Dea's First Job: Copying Data

"Boss, where are you?" came the desperate voice through the crackling radio.

"Boss! Is anyone there? Please respond."

Exasperation seeped into the voice. "We've been sitting ducks here for three hours!"

Materializing from Jaime's seemingly lifeless body, Dea transformed herself into a sphere no bigger than an adult's fist. She drifted over to the radio, which emitted the incessant call for response like an echoing plea in the silence.

"Hello there," she answered, her voice soft, almost ethereal.

A sigh of relief vibrated through the receiver. "Thank heavens! Someone's finally answering. Who are you?"

"I am Dea. How may I assist you?" She responded, her tone gentle and accommodating.

Confusion permeated the next question. "A little girl? Never mind. What's the situation with the boss?"

"The boss?" Dea glanced back at Jaime's motionless form, his features cast in harsh relief by the sporadic light. "He's taken a bullet to the head."

A heavy silence fell before the voice returned, laced with trepidation. "Is he… still alive?"

Dea offered a tentative reassurance, "He's breathing. However, I believe his skull might be fractured. Despite him asking me to intercept the bullet, the force of the impact seems to have affected his skull."

One of Jack's subordinates jumped into the conversation, urgency underscoring his words. "Can you transport your boss out? We're holed up under a massive tree. We've tried navigating back to the wood camp but it's as if an invisible barrier is preventing our entry."

Dea surveyed the scene outside the camp, the towering trees standing like ancient sentinels. "There are countless trees outside the wooden camp. Could you specify which tree you're referring to?"

Frantically, Jack's subordinate questioned his comrades, "What type of tree is this?"

He gestured towards the mightiest tree nearby.

"Am I a botanist? I've no clue!"

"Can you spot the largest tree, little girl? We're stationed right underneath it."

"Although I can see numerous colossal trees, none appear to have you beneath them!" Dea's voice echoed, concern lining each word.

Dave, another of Jack's subordinates, intervened, "Don't attempt to move the boss for now, you could worsen his condition. Is he bleeding?"

Dea noted a tiny drop of crimson staining Jaime's forehead, stark against his pale skin. She confirmed, "Yes, the boss is bleeding."

"I need you to halt the blood loss," Dave instructed, his voice steady despite the dire circumstances.

Dea confessed her limitations, "How can I stop the bleeding? I lack the requisite knowledge."

After a brief pause, Dave proposed a solution. "Beside the radio, there's a smartphone. It can access the internet via satellite. Look up 'how to treat a wound.' Can you manage that, Dea?"

Dea committed to the task, "I will try my best."

"Good. Once you're done, locate a first-aid kit inside the camp and treat the boss."

With a grumble, Dave's companion protested, "Using the internet will result in a hefty bill for the boss."

"Oh, give it a rest! We've got plenty of money and gold. The boss won't bat an eye at the satellite connection fee."

Extracting a smartphone from Jack's pocket, Dea interfaced directly with the device, immersing herself in the cyber realm of information.

"Primitive technology," Dea sighed. Yet, despite the loss of her extensive knowledge, her basic programming remained intact, allowing her to function at a rudimentary level. Reading was one such basic function.

Rapidly, Dea absorbed the wealth of internet knowledge on human anatomy and wound treatment.

Turning her attention to Jaime's injury, she sent nanobots, as small as specks of nano dust, to repair the damage. They moved the fragmented pieces of his skull back into place and mended the damaged brain tissue.

Within ten minutes, Jaime's head bore no trace of injury, but he remained unconscious. Dea reported, "The boss's wound has been treated. However, he's still unconscious. I predict he will need several hours to regain consciousness."

Relieved sighs sounded over the line. Dave asked, "How did you get there?" It was a mystery, given that they had left an empty camp.

"I arrived with the boss via a portal-like room. It was a divine encounter with a god from the third dimension," Dea revealed.

They seemed confused. Tom asked, "Could you shed light on how our boss got his wound?"

Dea recounted, "Upon our arrival, a hulking man opened fire at the boss."

"Do you know the identity of this assailant?"

Dea took a moment to scan the fallen shooter, cross-referencing his face with data from the smartphone. "The man is Jack Howard, the owner of this smartphone."

"What's become of him?" Dave asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Jack Howard?"

"YES!"

"He has a small knife embedded in his neck and there's a significant amount of blood. He appears to be deceased."

"Who killed him?" Their curiosity was piqued as they had left only Jack at the location.

"I believe it was the boss."

"And who is your boss? Could you describe him?"

"He's a very handsome young boy. His name is Jaime. He's stabilized now and will awaken soon. Your boss is safe, don't worry."

"Damn it! We need to get to that camp and deal with that kid right now! He's taken down our boss!" The urgent call came to an abrupt end as they quickened their efforts to reach the logging camp.

***

I woke up to find Dea hovering in front of me, her form shimmering in the dim light. "Welcome back, master," she greeted me.

