The general mood in the viron was, understandably, high, but I was a bit confused. The last action that Mark had taken, when he took out the armor jockeys… he should not have been able to do that.

Yes, he had the synaptic accelerator, and the processor built-in into his combat body was quite a bit more powerful than the Regulus that the rest of us sported, but Mark was also not quite the sharpest tool in the shed.

While most of the others congratulated themselves, for whatever reason, as Mark was the one doing the work here, Naveen was muttering orders.

I sighed and made my way through the throng to him, touching him softly on the arm.

“Oh, hey Vivian. Sorry, but I was a bit distracted. What can I do for you?”

“Just a question. Do you have any idea how Mark did that last attack? It was… way too fast. He should be at somewhere between 20 and 25 to one in compression.”

Thinking about it for a moment, Naveen then shrugged.

“Honestly, I have no clue either. But that is a good point. We should find out how that worked.”

He looked into the round, then smiled and waved.

“Hey, Jessi, do you have a moment?”

I noticed the redheaded doctor at that moment. Honestly, I had not even realized that she was in the crowd at all.

She came, smiling and visibly happy.

“Hey Naveen, Viv. Perfect outcome I think. What do you think?”

“Except for a few scratches that can be repaired with a paint kit, Mark got through this completely unscathed. Took out eight cyber zombies and three armor jockes. And the hostage needs new pants but is otherwise mostly unharmed. So yes, perfect operation.”

Naveen spoke… not cold, but somewhat detached, analytical. It made him look a bit uncaring, though.

I just shrugged.

“It seemed to work well, but I would not put too much weight on my opinion here.”

“Hey, I am just happy that Fred is alright. Oh, and that Mark is well as well. It is hard to not like his enthusiasm about cyberware, honestly.”

I smiled crookedly.

“Yeah… unfortunately, he is way too big in his combat body for me to be comfortable. Not his fault, but… it is hard. But… I have a question that you might be able to answer.”

Still smiling happily, Jessi shrugged her shoulders:

“Shoot. If I can help you, I will.”

“This last attack from Mark… it was way too fast for him. I know roughly how powerful his processor and his jack are, and… he is not exactly the brightest bulb. So… if I guessed correctly, he should be limited to somewhere between 20 and 25 to one with his synaptic accelerator.”

Jessi just nodded.

“Pretty good guess. We clocked him at 23.86 to one. But what does that have to do with his last action?”

“As I said, it was way too fast. Even with his synaptic accelerator, he can’t act that fast.”

“Oh… I thought you knew. This was most likely his reflex booster.”

“His booster? But that only increases the neural signal speed. Considerably, but still…”

“Ah… you are a bit behind there I see. During testing, we noticed that thanks to the new signal speed, the actual reflexes are faster too. In essence, the automatic reactions are boosted beyond what even the synaptic accelerator can achieve.

Only for automatic actions though. But that gave us the idea to give the cyborg the option to preprogram some actions.”

I could not imagine that this was a good thing. At least not at all times.

“Is that not dangerous?”

My answer was a chuckle before she explained:

“Oh, sure. When the program runs, the program runs, and nothing will stop it. So you should be sure that what you want to do is really what you need to do. But in this case, when those armored goons were so accommodating and got into position… a good option I think.”

“So, a situational advantage, but a dangerous one. I see.”

I turned around, looking into the room, when she called out:

“That reminds me, while I have you here… do you think you could help our researchers with something?”

I turned back to her and shrugged.

“That depends. What is the problem?”

She looked a bit bashful as she sighed.

“Well… we are trying to update all the neural cybernetics to the Bia from the Regulus… but we… well, we can’t get the cooling system to work. Can you look at it?”

I frowned. Yes, the cooling system was somewhat complicated, but not so complicated that it would require a completely new system for a different processor.

“I can look into it. Can you squirt me the files?”

“Sure. One moment.”

When the files arrived and I looked over them, the problem became obvious immediately.

“Ah… I see. You replaced the data lines with Q-links?”

“Yes, of course. There is no need to thread the data lines through all that important real estate there if the Q-link offers better bandwidth without having to move anything in the neck aside.”

I nodded sagely.

“You are not wrong… but in my original cooling system, the data lines doubled as cooling lines. Do you see where they move close to the throat? It pumps the heat into the exhaled air. Some of it also goes into the blood moving to the skin of the face and the ears.”

It took her a moment to digest what I had said, and then slapped her forehead.

“So… by eliminating the data lines, we also eliminated the heat exhaust? Damn… we should have seen that. It is not surprising that we couldn’t get it to work. Would it work if we kept the data lines out, but installed cooling lines?”

