The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 28

His eyes flew open to see he was lying on an examining table, chest cut open. What the? A shrill noise in his ears baffled him for a moment until he saw Doctor Hanson retreating from him, eyes wide. With a frown he pulled his chest cavity closed again and held it in place until the nanites reported surface integrity was restored.

Meanwhile, the good doctor had regained her senses and was pressing a button on the wall. Sitting up, he asked, "What are you doing, Doctor?"

"You're supposed to be dead."

"Yeah, I gathered. Dying sucks." His HUD flared to life, reporting attempts to compromise it from external sources and a recommendation that he shut down all external communication. He instead instructed it to log communication attempts without further processing. "Doctor, I recommend you cancel the alarm and report that you were startled by spurious nanite activity."

When she didn't comply, he launched across the room at her, pinning her to the wall. Unfortunately, she screamed in his ear. I understand, now. This is why the humans need to be monitored. He slashed her throat open, then stepped away from her body to examine the room.

His HUD pinpointed the cameras in the room, confirming his suspicion that he'd have company soon. Acting quickly, he ordered his comms unit to begin hacking attempts on the computer systems while he tore open a cut on his palm and dripped a few drops of blood over the computer terminal Doctor Hanson had been using.

Moving to the door, he repeated the process of adding a smear of blood to the access panel. Once that was done, he sat back and waited. Please don't send them, please don't send them, I really like them, please don't send...

"Fuck." He saw the familiar faces of Jost and Gertrud come through the door of the room. "You could have stayed away, you know," he stated as Gertrud aimed a high-caliber side arm at him.

"Sorry, man. German military and all that," Jost said. "No hard feelings?"

Aoloa shook his head. "No hard feelings." He commanded the nanites to initiate overrides.

Jost's eyes widened when he suddenly realized he couldn't move. Gertrud didn't have enough meat left in her face for that much. Aoloa went back to the door and closed it, then turned to contemplate the two people he'd spent the most time with in the facility.

Via his HUD, he connected to their onboard systems, then read out the control codes for the rest of the complex. They didn't have enough control to get him all the way out, and the truth was the cameras would cause overrides to be initiated. Despite that, it was enough to give him a chance.

"Jost, Gertrud, I think of you as friends, and friends stick together." With that, he made them lead the way towards the exit while his nanites continued to seep into Doctor Hanson's computer.

---

Two floors and five cyborgs later, Aoloa was back in a communication room, facing Colonel Wolf. "You won't escape. You realize that, don't you?"

"Tell you what, I'll just sit in here with my friends until you decide to let me go."

Colonel Wolf laughed as Aoloa sat down on the floor, waiting. She cut off the hologram. Aoloa took that as his cue to get some rest. He dozed peacefully, flickering to awareness now and then when he heard a noise in the hallway. After an hour of peace, the hologram flickered back to life. "We aren't going to feed you. You may as well surrender yourself now."

"Yes, well, I prefer not to deal with those who operate in bad faith without some leverage. I think I'll take my chances in here."

She cut off the hologram with a casual shrug, and slightly narrowed eyes.

A half hour later, she reappeared. "Look, your feeble attempts to hack our network aren't doing you any good. Our techs have assured me you cannot break into our network. You've got two good soldiers in there with you, and we'd rather not lose them."

He looked at her lazily and ordered his comms unit to increase its efforts to get into their computer systems. "I'll stop the hacking attempts if your provide us with regular meals," he stated, eyes barely open.

She laughed mockingly as the hologram cut off again. Aoloa smiled to himself.

Two hours later, the colonel reappeared, scowling. "What did you do?" she demanded.

He opened one eye. "Are you prepared to release me, Colonel?"

"My engineers assure me you haven't breached our cyber-security, but Hokulani is now contacting us, demanding to know what we did to you, and making threats that we've violated the terms of our agreement. They cannot explain how you've communicated with her."

"Clearly, I haven't. Perhaps she is just fortuitously suspicious by nature." He stretched. "I'd kill for a good steak," he added casually.

Her scowl deepened. Then the hologram cut off again. He turned to his companions. "I think it's time for us to leave."

With that, he roused himself and had them lead him up to the cafeteria.