* * *
“Now I’m really mad!” Ackers exclaimed.
Johnny and Nancy had just found their way into his small, cramped office. There were papers everywhere, and several desks to put them on, but there was only one chair. It was clear that Ackers worked alone, possibly because he didn’t like working with other people, but more likely because no one wanted to work with him.
The walls were also covered with writing, both on and off the multiple whiteboards around the room. Usually a sentence or equation would start on a white board written in black marker. But after there was no more space, the writing would continue off the board and onto the wall, sometimes even making its way across the wall and onto a new white board. It was clear that Ackers liked to think. It was also clear that there was probably no one alive who could follow his line of thought, at least not very well.
“I left for less than five minutes and my lunch is completely gone!” Ackers whined.
Nancy leaned over to whisper in Johnny’s ear.
“Who is he talking to? It’s not us, is it?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” was all he would say back.
“I left my lunch right here, on this very spot. It was a sandwich, with ham and cheese. And now all I see are bread crumbs,” Ackers continued.
“What did we say about eating my lunch when I’m gone?” Ackers asked.
No one responded. It looked like the three of them were the only ones in the small room.
“Bread Crumbs!” Ackers called out.
Nancy jumped, confused that Ackers wasn’t looking at the bread crumbs when he yelled.
There was a low whine that came from under the other desk.
“You know what you did, there’s no use hiding,” Ackers said. “Well, there’s some use hiding, but I’ll find you anyway.”
A computerized voice responded. It emphasized both syllables with an exaggerated change of pitch going from really high to really low.
“Sorry,” it said.
“Naturally you’re sorry, but you still have to come out and face what you’ve done,” Ackers said.
Johnny was quickly losing patience.
“What about the Super Chip? That’s the reason I came all the way down here. And the reason I brought her along with me,” Johnny pointed at Nancy, who was currently enthralled with wondering what manner of creature or machine was hiding under the desk.
“In a moment,” Ackers didn’t even bother to look at him as he spoke. “I have to address this immediately so that she learns.”
Nancy looked over at Johnny. Johnny just shrugged back helplessly.
“Come on out now,” Ackers called, “and we can get past this unpleasantness as quickly as possible.”
“Sorry,” the robotic sounding high and low pitch came again from under the desk.
“Out. Now,” Ackers commanded.
Slowly, a hesitant furry face and two paws appeared from under the desk. It dragged its small body out and then came up to stand before the three of them, looking tentatively up at Ackers.
Bread Crumbs, who started panting as she stood there, was a small poodle.
“Sorry,” came the robotic voice again while Bread Crumbs continued panting uninterrupted.
As Nancy looked closely at Bread Crumbs, she noticed that there was a small speaker attached to the collar around her neck.
“He taught his dog to speak?” Nancy whispered to Johnny in bewilderment.
“Not exactly,” Johnny whispered back.
Ackers smiled, it was one of the rare moments in his life when he did, and patted Bread Crumbs on the head.
“That’s a good girl, run along now.”
Bread Crumbs started wagging her tail and then bounced off to find more food.
“The only thing she knows how to say is sorry,” Johnny finished whispering to Nancy.
Turning to Ackers, Johnny added, “If you know she’s going to eat your lunch when you leave, why do you keep leaving it where you know she can get to it?”
Ackers was just finishing wiping the crumbs off the table and onto a napkin. He turned and gave Johnny a condescending stare.
“How else will she learn?” he asked with an obvious huff. “But I suppose I’m partially to blame. By naming her Bread Crumbs I’ve practically doomed her to identifying with and living out the very behavior I’m trying to eradicate. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for her to try and live up to her name and what she might see as part of her reason for being, her destiny so to speak.”
Ackers turned to look at them with a stoic face, “Do you think I should have called her Don’t Eat?”
Nancy looked over to Johnny to try and figure out if Ackers was kidding or really asking them their opinion on such a crazy question.
Johnny shrugged. There really was no way to explain Ackers; he was just a person you had to experience for yourself to actually believe someone like him existed.
“No, that’s fine. Bread Crumbs is a great name,” Johnny said to Ackers.
“Yes, I know. Obviously I couldn’t name her Don’t Eat; how long do you think she would have lived? No, don’t answer that,” Ackers turned from the two of them and approached one of his computers.
He typed in a few words and hit enter. A holographic display of a screen emerged in the air along with a keyboard floating beside it.
Ackers started typing on the keyboard and maps began appearing on the screen.
“After you two bungled acquiring the Super Chip, I put my superior intellect into action trying to pinpoint its new location. We now know where the Chip is going to be tested. It’s in a United Order base hidden within the city in the basement of a building posing as a bank,” Ackers said in one large breath.
“How did you find out where the Chip was?” Nancy asked as she studied the screens.
