Creation- The Auditor’s Apprentice

by Frank Stonely

  From his desk Hedrick could see the wall clock in the outer office. It was eleven-twenty and his stomach was starting to think about lunch. ‘That has been very enlightening,’ he said changing the subject, ‘but I should be answering your questions. After all, you will be the one sitting in this chair on Monday.’

  ‘Thank you, Hedrick, but Ravi was very helpful yesterday. I think I have a good understanding of your department and the excellent work you’ve done here.’ Hedrick couldn’t understand Anubis; one minute he was rudely critical, the next he was charming and praising his work as director. It was almost as though there were two creationists within the one body. Anubis continued, ‘There is one thing though; I would like to sit in on Apprentice Amy’s presentation this afternoon.’

  ‘Of course, it will be a pleasure to have you there.’

  Anubis looked at his watch, ‘If you’ll excuse me, Director, I have a meeting at the depository.’ With that Anubis stood up, replaced the chair with the others by the door and left Hedrick’s office.

  Daniel was staring intently at the workstation’s screen as Jessian tabbed the cursor along the line of code. Their cheeks were almost touching and his hand was resting on her shoulder. The door opened and Amy came in. Daniel looked up, his face beaming with delight when he saw her. ‘Perfect timing!’ he said, walking around the table towards her, ‘I was about to call you, come and see what Jess has found.’

  Amy didn’t move, her eyes fixed on the female sitting at the workstation, ‘Who’s she?’

  ‘It’s Jessian, we were at the Academy together, she’s a whiz at drone software,’ Daniel said, totally oblivious to Amy’s hostility. He put his arm around her shoulder, kissed her cheek, and led her towards the workstation. He repositioned one of the chairs and gestured for Amy to sit down. ‘Jess, this is Amy.’

  ‘Hi, Amy,’ Jessian said, without taking her eyes off the display, ‘Daniel’s done nothing but talk about you all morning.’ She extended her index finger and dramatically pressed the Activate key, the word Processing started to flash in the centre of the screen. ‘That’s going to take a few minutes,’ she said, resting back in her seat. She turned to look at Amy and immediately read the jealousy in her face. She smiled and leaning towards her whispered, ‘You know he’s head over heels in love with you!’ Amy relaxed and returned an embarrassed smile.

  Daniel lifted himself up, and sat on the edge of the conference table behind them. ‘We’ve been searching the revision library for firmware bugs.’

  ‘Firmware bugs?’ Amy asked.

  ‘Yes, it’s software jargon,’ Jessian explained. ‘A firmware bug is an error in the code downloaded to the drone that makes it do the wrong thing. Usually, they’re found during testing, but sometimes they get missed and then lie, hidden, like a ticking bomb in the system. We’ve been looking for anything that could cause the problems you’ve found, those multiple languages and religions, especially if they were written by Anubis.’

  ‘Jess has come up with some really cool search algorithms. They can drill down into the code and recognise Anubis’ programing style.’

  A bleep sounded, and Jessian sprang up, arms raised, like a winning prize-fighter. ‘yes, yes, YES!’ she shouted. Both Daniel and Amy jumped with surprise. She slumped back down in her seat, staring into the screen, ‘Look! There it is, our ticking time bomb!’ The lines of code on the display meant nothing to Amy but everything to Daniel and Jessian. Their index claws tapped enthusiastically against the display as they discussed the coding error.

  ‘Who wrote the code?’ Amy said, trying to contribute.

  ‘Sabiun 91, according to the revision log.’

  ‘Is it still there, the bug?’

  ‘No, looking at the dates it probably only flew a few missions before it was fixed.’

  ‘What did it do?’

  ‘Not sure, but it definitely would have caused multiple events, it seems to be linked to the social control module. I’d bet this is what caused the problem!’

  While Amy and Daniel were discussing the bug, Jessian had been doodling with the programmer’s name on a pad of paper next to the keyboard, ‘Eureka!’ She cried, holding up the pad. The letters had been rearranged – Anubis.

  ‘We’ve got him!’ Amy said excitedly.

