"I have just the thing," said Lincoln.
Having multiple plans could be helpful, sometimes. Using Justin to get the information required to authorize the transaction had been simple, but also genius. Having two idiots like Todrick and then also Riley interrogate a rogue spy and your target's ex-girlfriend? Well, that was a serviceable backup plan. He could always count on the simple plans.
"Gentlemen," he said, placing his hands on a chair. "We have some loose ends to tie up. Two of them, in fact."
Todrick had asked a simple question. "But what about the captives?"
The answer to that was also simple. Lincoln had several solutions on speed dial. All he had to do was pick one, and the problem would be taken care of.
"What do you want us to do boss?" Todrick asked, jumping to his feet and standing at attention. "Do you want me to go in there and pistol whip them?"
Riley jumped up as well, leaning over the table. "No," he said darkly. "We keep them prisoner. Isolate them in separate rooms, and only bring them out every few weeks to remind them of the world outside."
Lincoln and Todrick looked at Riley. Lincoln was quite impressed with the young man's ingenuity, but it wouldn't be workable.
"That's a laudable solution," Lincoln said. "However, there's the risk that they might find a way to escape." He drummed his fingers on the chair, leaning a little more forward. "I'm afraid we need something a little bit more permanent."
Lincoln pulled out his emergency cellphone and scrolled through his list of contacts. He selected one number and called. The person on the other end answered.
"I need two loose ends tied up," he said. "My office. Both subdued. It will be easy to see they are put down."
Assassins were as good as spies in many ways. However, the results they produced tended to be more permanent. As a result, the following morning he wouldn't need to worry about Mark or Debbie anymore.
Lincoln smiled, and there was darkness behind his eyes.
"Boss?" Todrick asked. "Did you just order an assassin to kill two people?"
Lincoln looked at him and shrugged. "It's the only way to secure their silence."
"Seems a little bit out of the blue," Todrick commented. "Riley and I were thinking that we could just keep them tie up for a little bit and leave them out in the woods somewhere. Maybe give them a memory wiping serum?" He turned to Riley. "You have a serum that can wipe memories, don't you?"
Riley gave him a flat stare. "Why in the world would I have a thing like that?"
Todrick gaped at him. "You literally have a serum that turns people into super soldiers," he said slowly. "It's only logical to assume that you have one that wipes memories!"
Riley folded his arms over his chest. "Please," he said condescendingly. "Explain your logic to me. I would love to hear it!"
Todrick opened his mouth to say something, but Lincoln interrupted.
"Is this really the time and place to be having this argument?" he asked, giving each of them a disapproving glare.
When Lincoln had recruited Riley to his side, he had assumed that he was gaining a powerful ally. The Naysmith family had never been close to the Ambrose family, but there was something of an understanding between the two households. They would stay out of each other's way, and help each other out on occasion, so long as no harm came to anyone on either side. By assisting Lincoln, RIley was helping him out. The only thing Lincoln found puzzling was why Riley hated Alex so much in the first place.
He looked between both Todrick and Riley, both of whom were glowering like spoiled children.
"The pair of you are grown adults," he said in a stern voice. "Why are you bickering like children over the last carton of chocolate milk?"
Todrick and Riley shared a begrudging glance, then they turned to Lincoln. They opened their mouths and began to speak at the same time, their voices overlapping each other to the extent that Lincoln couldn't hear either of them. He slammed his hand down on the desk, silencing them both.
"Silence!" he snapped.
They both went quiet. The color drained from both of their faces as he looked between them.
"Now," he said with mock sincerity, "let's try this again. One at a time, this time!" He looked at Riley. "Do you, in fact, possess such a thing as a serum which can wipe a person's memories? Not just all of their memories, but a select few?" He arched a brow, waiting expectantly for Riley's answer.
Riley grimaced and hung his head. "No, I do not have a serum that can wipe memories, whether it's all of them or only a few," he said, sounding ashamed. He looked up at Lincoln. "We were doing all kinds of research with artificial intelligence before the tower blew up."
"And do you have a backup of this research?" Lincoln folded his arms and leaned back slightly, waiting for Riley's answer.