“I told you, I used my superior intellect,” Ackers said with a straight face.
“Don’t ask, he never tells,” Johnny tried to explain.
“Of course I never tell. First there’s the matter that you wouldn’t be able to fathom my explanations. Then there’s the issue of job security; if anyone else could do what I could then I would be replaced. Now, moving on, your assignment will be to infiltrate the structure.”
As Ackers spoke, a three dimensional representation of the building came up on the screen. He zoomed in and out, cycled through the floors of the building and drew X’s and lines through different rooms.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a female voice came from the computer as Ackers was typing.
An image of a woman wearing a silver body suit appeared beside the display of the bank.
“Are you taking up my resources trying to show little maps of buildings?” the woman continued.
Ackers sighed and went into a frenzy, typing on the three dimensional keyboard at lightning speed.
The woman frowned.
“You don’t think you can get rid of me that easily?” she asked.
Suddenly, she disappeared, and the only thing left on the displays was the three dimensional map of the building.
“Actually, I do,” Ackers said as he finished entering a string of codes.
“What was that?” Nancy asked.
“That was Ackers’ girlfriend, Ayai,” Johnny responded.
“She is not my girlfriend. She is a highly advanced form of intelligence that I have been working on. She’s going to be the first true artificial intelligence. Ayai will be capable of her own thought and even able to make creative decisions. When she is finished, of course. Right now she only appears life-like because I programmed her to be a real pain in the ass,” Ackers added.
Ackers studied the holographic display on the wall.
“It looks like the best course of action would be to sneak in through the front door; they’ll never be expecting that. I have a few new gadgets that I’ve invented that you’ll be using.” Ackers turned to Nancy after he finished looking over the plan.
“I imagine th
at your agency, whoever they might be, will also be supporting this operation with equipment and people?”
Nancy looked sideways at Johnny, who looked questioningly back.
“I’ve got a few gadgets, some things I made on the side, but we won’t be joined by anyone else from my organization,” she stammered out.
“You mean to tell me you make your own gadgets?” Ackers was appalled. “What kind of second-hand outfit do you work for?”
“It’s not second-hand. And yes, I make my own gadgets, so what?” Nancy was getting angry. She didn’t come here to be insulted.
Ackers shook his head. He always had to explain everything to everyone.
“The people who invent the gadgets are the top brains in any spy organization, so naturally they never put themselves at risk in the field. That’s for people like him,” Ackers tilted his head in Johnny’s direction. “I guess you could say they are more expendable.”
“Hello?” Johnny waved incredulously. “I’m standing right here, hearing everything you say.”
Ackers continued on, ignoring him.
“And how can you have no one to add to this mission? We’ll be adding four top operatives that will be joining you. The least you could do is lend us a couple of agents in a nice show of cooperation.”
Nancy threw up her hands in exasperation.
“There are no other agents on my team!”
Johnny and Ackers turned to each other in stunned silence.
“You work alone?” Johnny managed to finally say.
“No, I have a handler, someone who trains me and plans the missions,” Nancy offered.
Ackers narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
“Who is this handler? Perhaps I should look them up in my database. I have a very extensive database; it’s one of my pet projects. It’s got everything in it.”
“You work with me, you get to know nothing about my handler, that’s the way it goes,” Nancy said guardedly.
“Her handler is probably a criminal. I see this kind of thing all the time,” Ackers said. “Some poor lost soul trying to make up for the bad things they’ve done in their life.”
Nancy laughed. “My handler is as far away from lost as someone could be. She’s a very capable woman who’s taught me all I know.”
Ackers nodded happily to himself. “We now know she’s a woman; that narrows it down to only half the population.”
Ackers shook his head as he switched off his database and computer, “If Agent Seventy-Seven has nothing to add to this mission except herself, then perhaps we don’t need any more of her help. I think you should thank her for her time and send her on her way.”
Nancy looked incredulously at Ackers, “It’s my turn to be in the room, standing right in front of you while you talk about me.”
“Don’t you hate it when he does that?” Johnny asked.
Ackers shuffled over to the computer on his desk and powered it down also.
“Fine, if I am forced to speak directly to you, without anyone to soften my delivery as to the harshness of my message, then I will. We don’t need you,” Ackers explained.
Nancy looked wordlessly at Johnny.
Johnny sighed.
“We brought her all the way here, showed her our base. She really helped me out. I think she should be on the team for now,” Johnny said.
“If I am forced to work with even more amateurs, while I constantly put up with their shortcomings, then that is what I will do. After all, what difference would one more person make?” Ackers asked while he looked at Nancy.
“Gee, thanks. It’s really great to be a part of this team,” Nancy replied.
“Oh, don’t thank me. Wait until you meet the rest of the team,” Ackers said ominously.