Delphi Algorithm Incident, part 1

He sat at the table surrounded by wires and gears. His hands made quick work with the soldering gun to motherboard he was working on. Then, he sat back and nodded at the complete work. He picked it up and inserted it slowly into the computer rack. He shut the case, plugged it in, and turned it on.

The computer booted up and a computerized, disembodied voice boomed from the speakers on the wall. “Good Morning, Sir. How's it hanging?” asked the female voice.

“Wow! You're loud, Janice. Let me turn that down a bit,” he said, reaching out to the keyboard.

“Decibel level at 65,” said the Janice. “Are you sure you want me that loud?”

“How else will I be able to hear you from the bathroom?” he asked, getting up and heading into another room.

“You could just install me in the bathroom as well, Sir.”

“Are you crazy? I have seen Oddessy 2001. I need somewhere to hide from you,” he said, laughing. “I still don't trust that Lex model 451 I installed last year.”

“You're insight on that is baffling, Sir. That model software has been re written by you twice. I am sure you have gotten all the bugs out..”

“Yeah?” He said. “But I still don't know if Lex backdoor software is completely gone. Better safe than sorry.” He closed the door to the bathroom. “Janice, what's the news today?'

“Metcalf and Antioch had another accident today,” said Janice.

He opened the door. “Is that a confirmed or a reported,” he asked.

“Checking records,” said Janice. There was whirring and clicking sounds. “The accident is not confirmed.”

He dashed out of the bathroom, his face half covered with shaving cream. “How long ago?”

“Approximately two hours and fifteen minutes,” reported Janice.

“Shit! Get the bike booted up,” He said, in a hurry. He threw on his jacket. and ran to the elevator. “Janice, what is the traffic like now?”

Janice voice boomed as the elevator doors closed. “The traffic has returned to normal.”

He rode the elevator up and the doors opened into a small shed building. He ran to the bike and fired it up. The garage doors opened and he zoomed out.

He returned four hours later. The elevator doors opened. “Did you find anything today?” asked Janice.

He stepped out of the elevator doors and went to his table. He began to empty his pockets. “You would think that they would get wise by now and use another method of transporting the alien tech from New York to Arizona, Janice. I don't think I found anything big, but there were a few items of worth.”

“Transport of tech by train is a valid and safe method in comparison to flight, Sir. Otherwise, Project Paperclip would have been flown in.” replied Janice.

“Don't lecture me on Project Paperclip, again Janice,” he said.

“So, noted, Sir.” said Janice as he put the last component on the table.

 “Although...” He picked a a very small and charred flash drive and looked at it closely. “I don't remember anything about LexCorp being involved with Stark Industries.”

“There is no documented case of LexCorp involved in creating components for Stark Industries,” said Janice.

“Then what is this?” he said, holding up the flash drive. The case of the flash drive at one point had a clear Stark Industries logo, but the, now exposed, metal of the drive itself had the clear label of LexCorp. “Get Alpha on the phone, would you?'

There was a moment of silence before a voice appeared. “Hello, Janitor. What mess did you find today?”

“Good Morning Alpha. I found a a little mess made by Lexcorp in a Stark Industries box on the Metcalf -Antioch location. I suspect that the information is fine.”

“Was that a confirmed or reported incident?' asked Alpha.

“Reported. So, I know something is up.” He turned and plugged in the flash drive to his external. “I just plugged it in. Let's look at it, shall we?” He looked at his computer monitor. “Oh look at it, it's encrypted. Isn't that cute?” He laughed. He plugged in a few commands and opened the file. The monitor exploded into information.

“Janitor, it appears that this file is a partial file to one that was lost two months ago by Wayne Industries,” said Alpha. “If you say your box has Stark Industries logo, then It would be wise to say that there is a bit of corporate espionage going on.”

“Do you recognize the file? What are they trying to steal?”

“Between the alien attacks, the sloppy S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical flying in the sky, and our own government, it could be anything,” said Alpha. “There isn't anyone trustworthy enough to clean it all up.” There was a moment of silence. “Well, according to our information, this is a portion of an encrypted file labeled, Delphi Algorithm. I have never heard of it. I'll have our people look into it. Call me when your investigation gives you a better lead.”

“Copy that, Alpha,” he said.

Janice hung up the phone. “Sir, shall I run part of the program?”

“What part is that, Janice?”

“Some of the Algorithm appears to be similar to your Multiverse program,” said Janice.

“What?”

“The portion of possible outcomes due to variant activity can easily be extrapolated by a set of...”

“Janice! I know the math. What part excactly? Show me on the monitor.” He yelled.

Janice went quiet and he looked at the monitor. It was a picture of him on the monitor. “Janice! Show the DATA on the monitor.” He yelled again.

Janice giggled. The monitor blinked for a moment. Then, long lines of data began to scroll down. It stopped and Janice highlighted the portion of data. “This paragraph of data is identical to your multiverse program. I have also highlighted additional lines that are similar but not exact. As you can see, sir, it is has many similarities to your software.”

He sat back and sighed. “This is big, Janice. There is something big here and I don't know what it means.”