Jamie had already considered the possibility Tak had been “chipped,” an outside source manipulating his actions through electrodes implanted in his brain. Not as far-fetched as it sounded, considering the advances made in medical science and artificial intelligence.
“But remotely?” Cody challenged.
“Bluetooth,” Jay replied. “Nothing needs to be hard-wired anymore.”
“Motherfucker,” Zander grumbled, shifting his bulk and making his chair groan in complaint. “Has to be a defense contractor. Those fuckers have been pushing the limits on neural engineering for years.”
“Let’s assume for the sake of argument, Tak’s carrying one of those chips around in his head,” Adam said. “Can you get it out?”
“Don’t know,” Jamie replied, his gaze returning to the scans on the board. “The processor obviously has a kill switch. Whether gunned down at the scene or not, those shooters weren’t going to make it through the night alive.”
“Jesus Christ.” Cody frowned. “It’s all fucking connected. Dominion, the Imperium Council, Johnson, Tak, and now super soldiers? How do we fight this shit? Where do we even start?”
“The contractors,” Adam said. “Z, any idea who has this kind of advanced capability?”
“Fuck,” he replied. “All the leading defense companies are into this shit, some private companies too, but it’s not like they’re going public with their research without FDA approval to conduct human trials. I’ll need to do some digging.”
“Alright, hand over what you can to Cody or Davis and get on it,” Adam ordered. “But keep it on the down low. We don’t want to give away what we know.”
“Roger that,” Zander said, accepting his new responsibilities with the same easy-going manner he applied to everything.
“What about Tak?” Chase asked. “Would a neural implant be capable of messing with surveillance feeds?”
“Absolutely,” Jay replied. “We’re talking high-speed microprocessors transmitting information faster than the human brain. A neural implant would feed location data into a computer. The computer does the rest. Creating a program to scramble individual facial features at point of contact would be child’s play.”
“Sure,” Cody huffed. “If the child was a tech genius with an IQ of eleventy billion.”
“Alright,” Adam interjected. “We need to find a way to remove the neural implants without causing any damage to the host. Doc, you’ve got the lead. Figure it out.”
He nodded. “On it.”
“Good. Jay, what’s the status on locating Rebecca?”
“The trap’s been set,” he replied. “Now we wait until she finds the bogus file on Johnson’s computer and tries to break in. Had to make it hard so we wouldn’t raise her suspicions, but she’ll crack the code, and when she does, I’ll have her.”
“Status on the helicopter?” Adam turned his attention to Chase.
“Still negotiating.”
“Money’s not an object. Give them what they want,” Adam ordered, and Chase shook his head.
“It’s not about the money. We’re looking at a next-gen MX-H7 Black Hawk. These babies don’t exist in therealworld, so it’s not like you can waltz in and buy one off the lot.”
“It’s about supply and demand,” Zander added. “And getting to the front of the line. We’re close. I’ll get it done, but it’ll take another week. Two max.”
“Jay?” Adam asked.
“Timeline works for me. It’ll be at least a week before Becca stumbles into the trap and take at least that long for her to spring it.”
“Okay, we have our timeline.” Adam checked his watch. “If anything significant changes between daily briefings, flag it.” Heads around the table nodded. “Any other issues for today?”
Jamie nodded. “Nalini Christina.”
“What about her?”
“You said so yourself, she’s a member of the JTT, even if she doesn’t know it. So how do we keep her safe, and what do we do about the people we care about when shit goes south? I’m not suggesting we make any decisions today, but I wanted to get the conversation started.”
“Good point,” Adam agreed, leaning back in his chair, entwining his fingers, and resting his hands against his abdomen. “So let’s talk about it. Who wants to go first?”
