Sneak peek of Ep 3: Toy Soldiers
Wanna peek? Spoilers below the cut.
The expensive carpet muted the sounds of chairs pulling up to the long, polished conference room table. Vaughn looked around the room, at the tasteful yet bland artwork, at the men with soft hands and generic black suits, and he was unable to hide his contempt. These men who had never had to carry out the consequences of their decisions got to sit in judgment of his actions, and the way they looked at him like he was lint to be flicked from their pressed lapels told him exactly what their judgment would be. He let his contempt show in his eyes and in the curl of his bottom lip as one after another avoided his gaze. They were afraid of him. They had always been afraid of him, and finally they had a chance to do something about it.
Smieth spoke softly, but the room instantly quieted so that every word was clear. Vaughn only half-listened to his superior’s greeting and careful corporate phrasing until he heard the words he had been waiting for: dropping the artificial intelligence project. He glanced up then, sighting the director of operations down the long table and said plainly, “It’s a mistake.”
The chatter his remark started ceased as Smieth replied, “You’ve made your position on this point clear. It is not, however, up for debate.” His glance included the rest of the people in the room. “The decision has been made to focus our efforts on the robotics contract rather than the AI contract, given the destruction of our main intelligence facility. Our land and air robotics prototypes are progressing nicely, and with additional resources from the AI project, we can solidify our position as the robotics leader.”
“We need the AI to continue the robotics work,” Vaughn almost growled. “It’s out there.”
One of the men sitting nearby snickered. “It’s out there? Like The X-Files?” The comment provoked muted laughter. “Stop with the conspiracy theories, Vaughn. The AI program you were working on did not escape and it’s not ‘out there.’ It blew up when the hundreds of servers running the program blew up.”
Vaughn shifted in his chair, his eyes narrowing dangerously and his hand drifting down toward his waist. The man paled and scooted his chair back.
“We’ll be working on a simpler AI for integration into the prototypes,” Smieth said, intervening smoothly. “We are also shifting resources to focus on security at our existing plants.”
“Sarah Connor…”
“Is a police matter. We’ve wasted enough time and resources trying to find her.” He cut Vaughn off with a look, his eyes a determined and steely gray. “The cost has gotten prohibitive. If she strikes at us again, we’ll deal with her, but until that time, we need to protect ourselves from corporate espionage as well as physical attacks. Understood?”
Everyone at the table nodded, including Vaughn. He could feel his teeth grind together as his lips twisted in an angry mockery of a smile. Smieth released them all with a wave of his hand. “Frederick? If you please?” he called just as Vaughn stood. He begrudgingly made his way through the sea of suits to join Smieth at the front of the room.
The setting sun was eye-watering in intensity beyond the wall of windows at Smieth’s back. No doubt his superior had arranged himself just so to make sure Vaughn was at a disadvantage, and Vaughn throttled the desire to throw Smieth out those very windows.
“I mean it. We need all of our resources protecting the work we’re doing for the military contract.”
“The woman is a menace. And a psychopath.”
“We don’t have definitive proof it’s her. Just your suspicions and first-hand accounts from the thick-necked goons you keep in your employ. Do you really think a woman of her stature could have stopped all those men?”
“She had help,” Vaughn growled. They had been over this already. Time and time and time again. No one believed him. No one believed Connor had caused all this havoc. C.A.I.N. had erased all of the security footage. Why, Vaughn wasn’t sure. He only knew the AI was making him look like even more of a fool. If it wasn’t for a marrow-deep need to see Sarah Connor pay, he would have happily let Kaliba and C.A.I.N. find out the truth the hard way. “Help that could move our robotics program forward.”
“So you say,” Smieth replied evenly, his disbelief evident. “Her primary focus is destroying AI research. If she’s still out there, I think she’ll leave robotics alone, but if she doesn’t, then you can have another crack at her. Until then, focus on plant security. I tasked one of our best cyber-espionage hackers to work with you.”
Vaughn nodded again, shoving his rage into a hard icy ball in his gut. He managed to walk out of the room and down the hall to his office under a semblance of control, but his fellow corporate denizens gave him a wide berth, sensing danger. They weren’t wrong, he knew, as visions of death whirled behind his eyes, and the careful corporate décor seemed washed in a blood-red tint.
Sarah Connor needed to be stopped at all costs, and that cyborg she kept as a pet dismantled piece by piece.
