MACHINATIONS OF A MACHINE MIND

“Griffin.” The voice sounded frantic, so the Enforcer stopped what he was doing and addressed his superior.

“Yeah?” Griffin watched a handful of Offworlders, real, honest-to-gosh aliens flee, their bizarre little alien bodies aching with the strain. Terrible fires raged all around him as buildings formed by the natural secretion of elements stronger than anything built by Man were consumed by carefully timed explosions.

“Jordan Bishop has employed the services of an assassin.”

“Ya’ll’re wastin’ mah tahm on this?” Griffin shot one of the insectoid freaks in the back of the head, spraying ichor and chitin everywhere.

“This assassin has recently undergone extensive remodeling at one of the Medellos Black Clinics. Here are the results.”

Griffin examined the report for all of three seconds before he dumped the data. “Ya’ll know there’s no point in worryin’.”

“My own in-depth knowledge of your … breed … was recently proven almost entirely incorrect, Griffin Jones.”

The fact that Lisa Laughlin had managed to escape, not only out of Trinityspace, but hundreds of billions of light years away, was still a sore spot with Griffin. No one could have foreseen her reaction to the offer, or her breathtaking escape. “Ya’ll’re worried this Injiri fella’s gonna kill yore precious, precious Garth N’Chalez, ain’t yew?”

“I would not be talking to you otherwise, Griffin.”

“There ain’t nuthin’ to worry about, ol’ pal. Garth will tear this fella up like a wad uh toilet paper. Yew follow me on that one? Ain’t but one person in the whole wild world that can take care of Garth N’Chalez, an’ that’s me. He’ll keep evolving hardwired defenses to deal with whutever situation rises up, don’tchu worry.”

“This is a complex situation, Griffin. In order for the scenario to pay off to the fullest extent, he needs to enter the Latelian Box and recover the information inside, but in order for him to get to the true Box, he will need to fight his way through an army.”

Griffin sidestepped a luckily aimed blob of semi-solid resin that could, over time, defeat even his own armor’s defense systems. “An’ yew don’t want him to be too rough an’ tumble. Short o’ givin’ him the fuckin’ thang, Trinity, there’t ain’t no way for him to git to it other than on his own terms.”

“I am working to provide him with a method of access that will not compromise my agent on Hospitalis. Will he take the bait?”

“Well,” Griffin shot a bolt of lightning out his fingers and watched the flickering blue light snake through the city for a while before continuing, “he might not. ‘specially if his life’s already in danger, an’ trust me, if he’s seen one of the God soldiers in action, he ain’t sleepin’ too well. Mah advice is leave the man alone. Whutever compulsion brought him there’ll be enough to git him goin’. His dislahk o’ the Armies of Man back in thu day was purty strong, an’ after whut happens in there, I reckon a lil’ nudge here and there’ll bring him on board.”

“Do you know what’s in the Box, Griffin?”

Griffin shifted hands and delivered a long torrent of vibration-filled energy directly into the core of the planet. He felt an almost sexual thrill when the crust of the insect world began to rupture and buckle under the monumental stress. “Not really, Trin. Garth was the only one was ever s’posed to go in there in the first goddamn place. Mission parameters or something. I tole y’what Lisa said afore she fucked off. Garth ain’t no good to no one until he gets inside, and if y’try an’ stop him, only thing’ll happen is a whole lotta trouble comin’ your way.”

“Was he loyal to the Armies of Man?” Trinity pressed.

“If he was, he’s madder’n a hatter, old hoss. Th’ thangs they did to ‘im, well hell, they were worse’n anything I ever saw.” Griffin flew up and away from the planet before the core of the planet erupted and headed on to his next target. “O’ course, he was on board with stoppin’ the M’Zahdi Hesh an’ alla that, but it was all for personal reasons.”

“Very well.” Trinity ended the communication abruptly.

As he continued delivering death and destruction to the insect race, Griffin shook his head in disgust. Ten thousand years into the future, master of trillions of lives, and the goddamn computer was still an idiot.