  ‘Yeah… but he could’ve left more bugs we haven’t found, who knows what havoc they could cause,’ Jessian said scrolling through the listing on the screen.

  Daniel slid off the table, ‘What in Creation is he up to?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jessian answered, ‘it looks pretty bad to me. We’ve got unpredictable drones out there… anything could happen.’

  Daniel pulled Jessian out of her seat and, taking her place, logged himself in using his level-1 access code.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Amy asked Jessian.

  ‘Not sure.’

  Daniel lent forward, his upper body obscuring the screen as he typed. Then he drew his hands away from the keyboard and with a deep sigh slumped back into the chair, revealing a flashing message on the screen.

  ‘Fuck, Dan… you can’t do that!’

  ‘I just did,’ Daniel replied, turning to face Jessian.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Amy asked again.

  ‘He’s encrypted all the drone systems.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Amy’s voice showed a hint of panic.

  ‘It means the drones will work… but none of the firmware can be changed or upgraded… not without the decryption key.’ Jessian replied.

  ‘Who’s got the key?’

  ‘I have,’ Daniel answered.

  ‘Are you sure about this Dan? Director Roggo’s going to go fucking mad when he finds out.’

  ‘Too late, it’s done. I’ve just got to keep out of his way until this mess is sorted out.’ He looked up into Amy’s worried face, ‘You go and tell Director Hedrick what’s going on, Jess and me will get this stuff printed out.

  Amy looked at her watch, twelve twenty-five. ‘He’ll be having lunch at the Directors’ Club.’ She grabbed her bag and kissed Daniel on the lips, ‘I’ll speak to you later.’ She squeezed Jessian’s arm, saying, ‘Thanks for everything.’ Jessian simply smiled.

  As usual the lunch time service at the Directors’ Club was busy, waiters scurrying here and there, effortlessly navigating through the tables as though the restaurant’s layout was imprinted in their DNA. Jean-Marie was standing at his lectern, scanning the restaurant floor as Amy walked up behind him, ‘Excuse me.’

  He turned around, and not recognising her said, ‘I’m sorry, miss, but this restaurant is reserved for directors and their guests.’

  ‘I’m here to see Director Hedrick, I’m his apprentice.’

  ‘Please wait here, miss.’ Jean-Marie walked across to a table almost hidden behind the grand piano. Amy could only see his head and shoulders as he spoke to the diners occupying the table. After a few seconds he gave a courteous bow, turned and made his way back to the lectern. ‘Director Hedrick would like you to join him, miss. Please follow me.’

  Amy followed Jean-Marie through the restaurant and as they passed the grand piano Hedrick came into view, sitting at his usual table, accompanied by a cloaked figure. As she approached the table, he stood, ‘Amy, to what do we owe this pleasure?’ he said, genuinely pleased to see her.

  ‘I am sorry to disturb your lunch, Director, but I have a very urgent matter to discuss with you.’

  ‘Please join us.’ Hedrick said, gesturing at the chair between him and his guest.

  Jean-Marie withdrew the chair, saying, ‘Can I get madam anything?’ as Amy sat down

  ‘Just a glass of water, thank you.’

  ‘Of course, madam.’ Jean-Marie gave his customary bow, a bow just low enough to indicate respect, whilst not so low as to suggest subservience. The whole gesture was executed with a style and panache that had been perfected over millennia.

  Amy glanced at Hedrick’s guest who was wearing a heavy, hooded cloak. There was something unusu
al about the appearance. The face was almost transparent and seemed to emit a warm and comforting glow. She found herself being sucked into the emotionless eyes, unable to break her gaze. The reality of the restaurant melted into a dreamlike world, the conversations of the other diners fading into the distance.

  She was brought back by the sound of Hedrick’s voice, ‘Amy… Amy!’ He had reached across and was lightly shaking her wrist. She turned to face him. ‘Amy, may I introduce the angel, Haamiah, one of our colleagues from On-High.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Director. I shouldn’t have disturbed you.’ As she spoke, a waiter arrived carrying a silver tray with a crystal tumbler set precisely at its centre. He placed the glass on the table and withdrew, giving a poor interpretation of Jean-Marie’s bow.

