Alex galloped forth on Gary, his mighty steed. The stallion's hypertrophic legs pumped like pistons as it shot around the forest. Wind whipped through Alex's hair. He squeezed Gary's back with his thighs and kicked, making the horse go faster.
"This is incredible!" Alex screamed into the wind. "I'm the king of the forest!"
There was nobody around to hear him, of course. Well, except for Gary.
They road to the clifftop where Alex had taken Debbie for their hiking date. It was just as beautiful as it had been the day before. A flock of birds flew by. He watched them from Gary's back.
"You're one hell of a stallion," said Alex. "Thanks for not kicking my head in. I honestly would not have been surprised if you had."
Gary snorted and shook his head.
"You're right," Alex said, holding up his hands in supplication. "Horses aren't humans."
Gary started munching at the grass and Alex looked out over the green expanse beneath the cliff. It was peaceful. That was why he liked having the house in the woods. All he could think about was settling down with Debbie out here.
"Come on," he said, tapping Gary's flanks with his heels. "We need to be heading back to the house."
Gary whinnied in protest, but obliged. They trotted back to the house in no time flat. An ordinary horse trotting would have taken a couple of hours. But for Gary and his super pumped piston legs, it was barely a half hour. Alex was giddy with excitement. Gary would be such a cool addition to the group.
Gary's girth was more than Alex could manage. He had barely been able to mount the noble stallion. Sliding off of him was proving to be a challenge. He had to lean forward and gently ease himself off…
Alex toppled and landed flat on his back, staring up at Gary's abs.
"How the hell does a horse have an eight-pack?" he grumbled, pushing himself up and dusting off his jacket. Gary knickered. Alex paused and looked over his shoulder at him. He could have sworn that Gary was laughing. Putting the thought to one side, he made his way inside.
He stopped at the threshold. A cold chill ran down his spine. The place was absolutely wrecked. Burned wood and electrical fire hung in the air. A red fire blanket, blackened with smoke, lay over the sofa. Alex stopped short when he saw the coffee table.
He wasn't sure what he was seeing. It looked like someone had burned a hole into the top of the table, then melted a laptop into it. Several laptop keys were scattered over the floor. He thought he could see Louis's overclocked MacBook Pro just tossed to the side. It was open, and the screen was cracked.
"What the hell happened?" Alex groaned, taking several slow steps into the chaos.
[SFX: radio static, tuning, clear signal]
Alex looked around frantically, searching for the source of the noise. His heart raced, and he prepared for an attack, calling his martial arts powers to the surface.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," said a familiar voice. "We apologize for the interruption. There have been some rather unfortunate events lately. More people in the Baltimore area were taken by moonlight. Attempts to rescue them will be in vain. The only safe place, it seems, is the woods. But don't any of you worry. The mighty Alexander Ambrose, who has saved you all so many times before, is undoubtedly going to save you one last time. If only he knew what he was saving you from!"
[SFX: radio static, tuning, shut off]
Alex dismissed his powers and looked around again, pulling up discarded cushions and other pieces of furniture. That had sounded like a radio broadcast, but he couldn't find the radio.
Suddenly, the MacBook's screen burst into life, and a familiar face appeared.
"Master Ambrose!" said SCOT. "Joyous occasion! You have returned!"
SCOT, the Secret and Covert Operation Telecommunications, was an artificial intelligence program Alex had created out of curiosity. He needed something that would act as a security alarm, block incoming and outgoing signals, protect his friends, and survey the surrounding area. There were plenty of run-of-the-mill programs he could have bought, but he needed something that only he knew. For all he knew, his enemies could have created those other programmes. He also needed something powerful enough to protect his friends' devices from hacking. Thus, SCOT was created.
Alex walked over to the MacBook Pro and picked it up, looking the AI in his computer-generated green eyes. His face was so human that Alex thought he was on a Zoom call.
"SCOT," Alex said, "can you tell me what happened? Why didn't you protect the house?"
SCOT's computer-generated face appeared bashful. "Ah, Master, you see, this is the result of me protecting the house."
"I'm going to need a whole lot of explanation before I decide to reboot you," Alex threatened.