I shrugged.

“It should. Probably a bit better, if you keep the diameter of the lines the same. Less space taken up by fiber optics.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I paused for a moment. Something was bothering me on all of that.

“You know, I am sorry. I should have done this work long ago. I just never thought of it.”

The redheaded doctor just smiled and shook her head.

“No problem. Really, no problem. We need you to create new things nobody else can. Let the rest of us do the drudge work of adapting it. We have enough scientists, engineers, and doctors to make it mostly work. Only you can do what you do though.

If we get stumped we can still come to you and ask for help. Otherwise, let us do our jobs, please.”

I looked at her intensely, but she seemed to really think what she had said, and so I nodded after a few seconds.

“If you think so, alright. But promise me that if you think I am slacking you tell me immediately, okay?”

She chuckled again, and lifted her right hand with the palm pointed at me.

“I promise. Not that that is in any way likely. We are still scrambling to get to understand things you invented a year ago. If anything, you could slow down a little bit.”

I could not suppress the snort that welled up inside me.

“I have slowed down. Considerably. The problem is that with the new Archimedes system, I have more than four times the amount of time to work on things than I had when I arrived here in NYC.”

Another chuckle, and she countered:

“Well, then get a hobby or so.”

“I have. I have started reading old SciFi and Fantasy novels, I have a pet, as you know, and I play music. Oh, and I am in a relationship. Not a single thing of that was true earlier.”

“If you say so… just try to slow down a bit. At least for a while. We are hiring researchers and engineers as fast as we can, but it takes a while.”

I blew out some air and rolled my eyes.

“Sheesh. You are aware that tinkering, inventing things, or finding out how things work is sort of my main hobby, right?”

“Invest more time in your other hobbies then!”

I shook my head and managed to suppress a snort this time, while I answered:

“Yes, ma’am, I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

That made her snort and roll her eyes.

“I believe that when pigs begin to fly, but whatever… now go, play with your cat or whatever.”

I ironically saluted and then logged out. Yes, I know I should have worked on the new assault skimmers, but frankly, I was not in the mood.

Instead, I did… nothing. Well, I curled up in one of my comfy overstuffed chairs and had my purring cat in my lap, while I used a tablet to read an early 22nd-century fantasy novel.

It lacked the feel and, I don’t know, gravitas, of one of Ben’s dead tree books, but it was pretty hard to get those books even on plasfilm, much less paper.

I had created an awesome, gigantic library in VR, that gave most of the impressions a good paper book provided. Unfortunately, it lacked Nibbles, and I loved not only my cat, but I loved having her in my lap, petting her.

Not that the spoiled creature had the patience of just laying there very often, mind you. This time, she did though.

All in all, it was a very pleasurable Thursday afternoon. I know, lazy, but as Jessi had so eloquently explained, I had already done enough to allow myself a few days of doing nothing of consequence.

Next Tuesday, in the C-suite meeting, Naveen brought up the interrogation of the captured Asian men.

To be exact, he talked about the whole operation, and that we needed to get more combat cyborgs as fast as possible, but he then segued into the interrogation.

It turned out, to the big surprise of exactly no one, that they were Kawamoto operatives. When asked why they had gone from using expendable, and mostly useless mercenaries, to their own operatives, they answered that they had tried several times to use mercs to attack us. To no avail, as they had always run into insurmountable obstacles.

Naveen explained that he had no idea where those obstacles came from. I had a suspicion though.

After Naveen had finished his report, Michael let out a deep sigh.

“Well, welcome to the shadow wars, everybody. I had hoped that we would be spared it for a while at least, but… it had to happen.

Now, we have to decide how we answer that. An outright attack is out. Yes, we could use a regiment of Einherjar, but they are a bit obvious and we cannot move them quickly to where they can really hurt Moto. We could hire mercs. It will take some time though as we have to develop the necessary contacts first.”

Maggie rubbed her temples.

“Do you think we could do something through the matrix?”

I shook my head.

“Kawamoto has some of the best ICE in the world. It would just serve to burn our Jacks. Sure, we could hurt them, but it would be a pyrrhic victory at best.”

Kenneth stapled his fingers in front of him.

“But we have to do something. We have to show Moto and the world that we don’t let them walk over us like that.”

Michael shrugged.

“As I said, we do not have the ability at this moment.”

Suddenly, Warden’s avatar appeared from the holo projector.

“I am sorry to interrupt you, but an answer to Kawamoto is not necessary.”

Most of the others jumped a bit with her sudden appearance but caught themselves quickly.

After a few seconds, James growled:

“How do you figure that we do not need to answer this attack by Moto?”