  Hedrick reached out and held Amy’s wrist again, ‘You would not be here if it was not important, Amy. Now tell me, what is the problem?’

  Mohammed was struggling to keep awake, he had worked all night trying to decode Amy’s data. At first the problem sounded simple, just push it through the planetary modelling app. But, each time he tried, a new error code popped up, highlighting yet another incompatibility. His original estimate of a-couple-of-days seemed to be coming back to bite him. Every error code required a new software patch to be written, tested and compiled; he was beginning to think it would have been quicker to have started from scratch and written his own version of the modelling package. The workstation bleeped; yet another error code from the compiler. Mo brought up the listing on his display and scanned each line of code meticulously.

  The lab door opened. ‘Shut the door, I’m trying to think!’

  The lab door closed. ‘Sorry, Technician Mohammed. I used to have the same problem, the noise from the workshops can be so distracting.’

  For a moment Mo froze, as he realised Anubis was standing behind him. He turned around, ‘I’m sorry, Deputy Director, I’ve been struggling to get this code right all morning… you know what it’s like.’

  ‘Indeed I do, Technician Mohammed. So, I’ll come to the point… Director Hedrick asked me to collect the results of the work you’ve been doing for his apprentice, Amy. I was coming over here, so I said I’d collect them for him.’

  Mo’s mind started to race – how the fuck was he going to get out of this! ‘Ehhh, I’m still working on it. I’ve been having trouble with my workstation, it keeps crashing, not enough memory. I spoke to Director Roggo about it last week, he just said no budget for new machines. Maybe you could talk to him for me?’

  ‘Hmmm, maybe. How long before you finish… whatever it is you’re doing.’

  ‘Oh, about two… maybe three days.’

  ‘Really… Well I can’t wait that long. But, while I’m here, maybe you could help me.’

  ‘If I can, Deputy Director.’

  As Mo spoke Anubis approached and sat on the edge of his desk, ‘You’ll have heard I’m taking over as head of auditing next week.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ve been tidying up my current projects, making sure the documentation is up to date, that sort of thing. I left my office in a bit of a hurry and forgot to shut down my development drone. Could you log-on and close it down for me? It will save me having to go all the way back to the lab.’

  There was no way Mo could refuse his superior, it would mean the end of his career. Shit! ‘Have you got the drone’s tag?’ he asked.

  ‘Alexia.’

  Mo activated the Drone Command Network on his workstation and entered the drone’s tag, Alexia. The display refreshed leaving a list of utilities. ‘Shall I shut it down now?’

  ‘Yes, but first can you flush the memory. I don’t want any junk code left behind.’

  Mo selected the Memory Delete utility and pressed the Activate key. The workstation bleeped and displayed the message:

  SYSTEM ENCRYPTED - ENTER PASS CODE

  Mo sighed with relief and looking up at Anubis said, ‘Sorry, Deputy Director. The System Module has been locked-down, encrypted. There must be a security issue. Is there anything else I can-’ Before he could finish the sentence Anubis jumped to his feet and stormed out of the lab.

  13

  Unrecognisable Pulp

  After Amy left for the Directors’ Club, Jessian began printing out the evidence that proved Anubis had written the rogue drone software. Daniel stood collating the pages into neat piles on the meeting room table. As the printer stopped she handed him the final pages, ‘She’s in love with you, Daniel.’

  ‘Don’t be silly, we’ve only just re-met.’ He felt embarrassed talking to an ex-partner about his new love.’

  ‘Take it from me, she loves you, and if you can’t see that, you’re nuts.’

  ‘Don’t you mean blind. If I can’t see, I must be blind!’

  ‘Daniel, I’m being serious! She’s beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated! You should be grabbing her with both hands… that’s if you haven’t already!’

  ‘She’s not like that!’

  ‘I wasn’t like that, but that didn’t stop you trying to get into my pits. You were sex mad!’