The expensive carpet muted the sounds of chairs pulling up to the long, polished conference room table. Vaughn looked around the room, at the tasteful yet bland artwork, at the men with soft hands and generic black suits, and he was unable to hide his contempt. These men who had never had to carry out the consequences of their decisions got to sit in judgment of his actions, and the way they looked at him like he was lint to be flicked from their pressed lapels told him exactly what their judgment would be. He let his contempt show in his eyes and in the curl of his bottom lip as one after another avoided his gaze. They were afraid of him. They had always been afraid of him, and finally they had a chance to do something about it.
Smieth spoke softly, but the room instantly quieted so that every word was clear. Vaughn only half-listened to his superior’s greeting and careful corporate phrasing until he heard the words he had been waiting for: dropping the artificial intelligence project. He glanced up then, sighting the director of operations down the long table and said plainly, “It’s a mistake.”
The chatter his remark started ceased as Smieth replied, “You’ve made your position on this point clear. It is not, however, up for debate.” His glance included the rest of the people in the room. “The decision has been made to focus our efforts on the robotics contract rather than the AI contract, given the destruction of our main intelligence facility. Our land and air robotics prototypes are progressing nicely, and with additional resources from the AI project, we can solidify our position as the robotics leader.”
“We need the AI to continue the robotics work,” Vaughn almost growled. “It’s out there.”
One of the men sitting nearby snickered. “It’s out there? Like The X-Files?” The comment provoked muted laughter. “Stop with the conspiracy theories, Vaughn. The AI program you were working on did not escape and it’s not ‘out there.’ It blew up when the hundreds of servers running the program blew up.”
Vaughn shifted in his chair, his eyes narrowing dangerously and his hand drifting down toward his waist. The man paled and scooted his chair back.
“We’ll be working on a simpler AI for integration into the prototypes,” Smieth said, intervening smoothly. “We are also shifting resources to focus on security at our existing plants.”
“Sarah Connor…”
“Is a police matter. We’ve wasted enough time and resources trying to find her.” He cut Vaughn off with a look, his eyes a determined and steely gray. “The cost has gotten prohibitive. If she strikes at us again, we’ll deal with her, but until that time, we need to protect ourselves from corporate espionage as well as physical attacks. Understood?”
Everyone at the table nodded, including Vaughn. He could feel his teeth grind together as his lips twisted in an angry mockery of a smile. Smieth released them all with a wave of his hand. “Frederick? If you please?” he called just as Vaughn stood. He begrudgingly made his way through the sea of suits to join Smieth at the front of the room.
The setting sun was eye-watering in intensity beyond the wall of windows at Smieth’s back. No doubt his superior had arranged himself just so to make sure Vaughn was at a disadvantage, and Vaughn throttled the desire to throw Smieth out those very windows.
“I mean it. We need all of our resources protecting the work we’re doing for the military contract.”
“The woman is a menace. And a psychopath.”
“We don’t have definitive proof it’s her. Just your suspicions and first-hand accounts from the thick-necked goons you keep in your employ. Do you really think a woman of her stature could have stopped all those men?”
“She had help,” Vaughn growled. They had been over this already. Time and time and time again. No one believed him. No one believed Connor had caused all this havoc. C.A.I.N. had erased all of the security footage. Why, Vaughn wasn’t sure. He only knew the AI was making him look like even more of a fool. If it wasn’t for a marrow-deep need to see Sarah Connor pay, he would have happily let Kaliba and C.A.I.N. find out the truth the hard way. “Help that could move our robotics program forward.”
“So you say,” Smieth replied evenly, his disbelief evident. “Her primary focus is destroying AI research. If she’s still out there, I think she’ll leave robotics alone, but if she doesn’t, then you can have another crack at her. Until then, focus on plant security. I tasked one of our best cyber-espionage hackers to work with you.”
Vaughn nodded again, shoving his rage into a hard icy ball in his gut. He managed to walk out of the room and down the hall to his office under a semblance of control, but his fellow corporate denizens gave him a wide berth, sensing danger. They weren’t wrong, he knew, as visions of death whirled behind his eyes, and the careful corporate décor seemed washed in a blood-red tint.
Sarah Connor needed to be stopped at all costs, and that cyborg she kept as a pet dismantled piece by piece.