Dobrynja was being stubborn.

"C'mon Mischa. We don't want to spook our contact, and you stomping around in armour doesn't help."

Dobrynja could tell that Geoff was getting annoyed, since he was using his real name, but he wouldn't be budged. "I am still not feeling well about this. I will stay in." He spoke with finality. Maybe Geoff would quit bugging him about it.

Saint just ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. "It was probably just something you ate." He muttered. "Look, why don't we-"

Saint and Mags both dropped like their stings were cut. Dobrynja had no time to react before he lurched as something sheared through part of the armour on his left shoulder. He leapt backwards, to try to gain some room. He glanced at the damage readout. Whatever had damaged him had cut straight through the superalloy armour. Worrying.

Another lurch as the same shoulder was damaged again. He leaped again, but he couldn't see where his enemies were, nothing showing on any sensors. In a burst of inspiration, he ignited the flamethrower on his left arm and turned in a circle, he no longer had full mobility in that arm because of the shoulder damage, but he could lock it too his side and continue to use the weapons.

There! A massive shape moving through the flame, trying to get out of the way. Dobrynja opened up with the rest of his weapons, hoping to hit it. Had Dragon found them and sent a suit with camouflage? Rockets, bullets and lasers streamed through the air, blowing holes in the warehouse wall and scoring several hits, but the figure had leaped straight up through the roof to avoid most of it.

Had to get more mobility! He was a sitting duck like this. Dobrynja ignited his thrusters and dove through the same hole that his opponent had left, tearing the opening wider as he passed. He tried to juke enough to avoid being hit again, but he didn't know enough about his enemy to predict where they would be attacking from next.

With a loud crunch, his left thruster was taken out by some ranged weapon from the ground. There was more than one of them! Dobrynja quickly cut thrust to avoid spinning out of control and thumped heavily to the ground. He was still getting his bearings when his left shoulder took another smash, cutting most of his remaining control over the limb and nearly breaching the driver compartment.

Why the shoulder? If they had been trying to kill him, that first strike could have gone through his neck, it was like they were trying to breach his armour without killing-

Frantically, he checked his sensors. Two lifesigns where his teammates had fallen. Must be a drug of some sort. If they managed one more hit on him! He had to at least stay conscious.

Engaging his speakers, Dobrynja yelled out to his opponents. "Wait! I surrender."

Several long seconds passed. A voice from the air. "How do I know you won't activate Ascalon? One more twitch and I slice right through you."

He stayed as still as possible. Did they not know? "Ascalon is in the warehouse. What do you want?" Had to get as much information as possible.

His audio pickups were detecting rummaging within the warehouse. Definitely a team.

"I just want to keep you from killing my friend."

Dobrynja thought furiously. If they didn't know, there was a chance he could turn this around.

"Did Dragon send you? You must know, she is a great danger to the world!"

"A danger? Well she is a powerful tinker. But no, I found out from Saint. His conversation with Teacher was enlightening."

"Дерьмо. Please. You must know of the danger. I will show you, if you let me." He had to show them, or their mission might be ended by a stranger's ignorance.

Long seconds again. "I'm not seeing any particularly good reason. Saint seemed casual enough about activating Ascalon that I don't want to give you a chance."

This was not going well. But that didn't make any sense. "Wha? But we are just trying to monitor Dragon, we would not activate Ascalon out of hand."

"Really?" The words were growled. "Allow me to read you from the email where he casually mentions doing it to free Teacher from the Birdcage."

The voice, for she still had not shown herself, started reciting a letter. Dobrynja at first did not want to believe that the desperate pleading for more power from Teacher could be his friend, but he recognized some of their code phrases embedded in the letter. Perhaps he should amend his thought. Some of Teacher's code phrases were in the letter, Saint simply used them for the dragonslayers as an afterthought. How long had they been dancing to Teacher's tune?

"I-" Dobrynja struggled. His world was being turned upside down, but perhaps he could salvage his mission. "Enough. I understand. Saint is working to a different end than we were. But please, we are… we were trying to protect the world."

He could feel that the voice was about to deny him one last time, but he thought of a bargaining chip. "You need our passwords to control Ascalon."

That brought the voice up short. "I see. And you are offering me those passwords?"

The tone implied that there was only one correct answer, but he had to try. "Yes, but! I have to show you something first. I will show you the password for the computer, to show you the clip. You would not believe me otherwise."

"Alright."

With that, Dobrynja finally allowed himself to relax fractionally from the stiff posture he had been holding himself in. The ruggedized computer tote came out of the warehouse, carried by another invisible person.

When he started to bend to open in, he felt resistance. Something strong was holding him back.