"What happened?" I mumbled, glancing around our surroundings. We were still in the wooden camp.

Dea promptly recounted the recent events - my injury, the attack, her swift immersion into the internet for medical guidance, and my subsequent treatment. I looked down at myself, surprised to find no trace of a wound. "So, you treated me effectively. Thanks," I smiled at Dea, then turned my attention to Jack's lifeless body. "Now you know, asshole! I triumphed, and you died! Any regrets now?"

"Master, he's dead and can't respond to you," Dea remarked calmly.

"Yeah, I know," I conceded, my eyes shifting to the smartphone lying next to Jack. "So, Dea, you really accessed the internet and extracted information from it?"

"Yes, I looked up medical treatment protocols and saved them in my database."

I couldn't help but grin. "Dea, you need to listen to me now. Since you erased your prior knowledge, you need to replenish it with information from the internet."

"What information should I acquire?"

"All of it."

"All?" she echoed, sounding surprised.

"Yeah! Collect data from every corner of the internet. The more information you have, the more valuable you are to me."

"Understood, master. However, I can't use just a smartphone to do that. I need to create a digital avatar and enter the internet. From there, I can hack more powerful computers to copy and compress all the information into manageable chunks that can be transferred via the smartphone."

I shrugged, not fully comprehending the technical details of her plan. "Okay, just do whatever you need to do. Access every site, every database, and copy as much as you can. Consider it your first directive. And do it as quickly as you can."

"Understood." Dea connected with the smartphone, her form flickering as she began her task.

Looking outside, I realized that night was falling. It was too late to return to the city. Resigning myself to camp here for the night, I headed to the armory room and grabbed several claymores and land mines, stuffing them into my backpack.

Stepping outside the wooden house, I began setting up my defenses, burying land mines and positioning claymores around the perimeter. "If those damn imposters dare to come here, I'm going to blow them to bits." After setting up the traps, I disposed of the dead bodies, flinging them beyond the encampment.

"Now, no one can enter this wooden camp without me knowing!" I declared, pleased with my efforts. Unbeknownst to me, nobody could enter the area surrounding the wooden camp anyway, courtesy of an invisible barrier the old man had installed. But for the moment, I felt secure and prepared.

***

Inside the bustling nerve center of the CIA's main base in Langley, a cybersecurity analyst raised the alarm, her gaze locked onto the rapidly changing data on her monitor. "Sir, we're experiencing multiple unauthorized connections infiltrating our system, and they're duplicating our entire database."

The agency chief, seated behind his desk, turned to face her, a sense of urgency etched on his face. "A cyber attack?"

"I can't confirm yet, but if it's a hacker, they've effortlessly bypassed all our defensive firewalls as if they didn't exist. I've never witnessed such a sophisticated breach before." The chief swiftly moved from his seat, hunching over the analyst's desk to get a clearer view of the situation unfolding on her screen.

"Damn, we need to locate the source of this intrusion. Trace it immediately! This operation is our top priority," commanded the chief, issuing rapid instructions to his staff.

***

Over in Russia, inside a fortified bunker, a visibly distressed aide informed his superior, "Boss, our database has been compromised. Our weapons designs are being exfiltrated!"

***

Meanwhile, in North Korea, a high-ranking officer barged into the central command room, alarm coloring his voice. "We have a breach! Our nuclear weapons data has been accessed and is being replicated!"

***

At Google's state-of-the-art headquarters, a tech specialist, his face illuminated by the glow of his multiple monitors, announced in disbelief, "We have a major security issue. An unidentified entity has breached all levels of our databases and systems. It's in the process of cloning our entire data pool!"

***

Hidden somewhere deep in Europe, a cyber vigilante recoiled in shock. "Intruder alert! We've got someone in the deep web, mirroring its entire content!"

***

In a clandestine office somewhere in the world, an alarmed employee confronted his boss, "Boss, our database is being hacked! Our adult content archives are being copied! Could this be the work of our competitors?"

"No," replied the boss, not lifting his eyes from his smartphone screen, currently displaying an influx of international reports. "I've heard that RedTube, XNXX, and xHamster have also been compromised. Someone is cloning their entire libraries."

***

Another individual in the room clutched at his hair in frustration, "Damn! This hacker's infiltrated my personal computer and copied all my data! My secret stash, which I collected illegally! I'm looking at potential jail time here!"

***

An alert suddenly popped up on the café's large screen TV, interrupting the light-hearted music video. A bewildered newscaster, still in his makeup chair, announced, "Breaking news! We've received reports of a worldwide cyber breach affecting individuals and organizations on a global scale. The culprits have not yet been identified, and the reasons behind the cyber attacks are unclear at this time. But one thing is certain - this is a coordinated global event."

"Furthermore, internet service providers globally are reporting a sudden surge in data usage, and smartphone users worldwide are complaining about battery drain issues."