Beside Myself

6. Siri Explains Some Stuff

I tried calling Chris again, with no success. Hell, I'm even surprised my phone gets enough signal to do anything in Emma's underground Nazi base here. It's close to midnight and Emma still had no luck deciphering the note or figuring out how any of the gears work. "Alright, you know what? I ain't resting until I understand how at least one of this shit works!" She brought the gear closer and threw everything else off the desk. "What do we know so far? About the note, nothing. About the gun, it's all about the internal mechanism. All we need to do is just crack it open. About the ring, I've analyzed its base. Useless. My results, however, show that the Sapphire on top is made of other elements that are not present in most Sapphires. Nothing to explain why it heats up at random times, though. How's the phone?"

"It's been on charge for the past 3 hours with little to show for. Battery is still dead."

"Mind if I take a look?" I tossed the phone at her desk and she caught it in mid-air.

"That's odd... It's in good condition, too. Maybe it doesn't need charging, but we just don't know how to-" She yawned. "-unlock it."

"Em, you look tired. Rest for now. We can continue working on this tomorrow!"

"No, no. I'm fine. I just need to rest my head for five minutes and I-" another yawn. "I'll be okay."

She folded her arms on the desk and placed her head on top. I took off my leather jacket and placed it gently on her back. I stroked her hair like I used to do before. "Goodnight, Em." and grabbed the phone and sat at the other end of the lab. What if she was right? Maybe it doesn't need recharging. There must be some kind of secret switch or something. I inspected the phone a little closer until I found a button underneath the battery cover. Okay... That's not what your everyday phones look like. I pressed the button and sure enough, the screen lit. No start up time, no company logo, nothing. All I could see was just a chat screen. An empty chat screen. I scrolled through his contacts. Oh wait, he has none. So not only did fake Zeke have no personality, but he also had no life, except for my own. The phone buzzed. Wait what? 1 unread message from sys_64. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "sys_" stand for system files? Is the phone itself texting me? I checked the message. It simple read "Hello." I took the risk and replied, not knowing for sure who I was talking to. I typed in a similar response. "Hi." Send. His reply was instant.

"Mr. Zeke Dunbar?"
"Depends. Who's this?"
"No one."
"A funny one, ain't ya? How'd you get this number?"
"Two things, Mr. Dunbar. One, I AM the number. Two, there is no number."
"English please."
"I am not a phone. I am a personal digital assistant. PDA for short."
"I know what a PDA is!"
"Which is why you mistook me for a phone, right?" Yes, folks. I am being owned by a PDA
"What are you?"
"Like I said, I am a PDA. But not just any PDA. I am a carefully designed unanimous system, tailored by Mr. Zed Baunker himself."
"Who is Zed Baunker?"
"Leader of the Activation Program, of course."
"What program?"
"Look. This is taking too long. What kind of phone do you have?"
"iPhone. Why?"
"Plug me and your iPhone into that same device I was charging from."
"Again, why?"
"I'll be able to transfer my files onto your phone, then find a better way to communicate with you"
"How do I trust you're not gonna mess up Emma's computer?"
"Well, you were dumb enough to connect me there for 3 hours!" Once again, folks...

I looked around. Emma was still there on her chair, arms folded, head on the desk. She looked tired. Being the insomniac night owl I am, I decided to follow the PDA's instructions. Hopefully he has answers to some of our questions. I got up silently and plugged my iPhone and the PDA into Emma's laptop.
Syncing...
Syncing Complete.
I removed both devices. The PDA sent me one last message.
"Now leave this here and let us go out for a drive."