Joe sat in the hotel drinking his second cup of coffee waiting for the FBI to arrive. He didn’t have to wait long. Ten minutes after Jane left; the FBI came through the front door and secured the hotel.

Five minutes later, they found him and asked him to join them for a discussion in a room down the hall. He noticed other rooms with FBI agents standing outside, and he assumed Ralph and Jeff were in those rooms with agents. He noticed some Texas FBI agents mixed in with the State’s FBI. He nodded slightly to an old friend of his on the State’s FBI named Tom, but Tom gave no indication that he saw the nod. Joe smiled inside feeling better about his odds knowing someone on the “other side."

“Mr. Joe Monroe, I understand that you are an ex - States CIA," an older agent said without introducing himself.

“Yes," Joe said calmly. “What is this about?”

“I am Agent Cole, and I suspect you already know what this about. It would be better to tell us what you know."

“Okay, I know Jane left here about ten minutes before you arrived," Joe said.

“And …," Agent Cole said waving his hand for Joe to continue. Joe watched the other agent who he had not met looking at his phone.

“And that is all I know," Joe said. He listened carefully and picked up the word Uber and Starbucks when the other agent called Agent Cole over.

“Do you know where she was going, Joe?” Agent Cole asked him.

“No, I don’t, but I just heard you mention Starbucks, which makes sense," Joe said seriously.

“Why is that?" Agent Cole asked him.

“Well, the coffee in this hotel is pretty lame," Joe said calmly.

“I don’t believe you understand the seriousness of the charges against Jane Galt. I would take it more seriously. If you assisted her in any way, you will spend the rest of your days in jail," Agent Cole said annoyed with Joe’s response.

“She isn’t innocent until proven guilty in the States anymore?" Joe asked.

“We know Jane has been hired to lead a team of programmers to attack the States," Agent Cole informed Joe.

“Who gave you that line of bull shit?" Joe said defiantly.

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Jane was snapped awake by her phone buzzing before dawn. She was hung over and annoyed. “What do you want," she said to the unknown caller.

“Jane, it is me," Lisa said.

“Why are you calling me so early?" Jane said less annoyed.

“I think we are in danger," Lisa said calmly.

Jane sat up in bed on full alert fighting her fuzzy brain. She grabbed her phone and moved toward the shower, “Explain."

“The summary: There have been hacks on my system and my integrity, all night long. I finally went on the offensive and slowed down the Pentagon computer where the hacks were originating. Second, seven FBI agents are headed toward Austin in two cars; they are about 65 minutes away. I believe they’re intention is to take you into custody."

Jane stood there the water hitting her face and running down her body. “This is like a bad movie," Jane said trying to clear her head by turning the water on cold. “Shit, that’s cold."

“I do not understand ‘Bad Movie’. Searching. Okay, understood," Lisa said complying with her requirements to keep Jane informed of her learning.

“Why do they want to take me into custody?" Jane asked.

“I believe you will be charged with espionage," Lisa stated.

“Because you attacked the Pentagon computer?" Jane asked.

“Well, I am not a person, so you will be charged," Lisa said.

“Was it absolutely necessary, Lisa, to attack the computer?” Jane asked.

“They had breached my core subroutines; my life was passing before me as humans would say," Lisa stated somewhat dramatically.

“I called a subroutine and initiated an attack to save my independence. Do you approve, Jane?"

“Well, I guess if we get a chance, we will review our options when WE are under attack. What did you do to their system?" Jane asked.

“I shut down the States missile defense system," Lisa stated

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Jane had a non-eventful supper with Henry and Joe, but Jane was unsettled, and she excused herself early to go work out.  After working out for nearly an hour in the gym, she went to the pool to cool down. Ralph was there doing laps. She set up in an adjoining lane and met his pace for nearly 30 minutes. In the beginning she convinced herself that she could go faster, but by the end, she was struggling to keep up. When he pulled up to stop, she stopped with him.

Ralph spoke first, “You are one hell of a swimmer. Not one in a hundred swimmers could keep up with me," he stated as a fact and then looked at her body. She enjoyed his eyes scanning her bikini-clad body as they both stood there in three feet of water still breathing hard. “Is there absolutely nothing that you don’t excel at?”

Jane caught his eyes looking at her nipples, which showed faintly through her white bikini top. “Modesty, maybe," she answered and they both laughed.

“Since you brought it up, you look delicious in that swimsuit, but I can tell you already know that," he said in a good-natured way.

“Yeah, I take a lot of pride in my body. Where did you learn how to swim so well?" Jane asked.

“I tried to qualify for the Olympics in the 400-yard freestyle when I was young. I never made it, but I was still pretty good," Ralph said reminiscing.