"Oh, hush," SCOT said. "It's best if you come downstairs. The others have discovered something rather enlightening!"
The way SCOT's eyes sparkled when he said it made Alex wonder if the artificial intelligence was just a tiny bit too realistic.
"The others?" Alex asked.
"Miss Clifton accessed the bunker," SCOT explained. "Along with Masters Louis and Christopher, and Miss Yvonne. They're all safe, although you should join them."
SCOT's face blinked off the screen, and Alex set the laptop on an unburned portion of the coffee table. He went to the kitchen and found the basement door.
[SFX: radio static, tuning, clear signal]
"Apologies for the interruption," said the familiar voice. "It appears that there has been a theft. A small storage device. Sleek, black, and full of valuable data. Its encryptions are so powerful that a supercomputer couldn't even hack them. Anyone who attempts to crack these encryptions is likely to meet a tragic fate. Tread carefully, Ambrose."
[SFX: radio static, tuning, shut off]
Alex spun on his heels at the mention of his name, poised to attack. When nobody came, he turned back to the basement.
Alex checked the basement door. He was relieved to find that it was locked. Scanning his fingerprint, he pulled on the door handle. It gave way, and he went downstairs to find the others hunched over the various monitors that made up SCOT's "body."
He saw Debbie, her brow furrowed, as she stood over one of the monitors he had built into the console. When he came up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist. She jumped, and turned to see that it was just him. She smiled, relieved, and rested her head on his chest.
"SCOT said you found something," he whispered.
She nodded. "The thumb drive."
"Show me," he said, pulling away from the hug.
Alex pulled over a stool and started pressing buttons on the console. Debbie joined him, having found her own stool. Together, they went through everything that SCOT had pulled from the base-level encryptions. It was a lot of photos of the 53 people who had disappeared. Some lists of characteristics and "desirable" traits. There were also a few zipped folders which took a little hacking. Once Alex unzipped them, he found that they contained medical records.
"That's odd," he said. "Why would anyone store medical records on a thumb drive?"
"Show him the picture of Ethan," Yvonne said from behind them.
Debbie pulled up a picture of a tall, slim-built man who had a cheerful round face. Alex's heart lurched in his chest. He would know those eyes anywhere.
"Is that…?" He trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
"The super soldier," Debbie confirmed. "We don't know why he's in there, but Christopher thinks that what happened to Ethan, happened to all of them."
Alex swallowed. This was bad.
"Master Ambrose?" SCOT asked, his computer-generated face appearing on the monitor. He was on top of the images like an overlay. "There are more files to decrypt. However, I am unable to do so at my current level of operation."
"What do you need?" Alex asked, cracking his knuckles. "The Usual or the Special?"
SCOT looked up to the side, simulating consideration. "I think the Usual ought to be sufficient. Ready when you are!"
"Righty-ho," Alex said under his breath. "Let's go!"
Over the next few minutes, Alex punched keys on the console. He input algorithms that would have made his old professors blush with pride. His fingers flew so fast that he felt like a master pianist performing Chopin in a concert hall. All around him, the screens switched up. Overlays upon overlays, tiles upon tiles, of warnings. Errors, viruses, encryptions, shutdown protocols. It all tried to stop him.
But he was Alex Goddamn Ambrose, and he would not let a stupid little thumb drive get the better of him.
"Just a little more," said SCOT. "We almost have it. Coming around the bend. And we have it!"
[SFX: affirmative click]
Alex's face fell as the screens around them went blank. He leaned back on his stool, wiping sweat from his brow. One thing he regularly forgot about was how hot it could get in the basement surrounded by all this equipment. He made a mental note to install a more efficient cooling system, if he could find the room.
He was starting to get worried when SCOT's face appeared on the blank screens all around them.
"Oh, we've done it!" he said cheerfully. "Master Ambrose, I believe we've cracked all levels of encryption!"
All five of the humans in the room breathed a collective sigh of relief and cheered. Their joy was cut short when they saw the rest of what the thumb drive contained.