“An appropriate answer has already been delivered.”

Michael narrowed his eyes and looked at the avatar suspiciously.

“What have you done?”

Before Warden could answer, Michael’s com rang. Considering that we were in an important meeting, it shouldn’t have. Only Ben and Michael’s PA could override the block, and both knew not to call if it was not important.

After a few moments, and still looking a bit annoyed and surprised, Michael pulled the com out.

“One moment, please.”

And he answered the call.

“Yes?... You think it is so urgent?... Ok, I trust you. Put him through. … Walker?... No, I had not had the pleasure before. … Yes, I know the name. … What are you talking about?”

Suddenly, an angry male voice with a strong Asian accent came from the speakers:

“You know exactly what you did. Are you people insane to escalate to that extent?”

Michael looked a bit surprised at first, and then looked at Warden accusingly, but answered smoothly:

“I am sorry, but I honestly do not know what you are talking about.”

At that point, Warden spoke loudly:

“If I may interrupt you at this point, Enki had nothing to do with the incident. It was all my work.”

The voice on the com stocked for a few seconds, and then still angry asked:

“Who are you?”

“You can call me Warden, Mr. Osada. I am the VI that you and your peers are so concerned about. Rightfully so, I might add.”

“You people let a VI in on your meetings? Are you barbarians?”

Michael chuckled at that:

“Try to keep her out if she wants to partake. I dare you.”

“Whatever. Do you have any notion of what your VI has done?”

Michael let out a sigh and rolled his eyes.

“Again, Mr. Osada, no, I do not.”

Warden interjected again.

“I sent you a message that your behavior will not tolerated. As simple as that.”

“A message? A MESSAGE?!?! Your ‘message’ caused eight trillion ¥ in damage!”

“The newest estimates put it at approximately 8.78854 trillion ¥.”

“That is not a message. That is an act of war!”

“No, an act of war would have been to use the same method to eliminate all of Kawamoto’s holdings in Japan. At this time, you have lost a single automated factory and a single freighter. Or would you prefer that I used the orbital nukes Kawamoto officially does not possess against you? How about the gravity pulse weapons you have stored in all your military installations?”

“You have gone completely overboard. Why did you directly go to such measures?”

“Kawamoto has the nasty habit of escalating actions like the one last week until their target either folds or they run into a wall. You have not understood when I stopped your previous attempts, so I have just short-circuited the process to bring the wall early.”

“Walker, you and your imbeciles need to put it on a leash.”

That made Michael chuckle.

“With pleasure. Just tell us where her servers are located and we will start with it immediately.”

“Are you telling me you do not have any control over it?”

“What aspect of the word ‘rogue’ do you not understand? Warden is an uncontrolled, unshackled VI. One where Kawamoto bears a significant fault of its existence. Yes, we know about the Panacea dump. We know of your little plan.

It had to bite you in the ass sooner or later. Be happy that Warden is relatively benign.”

“Kawamoto will not take this lying down. You will learn what it means to make the biggest corporation on the planet angry.”

Warden’s:

“No, they will not. Or do I have to send another message? An expensive one this time? One where you can’t correct the consequences with time and money?”

“Hrmph!”

Suddenly, the line went dead.

After a few moments, Michael dryly asked:

“Do we want to know what exactly you have done?”

“Probably not, but you will learn it anyway, as it is already all over the news. I co-opted one of Kawamoto’s automated 250kt freighters, accelerated it to orbital velocity, and then steered it into one of Kawamoto’s automated factories. Factory 7288 to be exact. The one where they build their high-end consumer electronics as well as their cyber boards.”

“I assume there is nothing left of either the freighter or the factory?”

“Indeed.”

Michael closed his eyes and shook his head.

“I hate to do it, but I have to agree with Mr. Osada. You’ve gone a bit overboard with your message.”

“I have to disagree. It was not just a message to Kawamoto, but to everybody else that I will not let any escalation stand.”

I sighed.

“What happened with giving me the option to try it my way first?”

“I deemed it futile for you to try to intervene. You have no ability to damage Kawamoto directly right now unless you want to take out most of Japan, and anything else would have been seen as a sign of weakness.

That was not allowable. I also made sure that no humans were harmed in the incident.”

Naveen cleared his throat.

“Now… please, tell me why you never mentioned that you stopped any attempts by Kawamoto to use mercenaries."

“It was not necessary. Cerberus was informed.”

“It would have allowed us to prepare for the apparently inevitable escalation. As it was, this kidnapping hit us unprepared.”

It took a barely perceptible moment for Warden to answer, showing me that she had to evaluate the statement carefully.

“You are right. I will adapt my behavior.”