Again, Riley grimaced. "I do not have a backup," he said. "It didn't concur to me that I might be forced to blow up my base of operations."
Lincoln turned to Todrick. "Does that answer your question?"
Dejected, Todrick nodded.
"Good," Lincoln said. "Now, in the absence of a serum that can wipe all or a few memories, I would say we're stuck for options to get rid of our two guests. An assassin is the next best option. Do we agree?" He tented his fingers and looked at each of them in turn
Riley and Todrick each nodded once.
"I'm glad we're on the same page," Lincoln said, with a fake smile. "Now, gentlemen, I think it's time we get started on the next stage of our plan."
***********
While Lincoln was plotting the demise of his two innocent prisoners, Alex was coming to terms with his return to poverty. He had slept rough the previous night, his mind full of problems he couldn't solve. In the brief time he had managed to sleep, his dreams were full of drained bank accounts, foreclosures, and bounced checks.
When he woke up, and faced reality, he knew he had to do something to take back what was his.
Last time, when he had been poor, it had been some sort of test of will, a way to teach him how to appreciate what he had while also training him for dire emergencies. Emergencies like having his fortune stolen from him in the blink of an eye.
"I'll get whoever did this to me," he muttered as he typed furiously on his laptop. On the screen was a huge wall of code. SCOT's code. Something was wrong, and Alex was going to find out what. He needed the distraction.
If Alex wasn't distracted, then he was thinking, and right now, he did not want to think,
The more Alex thought about it, the more he came to think that losing the money wasn't the worst part of it all. It was bad, his power had been shut off, after all, but he could always make more money. His businesses, assuming they were still under his name, would always generate more revenue. The fact that somebody managed to get hold of his personal information, and his digital signature, in order to authorize the transaction.
Alex did not like thinking about someone having access to his entire digital identity like that. It was horrifying.
And SCOT still wasn't working. He had completely shut off, and no amount of coaxing was bringing him back. SCOT had access to all of Alex's personal information, and he began to wonder if SCOT had somehow been compromised. Every time he tried to link into SCOT's manual interface through his laptop, which sat on the table in front of him, he came up against a wall. Alex had spent hours trying to circumvent the encryptions.
Add to all of that the personal dramas that were going on. First, there was the breakup with Debbie. The love of his life. He had made the mistake of being honest with her about sleeping with Kylie. Second, Yvonne had spent however long chasing him, and she was suddenly rejecting him. Third, his mother had cheated on his father numerous times. The result had been Justin, who might not even be his full brother.
His mind was all over the place, and he was in dire need of some stability. SCOT, the algorithm he had created a long time ago to keep himself and his friends, as well as the house, safe had become a friend to all of them.
"I know you're in there, SCOT," he whispered, "I built you, I can fix you."
A new level of code appeared in front of him. All ones and zeroes, it looked fresh, like someone had peeled back a layer, exposing something juicy inside. Alex took it as a positive sign. He had spent the entire morning working on untangling the layers of code that blocked SCOT from reaching them. It was like he was untying a knot that re-tied itself before he could untie it. Complicated, difficult, and impossible.
Alex kept trying to crack the code, but after a few tries, he would be sent to the beginning. It was like playing a game of snake. He was rapidly losing patience with the algorithm, and began to worry that something was wrong. He began to wonder if he would ever see his artificial friend ever again.
I could always build another artificial intelligence, he told himself. It would serve the same purpose, have all the same functions, I could even built it to look and sound like SCOT if I wanted it to.
A sinking feeling took hold of him, and he pulled his hands away from the algorithm for a second. Had he really just considered replacing SCOT? He shook his head.
That's an emergency option only! He scolded himself. SCOT is somewhere in this mess of code, and I am going to find him. Whatever it takes. I'll sit here all night if I have to, all week. I won't sleep, I won't eat I won't-
There was a long list of things Alex would do for his friends. And a list of things he would do in order to see that they were safe. SCOT was his friend, and he would bring him home.
With a newfound resolve, Alex picked up his watch and examined the code carefully. There was a pattern to it, and little holes which made him think that whoever had shut SCOT down was trying to mess with him. Mess with him, or drive him crazy. Just as he was going through the different layers of code.