  ‘We were students, that’s what students do.’ Daniel took the pages and added them to the last stack of printouts, ‘Right, we need a box to put all this stuff in.’

  ‘There’s a stationery store at end of the corridor. Have a look in there while I copy the files onto a memory cartridge.’

  Daniel cracked open the door and checked that the corridor was clear. He heard an elevator arriving and waited for the doors to close and the footsteps to fade before leaving the room. He walked swiftly to the end of the corridor and opened the door labelled Stationery Store 14. The storeroom was full with every conceivable item of stationery, except an empty cardboard box. Rummaging around, Daniel found a box of printer paper and, unpacking it, placed the sheets neatly on a shelf.

  He scooted back along the corridor and, opening the meeting room door, slid through. ‘There weren’t any empty boxes, Jess. I had to unpack this one and put-’

  The box hit the carpeted floor with a soft thump, bouncing over onto its side. Jessian’s body had been torn apart; her head lay by his feet, pounded into an almost unrecognisable pulp. Her upper torso, stripped of clothes, lay on the meeting room table, fists clenched at the end of outstretched arms. Bloody entrails led a grizzly path to the abdomen and legs concealed under the workstation desk. The neatly stacked piles of paper were scattered across the floor and everywhere was covered with the patterns of blood exploding from her body. Daniel turned and fell on his knees, pushing his head deep into the corner of the room. He fought to stop himself vomiting, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. He didn’t hear the door open, nor did he feel the impact of the baton that knocked him unconscious.

  Penny looked at her watch, Ravi was late. After Amy had gone to find Daniel, she had walked over to his cubical and suggested they go for lunch. Her plan was to try and find out what had gone on at Micco's the previous night. ‘That sounds like a great idea,’ Ravi had said enthusiastically, ‘Anubis was on my back all day yesterday, wanting to know how stuff works. I’ve had to spend all morning trying to catch up.’

  ‘I know, he’s driving me mad too. Come and get me about twelve thirty and we’ll have a beer.’ Returning to the meeting room, Penny was perplexed. The person she had just spoken to was a completely different Ravi to the one that had been pumping her for information early that morning.

  Penny glanced at the wall clock to double-check the time; it was twelve forty-five. She thought how unusual it was for Ravi to be late for a lunch date, especially if beer was involved. She pushed the stack of catering catalogues to one side and got up to stretch her legs. She had been trying to choose the wine and canapés for Hedrick’s retirement party. He was known for being quite a connoisseur and she was finding the task stressful. She walked to the meeting room door and looked out onto the audit floor. Most of the office had already gone for lunch. Those remaining were sat in small groups, chatting and eating the contents
of their lunchboxes. Ravi was nowhere to be seen. Irritated, she slammed the door closed, but when she turned around, facing her at the far end of the room was an amorphous figure. The outline of the glistening silhouette was blurred, its surface rippling like a pool of mercury, with shards of light erupting from its core. Penny opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. As she watched, the image slowly coalesced into the solid form of Ravi, which then began to speak. ‘Why is it that creationists are compelled to interfere with business that is none of their concern?’ Penny could feel herself restrained, as though arms were wrapped around her, ‘You are pathetic creatures! Do you think we would let Those-on-High replace us with furry creatures and mechanical toys… No! It is the poltergeists who will reign over Heaven.’ As he spoke the room began to shake, the table and chairs dancing on the floor as the vibrations grew. ‘The days of Creation are over, as is the dynasty of Those-on-High. The power of the poltergeists is almighty and we will rule for ETERNITY!’ Simultaneously every item in the room exploded into bullet-like fragments that shredded everything in their path.

  In the Director’s Club, Amy couldn’t resist glancing into the face of Hedrick’s guest again, immediately mesmerised by her enigmatic smile. ‘Amy, Amy!’ Hedrick was trying to snap her out of the trance, ‘Look at me, tell me what has happened.’ Amy turned her head slowly towards him, her eyes not breaking away until the last moment.

  ‘It’s the blue planets, Director. They’ve been corrupted, the life forms are fighting and killing each other - it’s terrible-’