What If...? Rumlow Turned Against Hydra: Book One

26

He had no sense of time, no idea how long he'd been pushing at the problem, whether he was tired and needed to rest, or if he was hungry and needed food. It had happened before on occasion when he was deep in some program or project, losing all sense of himself. He was getting too old for such things, there was no way he'd hold up physically like he used to, but he couldn't stop, his focus had to be on the problem, the project, the program. Obsession was a mild word for the state Matthias found himself in. He was beyond obsession as his entire existence became the Zola AI and his attempts to stop it.

He was lost in the complexity of the AI, how it really did resemble a human mind at times while also acting like any computer program. He was fascinated by how it could operate both on a global scale as well as narrow down its focus to Project Insight and the virus that had ground it to a halt. Matthias found it beautiful in many ways, causing him to desire to possess it as much as he wanted to stop it. There were other AI programs in the world, most notably with Tony Stark, yet he understood in some ways Zola was beyond the others. He was becoming feverish, insane, as he imagined being able to be rid of Zola while keeping the other components of the AI. With that program, the organization would be able to increase its strength, its presence and its power. That was an intoxicating thought as Matthias slowly used the worm that had been introduced into the Zola AI to push deeper, undetected so far.

As delightful as the AI was, he concluded it was still a computer program, nothing more than a simulacrum of a human being. There were residual elements of humanity there, creating weaknesses to be exploited, but it was also limited by the program itself. The AI could go anywhere the internet existed, if it wanted to, but only if it knew of the place to go to. It was oblivious to the organization, allowing itself to be blinkered by the organization's protocols when they had gone into hiding years earlier. There were always unexpected consequences to any action, often not known for a long time after the fact. One of the consequences of the organization hiding itself so well was they were unknown to Zola, an outcome that had been an accident. They hadn't known of the AI when they'd made the organization disappear from Hydra's knowledge. Zola had been obviously trying to remain human as much as possible, using the AI's program to that end, oblivious to the organization with no ability to find it, even by accident. Matthias silently thanked Zola for his ability to create such a thing while giving it such interesting weaknesses.

He imagined that he could almost feel it, as if he had the ability to actually touch it, running his fingers over the surface of the multiple layers of code, stacked on top of each other, shimmering and iridescent. He had managed to get inside some of that code, impressive in its reach, its vastness. He could perceive the underlying program underneath it, like a foundation anchoring the rest of the structure in place. He wanted the foundation for himself, while the rest of what was built could be torn down and thrown away. It made him even more careful in what he was doing.

Progress was being made, slowly, but surely. Matthias found a small piece of code he could corrupt, slowly twisting the perception of the AI so that it would think it was helping Project Insight to recover from the virus through actions that would, in reality, hinder it more. That would last only as long as Zola remained unaware of it, but it would delay the helicarriers' launch still further. He found another small piece that made it possible for the AI to go almost anywhere and handled that even more gently, not corrupting it, merely manipulating, almost seducing it to reverse itself and tell him where the physical location of what remained of Zola was kept. That was a slow, careful endeavor, as the AI automatically tried to protect its physical location, though the resistance was becoming more passive, almost stubborn in the face of Matthias' constant attempts.

He followed another layer of code that focused itself on one particular location, not far from Fort Meade. It was a sprawling complex that would look to anyone casually driving by to be simply a company with vast offices. No one would care about it; the exterior was non-descript not revealing itself to be the location of Hydra's most sensitive projects to include the conditioning of Captain America. The AI was very particular about that site, and Matthias knew it wouldn't give up there very easily. As a last resort he could simply corrupt all of the code associated with that site, but it wouldn't help the Winter Soldier to know exactly where Rogers was or what he would be facing. Matthias had patience, slowly working his way into the AI, imagining he was undercover, in disguise, infiltrating, hiding, stealing. It was exhilarating and made him almost forget himself as he continued for hours on end, never flagging in his attempts.