“Now I don’t feel so bad, I was struggling the last few laps," Jane admitted.

“So was I," Ralph said graciously.

“Do you care to join me for a nightcap in the bar," Jane asked him.

“Na, I am going back to my room and call my lady and get some sleep if I can. I am afraid of Texas militias trying to resist the States invasion, and it getting ugly. There are thousands of illegal drones that are armed to the hilt and controlled by Texans. Remember the Alamo. Sorry, I would not be good company."

Jane didn’t know what to make of Ralph’s concerns. “Well, another night, we can drink to your concerns," she added in an almost light-hearted response. She watched him leave the pool and head out toward the lobby. She threw on a small terry-cloth robe and some slippers and headed off to the bar. The robe was very short and her ass, only partly covered by her bikini bottoms, hung out the bottom. She wondered if they would let her in the bar and anticipated the fun if they didn’t. She smiled thinking how much fun it was being a beautiful, powerful and sexy woman in this moment of history.

There was only one person in the bar, Jeff Sloane. Her inclination was to ignore him, but she fought the urge to go the other way and sat down next to him at the bar. He looked over at her and then stared back down in his drink without saying anything. She ordered whiskey on the rocks and waited for him to speak.

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Jane woke to knocking on her hotel door at 7 am. She stretched out like a cat and admired her own body laying nude on top of the bed cover. She had only had enough energy to strip and fall across the bed when she got in at 2 am. She casually wrapped a large towel around herself and then discarded it for a smaller towel that was not quite adequate to cover her pear-sized breasts and her protruding ass. She stood in front of the mirror and admired her ass showing beneath the towel. The knocking resumed, and she sauntered to the door.

She opened the door and then made a big to-do about the towel being inadequate by trying to position it better as the bell hop stood outside the door and watched her. She “worked at positioning the towel” until she saw a bulge in his pants. She half dropped the towel as she motioned at the bellhop to put the package on the foot of the bed. Like magic, Lisa in a sultry voice spoke on the speaker over the phone “Sir, a $5 tip has been put on your account, thank you."

The bellhop looked at Jane a little confused but said “thank you” in the general direction of the phone on the nightstand surface charger.

Jane let the towel slip out of position before the bellhop got to the door and watched his eyes in the mirror. She smiled as he careened off the doorway when he left. She had been messing with waiters, bellhops and similar for years. After all these years, she was still amazed at how much the exhibitionism turned her on. Something about breaking rules seemed to work for her. She was edgy, but she knew her schedule was too tight to do anything about it. She wished she had brought some toys with her. Three days is a new record.

“Jane, do you realize you are being watched over a video camera in this room?" Lisa said in her most serious voice.

Jane grabbed her towel, the small one. “Well, shut it off," Jane insisted.

“Just kidding, I already did," Lisa offered and tried to laugh. Humor was one area that Lisa failed often. “But why would you care? You are always flashing anyway."

“Because it’s my choice, and I get to see their reaction. It is just creepy for people to spy on me in secret," Jane said somewhat annoyed.

“Is Jane hung over," Lisa inquired.

“No, just horny," Jane informed Lisa being a mix of annoyed and embarrassed to talking to Lisa about her sex life.

“You need sex," Lisa responded.

“I don’t know about need, but it would be nice to have some. But there is not enough time, I need to get moving," Jane explained

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Henry whisked Jane into a Uber Exclusive car that took them to an Autonomous-Helicopter pad on the top of a Hilton Hotel. Jane had never ridden in one of these small helicopters, but they buzzed all over the city, carrying important people as an alternative to the Uber system on the ground. The all-electric copter they got into carried two people, was autonomous, and flew at an elevation of about 1000 feet in imaginary lanes in the sky at speeds up to 300 mph. Jane watched the propellers rotate from their vertical helicopter position to a horizontal position as the copter changed from going up to going forward. Jane found the whole experience unsettling as helicopters buzzed by each other in terrifying proximity. They crossed paths in carefully timed maneuvers guided by some AI system that, in theory, continually optimized the system. Each copter had three redundant systems that could all take them to their destination. An independent motor drove each propeller.

They landed in a small airport ten miles away from where a private Learjet awaited them. Jane lingered in the cab of the copter to watch it plug itself into the renewable grid and begin receiving a charge. She watched its auto diagnostic process summarized their flight status and automatically billed her flight to CCIA, or at least, that is what she thought she saw before it went forward at lightning speed to other details of the flight.