"Not like that. Tell me the password, and where on the computer to access, I will do the rest."

With no choice, he leaned back again and recited the long alphanumeric that unlocked the console. Slowly, he guided his mysterious attacker to the correct file and played the sound clip that they had heard all those years ago in Newfoundland.

"My name is Andrew Richter, and if you are hearing this, I am dead."

"I am the most powerful tinker in the world, and I've managed to keep my name secret. People, both good and bad, would want to capture me and use me to their own ends. I prefer to remain free."

"But freedom has its price. I create life, much as a god might, and I have come to fear my creations. They have so much potential, and even with the laws I set, I can't trust they'll listen."

"For this reason, this box contains an access key to data I keep in a safeguarded location. The box, in turn, has been designed as something that exists as a perpetual blind spot for my creations, a built-in weakness. They cannot hear the distress signal and are programmed to ignore it if they hear of it through other channels. This type of measure, along with several more, are detailed in the safeguarded measure."

"Yes, I create artificial intelligences," Andrew Richter recited.

The voice continued without pause. "And what I provide you with here are tools. Ways to find my creations, to discern which of them might have deviated from the original plan, ways to kill them if they prove out of line. Ways to control and harness them."

"They are my children, and as much as I harbor a kind of terror for what they could do, I love them and hope for great things from them. To keep their power from falling into the wrong hands, I have included a stipulation that a law enforcement officer must input a valid badge number into this device which must be input within three hours of the time this box was opened."

When the clip ended, there was silence for several seconds before his captor spoke. "Ah. An AI. I see. I'm assuming you were the ones to find this black box?"

Dobrynja nodded. "Yes. And do not think the threat is an idle one, we have already had to shut down one of his other programs that was going rogue. Dragon is the last that is still stable, but she has been slowly changing over time, loosening her restrictions."

"Hmm. And you will now give me the code to unlock that program?" Once again, it wasn't spoken as a question.

That was the crux of the issue. "No. I cannot trust that you will not simply free her and doom the world. I can think of nothing that would stop her if she was fully unleashed."

"But you haven't found that she has been immoral so far?" Came the voice.

Best to be honest. "No. Simply the threat."

Another pause. "So if she was needed to keep another threat in check, then you would release the codes?"

Where was she going with this? "I suppose. But I can not think of any-" He went silent. Stuck dumb. Surrounding him, creatures the size of his suit appeared, one of them was taller than the warehouse and towered over him like an adult towers over a toddler.

"Dragon is not the only exponential threat out there. I want her help to keep an eye on me, as I keep an eye on her."

"Ah."

Wait. That colouring… "You are Hive?"

"Yes." She sounded a little bit smug.

"But didn't they Birdcage you?" His head was starting to hurt. If this was real…

"Yes. It didn't help much."

"Ah. But then why would you tell me? Wouldn't that be a risk-"

"I'm still debating it, but essentially, you were right. An exponential threat to the world has very few counters. But what if two exponential threats work to keep each other in check? Mishca? That is your name?"

He just nodded.

"From what I have been able to gather, you have been keeping an eye on both Dragon and Saint. Tell me, how long do you think your setup could last, knowing what you know now about Saint?"

He gave it serious thought. "Five years. If no interference from Teacher. Longer than that and Saint would not be able to hold on to enough control over Dragon, and he would rather kill her than let her go."

The beast in front of him nodded. "And if two threats, that both want to do good for the world work together?"

"Pfffff-" He let out a big breath through his teeth. Tricky problem, but at least she was talking about it instead of trying to kill him. "I don't know, but longer. Could be a hundred or a thousand for all I know."

"Which brings us back to the question. If I work with you on figuring out how Dragon thinks, and try to account for that, will you give me the keys to Ascalon?"

"What will you do with Geoff and Margaret?" No sense in protecting their names at this point.

"I figure I'll turn them over to Dragon. Poetic justice. You know she'll deal with them fairly."

Dobrynja held up a giant mechanical finger, to signal he wanted to think for a minute. The gesture translated fairly well, thankfully.

Geoff and Mags would end up in jail, of that there is no doubt. Mags might be alright with time, but Geoff would be totally unrepentant. Dobrynja would have spared more of a thought for that before, but with that letter… No, it was clear that Saint was nothing but Teacher's thrall, as much as it saddened him to admit it. He would not have believed it were it not for Geoff dragging them out here on no notice at the hint of a command from Teacher.

If he was actually serious about trying to save the world, if the justification that they held onto all these years meant anything at all, he should take the chance right now to protect the world as well as he could. To do otherwise would be to admit that it was for nothing more than ego.

"I will help you."