Vadumverse series/Rampancy

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Henry Jones sat in his leather recliner watching television, specifically the news channel. He was finally thrilled that his long time nemesis, Jacob Archer, was captured and sentenced to prison for robbery.
Henry began to take notice that the television was starting to fade on and off, and flicker wildly. He got up and approached the television until the volume boomed up. Henry began to flinch at the sudden surprise and covered his ears hoping to drown out the pain.
The television turned off all of a sudden. Henry still frightened from the television.
He stood up, seeing that the lights in the room were flickering, then all of them exploded. Sparks flying everywhere. The only thing that caught his eye is an apparition, standing in the middle of the living room.
The apparition was red with one's and zero's running through its body at a fast rate of speed.
"Doctor Jones." The AI said in a dark and demonic voice.
"Ga-Ga-Ga..."
The good doctor couldn't finish his sentence and collapsed on the floor. The last thing he saw was the ghost of a past long forgotten.
----
The CSI photographer took several close up pictures of the deceased body that laid on the floor in front of him. He noticed many different marks on his neck, small dots that looked like...
"Needles." Jason withdrew a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and slipped them on. "Or some sort of pin prick."
Jason's partner, Emily Walker, ducked under the police tape and made her way to the living room where the body laid. She wanted to give her own speculation on what could of happened. She approached Jason, ready to give her perspective on things. Jason turned his head and looked at her with disappointment.
"I thought I told you to wait outside to control the media Emily." His voice was sincere but assertive.
"I just wanted to give my perspective on things."
"Just because we captured one of the most dangerous drug lords doesn't mean your ready to handle homicides. Your still training, and right now I need you to control the media before things get out of hand."
"Just let me give my medical expertise."
Jason considered the option. She did have some good background in the medical industry after all. He nodded, "Okay. Go for it."
"It looks like the two puncture wounds are spread apart. There are no signs of redness or inflammation."
"Could be anything. A snake bite, spider bite, two pokes with a needle?"
Jason observed that light's on the ceiling and walls were broken. The CSI photographers were taking quick snap shots of the lights.
Hmm. Jason thought to himself. What happened in here?
Jason approached one of the light fixtures and observed that it had exploded. His best hypothesis was that a loose connection in the lamp holder can also cause bulbs to blow. How did this relate to the killing of the victim.
"Bag it up and take it to the lab for testing. Prints. Anomalies. Anything."
The technicians removed the shards of glass from the living room with care and placed it in a plastic bag for lab testing, which would take a day at least.
----
The lab analysis took twenty-four hours to complete. Despite numerous tests, they concluded that the lights were damaged by an artificial intelligence of some sort. That wasn't going to stop Gabriel from taking out his nemesis. After killing off two more of Tyler's co-workers, Gabriel set his artificial eyes on the only hope of companionship: Jacob Archer.
He was able to view the exterior of the prison and found that it was low key; only a few guards and camera's here and there. He followed the various hallways until he found who he was looking for.
He nodded slightly and materialized into the computer system's mainframe and started his work. He deactivated any camera's and then materialized next to Jacobs prison cell.
"Who are you?" Jacob spoke with a yawn. He stood up and approached the flickering light that stood on the holotank.
"My name is Gabriel. I am an artificial intelligence created to serve Doctor Tyler Reed."
"What do you want."
"I have come here to help you escape. We both have a common enemy whom must be terminated."
Jacob thought about it for a moment. It was too good to be true, but under the circumstances the A.I. was right. "Very well. Who do you need terminated that requires my expertise? Why not do it yourself?"
The alarms sounded in the hallway. Time was being wasted and Gabriel knew it. He deactivated the barrier that separated Jacob and the hallway.
"Because I need a handler. I cant do it alone."
----
While the medical examiner was conducting the autopsy of Henry Jones, the lab technicians were busy inspecting the light fixtures and lamps. They removed the bulbs with care and placed them on the table. With a close inspection Emily witnessed that the lights look like they exploded.
"What do you think did this?" Emily asked.
The lab technician examined the lights with an interest, "Looks like the socket is blown."
"Any idea what could have caused this?"
"Not a clue. A short circuit maybe?"
Emily walked away from the table and exited the lab, heading down the corridor until she reached the autopsy room. She pushed herself past the doors and made her way towards the examination table where the body was still being examined. The body was split in half from the collar bone to the groin. She immediately turned away and felt nauseous, then she threw up, vomit hit the ground and the air filled with digested stench.
Jason was busy talking with the ME when the stench of vomit hit his nostril. He coughed and then gagged. "What the hell Emily?"
"I just saw the body and then it hit me." She said in between coughs.
Jason approached Emily and guided her out of the room. "Thanks doc. You've been helpful." Then to Emily, "Anything on the lighting."
"Nothing but a short circuit."
The two walked down the corridor, keeping at a slow pace. "What the ME found was quiet shocking. Two bite marks that were definitely spider bites, but not poison. Well - poison - but not what you think."
Emily was confused, "So what then?"
"The poison was Sarin in liquid form. Its odorless and colorless, the perfect assassination tool."
"And how does that relate to our killer?"
"The person may very well have no idea what's going on. Their chest tightens, vision blurs. If the exposure was great enough, that can progress to convulsions, paralysis, and death within 1 to 10 minutes."
"Anything else, Doctor Mindfreak?"
Jason sighed, "The victim was injected with the poison which amounts to only one thing: Spider robots."
"So what can be controlling these robots?"
"Not sure. A person? A supercomputer? Lets see what we got on those lights."
A CSI technician busted from one of the lab doors, he looked like he was panicking, "Detective! You need to see this!"
They entered a room with a holotank in the middle. "What is it?" Jason said.
The tech activated the Holotank and a video of the prison appeared on the screen. It displayed an entity hacking into the camera's. The camera's footage disappeared and then the video panned to Jacobs prison cell along with an AI sitting on the holotank next to the cell. The conversation was muted, but each of them was fascinated by what they seen before them.
"Anyway you can audio." Jacob asked.
"Negative, sir. This is all we got. The A.I. must of blocked it out."
Jacob leans on the holotank to inspect the A.I's appearance, but it was fuzzy and hard to identify. Despite this, he's already putting the odd pieces together. "Just an educated guess. This A.I. must have commanded the spider robots somehow and killed our victim." Turning to the CSI tech, "I want you to send this to digital forensics and get this A.I. more clear so we can begin analyzing who our suspect is and where it came from." He continued to observe the footage and found that the prisoner was breaking out of the cell with the help of the A.I. "And I want to know about our prisoner, same thing digital reconstruction. Then compare with whoever we have in our databases as well as ONI and UNSC." He pushed himself away from the holotable and turned to Emily, "We got this bastard. Whatever it is."
----
The technician works on the photo until it is blown up and clear as day, "There you go, Agent Miller."
Jason leans behind the technician studying the photo. He points to the male looking human in prison fatigues. "There who is that." He taps the screen of the prisoner.
"On it." The technician says as he works on the image. He then blows it up and searches the database finding a match. "Doctor Jacob Archer, former teacher at Georgia Institute of Technology, arrested for sexual battery, and serving 1 year in the state pen."
To be Continued...
Category:Short stories