"Why does that look like a pharmaceutical formulation?" Louis asked, pointing at one of the documents displayed on a nearby screen. "And why is it labelled 'super soldier serum'?"
Alex's stomach dropped.
"I think I know why the thumb drive contained medical records," Debbie said, looking at the screen on the console. "Alex, look!"
Alex looked down at the screen. It detailed all known effects of "Project X", which he immediately knew was the formulation Louis had pointed out. He read the list aloud for the others to hear.
"Extreme increase of strength," he read, "in males a massive boost of testosterone, in females a massive boost in muscle mass. Researchers observed growth spurts in all subjects, growing up to five feet taller than their previous height. Blood type not known to interfere with Project X."
Alex looked up at SCOT's computer-generated face. Although he wasn't human, he did emulate concern quite well.
"Oh, Master Ambrose," he said. "This is terrible, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's bad," Alex agreed. "Did you guys find anything?"
"A whole lot," Christopher called back. "Nothing concrete. But the good news is, we know who's behind it!"
Alex paused, surprised. There were a lot of people who it could be.
"Tell me," he said firmly.
Christopher coughed. "It's Riley."
At the mere mention of Riley's name, Alex stood up and ran upstairs. Of course it was Riley! Yvonne and Debbie followed him as he marched into the living room and started shoving pieces of furniture out of his way. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he knew he had to find it.
[SFX: radio static, tuning, clear signal]
"Hello, Alex," said that familiar voice. "You won't find me. What I have in store for you, and your little friends, is going to be quite painful. So, I will offer you a deal. Just this once. Come to my side, and we can rule together. Combine our forces, and dominate the world. Everything we touch will turn to gold, and we will have the world's greatest army at our disposal, to do whatever we please! Think carefully, Ambrose. This is the only time I will offer!"
[SFX: radio static, tuning, shut off]
Alex sat down on the sofa. He was furious. Debbie and Yvonne sat either side of him as he stewed in his rage.
"How is he doing that?" he demanded. "How did he get around SCOT's safeguards?"
"I'm sorry Master Ambrose!" SCOT said, sounding terrified. He hadn't appeared on any of the surfaces, so his robotic voice simply echoed throughout the how. "I don't know how he's doing it. The signal comes and goes before I have a chance to even feel it. Oh, is this what humans feel like when they haven't bathed in so long? It's so vile!"
"It's not your fault, SCOT," Yvonne said, looking around in all directions. "You can't be expected to be perfect protection all the time."
"But that's why I built him," Alex grumbled. "One hundred percent guarantee of protection from any and all incoming attacks. SCOT needs an upgrade. Once we know what Riley's doing, I can work out how to upgrade him."
Just then, Louis came bursting out of the basement, white as a sheet.
"Guys!" he said, looking at each of them in turn.
"What?" Alex barked, shooting to his feet. "What is it?"
"Back downstairs," Louis said. "Now. I can't explain-"
Alex pushed past him and trudged back into the basement, angry and afraid. Louis darted past him and led Alex and the girls to a computer monitor, where Christopher sat, as white as a sheet. He was scrolling through a single file. He looked over his shoulder and gestured for Alex to sit next to him.
Alex sat down, and started looking through the file. As he did so, his rage turned to ice, and all manner of vile names for Riley started pouring through his head.
"It's us," he growled. "Riley has everything about us. Our blood types, our sleep schedules, even our brain chemistry. What kind of sick nonsense is this?"
"Oh my god," Yvonne squeaked. "This is so creepy."
Alex clicked on a photo and his face popped up. There was even a section dedicated to his family history. This was a new level of low, even for Riley.
"Why would anyone have this?" Debbie asked. "What would be the point?"
"Blackmail," Christopher said. "Maybe he wants to turn us into super soldiers."
"Whatever it is," Alex said. "It can't happen. I'm not going to let it happen."
He clicked on the arrow that took him to the next picture, and his blood ran cold. It was a picture of him and Debbie. Around the picture were notes detailing their various activities, even about the hike they had been on recently. Alex ignored the note that mentioned Yvonne had been following them, and focused on the details listed.
He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
"Okay, guys," he said, tired. "We need a plan. And a lot of coffee."