A subset of the limited data capacity available was dedicated to the much harder to access private files of the major military and government bodies that could be tapped into from this connection. Due to the aggressive encryption used by the armed forces, it took even these computational giants some time to crack each e-mail, so focusing too much of their still small available bandwidth on downloading them alone would have been an inefficient use of their time.

However, it was while sifting through some of the e-mails from one Admiral Hamilton that one of the supercomputers’ subroutines came across a set of instructions to a former navy captain.

“Proceed immediately to Kodikkarai, India, airline and train vouchers en route under separate cover. Take command of Research Vessel King’s Transom, load and test device, Dr. West to supervise device’s dispatch and setup on King’s Transom. DO NOT declare device’s purpose, DO NOT declare mission’s purpose, DO NOT declare US government involvement or awareness, mission will be denied under all circumstances, proceed to sea at earliest possible date with assigned team awaiting orders in Indian Ocean, locate target item or remains thereof, if successful notify this office of location, retire to international waters and await further orders.”

The software had already discovered details of the earlier requests to India for access to their sovereign waters, but had not flagged them as access was not granted by the Indian government, and India had no machine capable of finding the objects in their deep sea graves. However, as this new information was analyzed and cross-referenced with the location of Kodikkarai, the subroutine automatically made the first entry in a hitherto unused section of the huge database: Potential Mission Threats.

The computer Mind overseeing all the processes and subroutines noticed the new entry with a part of its brain it had permanently dedicated to monitoring that section, no matter how empty it had been to date. Immediately the mind began to investigate. Soon the bandwidth limits for government data would be temporarily abandoned, and the combined abilities of four vast AI minds would start to seek out all relevant information and decide how to react.

The overriding goals of the supercomputers were the retrieval of the information they had been sent to gather and keeping themselves and the Agents they supported undetected until they were ready to use that data.

As an unfortunate vintner in France had unwittingly discovered, secrecy was a primary mission parameter.

Chapter 13: With Utmost Dispatch

“Now, I can’t stress how important it is that you do not mention that you are from the Institute.” James had reiterated to Neal and Madeline as the chartered turboprop had made its way to the small landing strip outside Kodikkarai.

“We get it, James, honestly, we get it.” Madeline replied earnestly, “I am here as your bit of fun.”