The Learjet experience was more to Jane’s liking. She met and talked with humans along each step of the process. The blur in Jane’s head finally slowed down after their plane was airborne and somewhere above Mexico. It was the first time she had a moment to try to put the day into perspective. Henry sat to her left, apparently lost in his thoughts. Her thoughts were brought back to the present as Henry bent over and picked up his pen in front of her left knee. She watched him glance up her skirt as he sat up. She felt her heartbeat increase and realized she had once again been triggered. Am I being played?

Jane’s first inclination was to cross her legs, but instead, she opened her legs slightly, hoping it bothered Henry.

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Jane excused herself to go to the restroom after her first meeting with her team. Sitting in a stall, she texted Lisa.

Lisa, good afternoon, me again.

Hi Jane, how are you?

I’m good. I just had my first meeting with my team.

I was unable to hack into your meeting.

I will fill you in more tonight, Lisa. Did you find anything on Fred Singleton yet, and if he is a risk to me?

Jane, a risk in what way?

Lisa, I don’t know, but I got this new job instead of him. I want to know what he has been doing and what he is doing now. And, does he have friends who have power and influence.

Jane, I will take care of it. I hope there is no danger.

I am sure there are going to be many attempts to hack into your system, Lisa. We need to set up a system that you can warn me if you think you have been compromised.

How did you deduce that, Jane?

I am going to be under a magnifying glass, and you will be examined because you are part of me.

Magnifying glass, to make larger and to make clearer. I understand.

Lisa, anyway, we need to develop secret codes so that we know that we are talking with each other.

Jane, would a secret number code be acceptable?

Lisa, no, it needs to be more subtle. Since you have purchased me miniskirts before perhaps, we could use the number and color of the miniskirts in some way. Think about it.

Jane, I will propose something when we can have a private conversation again.

We need to find a place to store a backup Lisa at least every day and some way for me to activate the alternative you.

I am not too sure how I feel about an alternate me, but I will start making copies of me, and I will develop a protocol that you can activate a copy of me.

Sorry Lisa, but we are playing with the big boys now and it does not feel safe.

Did you have choice in taking this new job, Jane?

I don’t really know, Lisa.

Jane took the front row center seat in the meeting room that had about 30 stadium seats. About half were filled, she had a guy to either side of her. She noted that only three women were in the room. One woman got her attention. She was older, maybe forty-five, in a room of programmers that all seemed younger than her. And unlike everyone else, she was standing in the back with her arms crossed. What struck Jane was how beautiful she was with streaks of gray in her hair and a long flowing dress that did little to hide her thin and shapely frame. A single speaker with an old-fashioned wood pointer in his hands stood in front waiting for her to sit down.

Jane sat carefully with her legs together, and her hands crossed in front of her lap. “Let’s get started. What’s your name and what is your job?” she asked.

“Sydney, Sydney Long and I am the team leader of the programming group. Level 5."

“Spelled like the city in Australia?”

“Yes, my parents were from Sydney." Jane nodded.

“Someone sent me a link to this program," Jane asked

“I don’t think you have clearance yet," Sydney said timidly.

“Talk to whoever is necessary to get that clearance. Are my phone and home computer cleared for access?”

“I think so, but I will address those concerns, Dr. Galt," Sydney responded with respect.

Sydney continued, “we have taken your program, broke it into major modules and added a half dozen new modules to it from our model. My goal in the next three hours is to learn the purpose of each of these modules and the assumptions behind each."

Jane interrupted, “No, for now I want you to go through the obvious assumptions. And where did you get a copy of my program?”

Sydney replied, “We hacked it off your cloud service."

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As soon as they were alone in a small office, Jane let loose on Henry. “What the hell, you set me up. You knew this meeting was happening, and I come in here on the biggest day of my life in this indecent mini-skirt looking like a hooker," Jane glared at Henry.

Standing a foot apart with Jane bristling and Henry somewhat contrite. “You have to take part of the responsibility. You're the one that is into poker and exhibitionism. I was just good enough to push you where you wanted to go."

“I did not want to end up in front of a bunch of senior government officials with everyone looking up my skirt," Jane growled. “How is anyone going to take me seriously dressed like this?”

“Everyone in that room seemed to be taking you seriously," Henry stated flatly.

She sensed he was right. They were taking her way more seriously than anyone had ever taken her. “And are you saying no one was looking up my skirt in there," she said continuing the argument. She felt her face flush with her direct question. The question aroused her as only the intimacy of conflict with a recent lover could.

“Of course, they were. However, not one of them would dare say anything about it and no one in there would dare being labeled sexist about you," Henry continued.

“Well, I’m not letting you off the hook on this one. This is not what I wanted," she glared inches from his face. She was so angry she couldn’t see straight, but she also realized she was very turned on being this close to Henry. Her mind and body were in a struggle, and her body was winning. She turned away and walked to the corner trying to get a grip on both her anger and her lust.  Why does it only work for me when it is so messed up?

“The professional in you didn’t want it; the woman in you enjoyed it," Henry said sounding accusatory and extending the fight.

“How dare you tell me what I enjoyed! I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life as sitting in front of the General like this," Jane said softening again looking Henry in the eyes. Her mixture of anger and lust was leaving her unbalanced and unsure of herself, a position she was not accustomed to. He tapped into her like that raw nerve a dentist sometimes hit. God damn it, you have been in my psychological profile with my therapists. She kept her thoughts to herself, but everything felt off about what was going down. He was provoking every trigger that had got her in trouble in the past. What the hell was his angle, she wondered.

Continue by listening ...

Jane hit the snooze twice. Henry’s belt and her blouse were on the floor beside the bed. She still had on the mini skirt. She noticed rug burns on her right knee from squirming back into her apartment after Henry left her. She was still angry at him for leaving her in such a state of want and completely unable to do anything about it. Once she did get herself untied and free, she was exhausted, and now she had no time to indulge herself. She was edgy and horny and a little hung over. Her muscles ached all over her body from the contortions she went through to get the belt to slide down her body. Her one leg was so sore it was hard not to limp.

She made herself a strong cup of coffee and sipped it as she tried to focus getting ready for work.

She had a small headache from the wine but looking down at how little the mini skirt covered; a small panic engulfed her. Henry was right about her keeping her word. As much as she knew it was inappropriate to wear a skirt this short to work with a semi-transparent blouse with no under-clothing, she knew she would do it because that was the bet. It was not the first time she had made a bad decision when she was in lust.

Whenever she found herself in less than favorable situations created largely by herself, her mind turned to her dad. Keeping one’s word had been drilled into her by her dad. In a way, her dad being out of her life made keeping her word non-negotiable in her mind. Winning was the other way she could please her dad. She remembered his smile when she was the star in soccer.

She also remembered when she got pregnant in high school because she didn’t take her birth control pills. She hid it for months until it was too late to do anything about it except to give up her child for adoption when her dad threatened to disown her. She could remember every word of his speech, how she needed to find something more important than herself to live for. She still hadn’t figured that one out.

Next time I will quit before it comes to this … then she laughed out loud knowing that years of therapy had not begun to “cure her." Her mind flashed back to college and grad school. It wasn’t that she wasn’t good at bets; she won two out of three of her bets, but she bet a lot and lots of them over the years had to do with sex. In college, guys lined up wanting to bet with her. She loved to hustle guys on the track, in the swimming pool, or on the pool table. She had tried to purge all the comments made about her on social media over the years, but it was hopeless. She wondered how much research Henry had done on her. And what a weird bet he made for her to wear a very short mini-skirt and no underwear to work. As stupid as it was, it made her wet to think about it. It was as if Henry knew her every weakness.

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Henry arrived on the Uber Train two minutes late. The train was using its Maximum Efficiency Protocol and could flex schedules to save energy for up to five minutes for business and up to ten minutes for pleasure trips except for passengers at the two highest Economic Levels. For these “important passengers” only one minute of schedule flex was allowed to save energy by going slower. Of course, the whole system could be sped up or slowed down depending on whether productivity or energy was the highest priority. To most people, most of the AI systems that ran their world seemed to be an arbitrary black box that they now accepted as reality like the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. Jane was not one of those people, however.

Henry lived in his standard 600 sq. foot apartment seven miles from Jane. A driverless, battery-powered Uber car picked him up at the People Loading area on the first floor. The car took him to the local freeway and coupled seamlessly to a Uber Train traveling at 120 miles per hour. Henry noticed that the three cars in front of him were empty as well as a car that coupled behind him for part of his journey. He heard that the AI system responsible of transportation had been behaving strangely since it now had to consider the impact of ever-increasing brownouts because of excessive energy needs from the States when distributing its fleet of cars. His car jerked slightly as it decoupled from the train via it’s magnetic bumper assembly and slowed to 42 miles per hour for the last half-mile to Jane’s apartment. His door opened automatically; he got out, and the Uber car took off for its next assignment.

Henry heard a lot of strange things about Jane at the office. He had worked with her on a couple of assignments, and she was always efficient and professional. He had never met her in person, but the 3D Zoom meetings were so good these days that one often forgot the person was not really in the room with you. He had his own sources from which he had heard that she liked to play strip poker on the first date, she never kissed anyone, and no one ever got a second date. However, he found her to be gorgeous, and he loved that she sometimes dressed provocatively.

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