by Tony Batton
Kara shrugged and raised the pistol, aiming along the sight.
"You know, I came here presuming you would have access to the system, so obviously I had a plan to win. You’d be smart to drop that gun and surrender."
Kara laughed. "A little desperate, even for you." She pulled the trigger.
The gun exploded. Kara screamed and fell to the ground, blood gushing from her head, her eyes rolling back.
"Seems your gun had a bad bullet, courtesy of ZAT. Who could have predicted that?" Kelly walked forwards. "Turns out I didn’t have to kill you. You did that for me." She leant close and whispered. "And you were right, Dear. It only matters who wins."
One Hundred Six
Michael burst through the doors of the big house and was guided to press a huge red button to his right. Behind him massive steel doors slid across, shutting him in. He heard similar panels closing over other openings. There was no sound to indicate that Kara was outside.
An icon appeared, indicating he was locked in. Then the graphics directed him to a set of metal stairs. He scampered down and reached a sealed door with a keypad lock. A sequence of numbers flashed before his eyes, gleaned from a CCTV camera or an electronic note of the code, linked by context to the door. He tapped it in. The door hissed and swung inwards. Michael stepped through and found Errington pointing a gun at Craig.
Michael went to aim the rifle, but a graphic displayed indicating that the weapon was empty. Cursing, he gripped the stock and swung it at Errington’s wrist while he was still turning.
Errington yelped in pain and dropped the gun.
Craig looked confused. "How did you get away from Psycho-girl?"
"I managed to distract her," Michael gasped. "Come on. We need to get out of here."
"You’re not going anywhere," Errington said. "I’ll take the weapon." He extended his other hand.
"Yeah, I don’t think so," Michael replied. "I’m in charge now."
"Is that right?" Errington folded his arms. "Because now you’re the guy with all the answers?"
"What?" Michael felt his blood chill.
"I know you have Morton's glasses. I know you’ve accessed the system. It’s quite a rush, isn’t it?"
Michael hesitated. "Kara told you?"
"I knew already." Errington tapped his own glasses. "You getting access was predicted. Remember, Darwin can assess any situation, answer any question – if you ask the right questions. Ask it how I’m going to make you cooperate."
The question flashed through Michael’s mind and he found himself muttering the words. The answer flashed on screen. Michael froze.
Errington turned to one of the screens and pressed a control. It showed an image of four guards standing outside the big house pointing their guns at a woman.
Eve.
Michael stared the display, a white-hot anger rising within him. "You bastard!"
"You were a fool if you thought I hadn’t planned for every eventuality."
"Except it’s not you. It’s Darwin."
"That distinction is unimportant."
Michael turned to his father, but Craig just shook his head helplessly.
Errington folded his arms. "Now give me that rifle and go upstairs."
"Damn it!" Michael shouted. "Tell me how to win." A red question mark appeared. Insufficient data.
"You only had as much access as I needed you to. You don’t even know what’s really going on." Errington gestured to a screen displaying a message in white text on a black background: PREPARING UPDATES. STAND BY.
Michael sighed and handed the gun to Errington.
"I don't want you to be unable to see, so… Guest User Access Discontinued."
Michael's HUD switched off just as a chime sounded from the computer screen. A new message appeared: DARWIN SYSTEM PREPARING TO REBOOT AS FUSION.
"I thought it needed me?" Michael said, bewildered.
Errington clasped his shoulder. "A lot of people thought a lot of things. Now very shortly we’ll see what this thing is really capable of." He gestured with the gun. "Back upstairs, both of you."
Two minutes later they stepped outside, surrounded by guards.
"I’m sorry," Michael told Eve as he was pushed down the front steps.
"Where is Kara?" Errington asked.
"Who cares," Eve said. "Where are you keeping Michael’s mother?"
"What do you mean?" Errington asked.
"She was kidnapped with me. Where is she?"
Errington frowned. "Why would we do that? We don’t need any more leverage."
Michael snapped his fingers. "That was the moment. Did you notice it?"
"Notice what?"
"Two things that you didn’t predict. I think your plan just ended."
"Nonsense, our plan is still…" Errington hesitated. "My glasses have gone offline."
"That's to be expected," Craig said, though he looked hopeful. "You did just reboot the system. There will be a gap."
"And," Michael said, "there’s been a gap in your understanding masking the person really in charge."
Errington shook his head. "I’m in charge."
"No. Yours isn’t the master plan. Someone is above you, at the intersection of everything. Now it’s all going to be used against you. You go on about how you get other people to do things for you, but that’s exactly what someone has done to you. Every step of your plan has been choreographed by someone else. You thought you were following the system, asking it questions and making your own choices, but you’ve been manipulated: led to the questions they wanted you to ask, rendered ignorant of anything they needed you to ignore."
"Impossible."
"The system can be controlled. It has been controlled. You have been controlled." Michael blinked. "You think you know everything, but you don't know what's going on inside people's heads."
He waved a hand. "They reveal it by their actions. Enough of this nonsense."
"You’re still offline, aren’t you? I’m pretty sure the system is actually still running and hasn’t actually rebooted. But it has shut you out."
Errington frowned and tapped his ear, his eyes twitching as they focussed on the inside of his glasses. "What’s happened?" He raised the rifle and pointed it at Michael. "What have you done?"
"It’s not me. It’s someone who has had an inside track on the system from day one, who’s hiding in plain sight."
Errington looked at Craig. "You?"
"No, me," said a female voice.
Michael knew it at once.
A woman walked out of the cover of the woods carrying an automatic rifle.
"Hello everyone," said Nina Adams.
One Hundred Seven
Everyone else stared at her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Errington demanded.
"Do I really need to spell this out, Max?" Nina replied, walking forwards. Michael couldn’t help noticing she held the rifle with confidence.
"But you were kidnapped with me?" Eve said, bewildered.
"It did look that way," Nina said. She smiled at Errington.
"But I tricked you, fifteen years ago," said Errington.
"No, Max. I tricked you."
Errington turned his rifle and pointed it at her. "This weapon says it doesn’t matter."
"That weapon is empty." Nina tilted her head upwards. "Launch cluster one." There was an angry buzzing in the air and the faintest trace of vapour-trails around them. The guards collapsed to the ground, shaking violently.
Errington stepped back, a look of horror on his face.
"ZAT drones?" Craig asked.
Nina nodded. "Jenson’s company has provided a great deal of useful inventory. That first wave carried non-lethal toxin charges." She paused. "But only the first wave. Any last words, Max?"
"You can’t kill him," shouted Michael.
"Why not?" she asked. "After everything he’s done? He’s the reason your father ended up taking his own life." She paused, nodding at Craig. "Or at least felt com
pelled to make it look that way."
"You knew?"
"Of course I knew."
"Let’s cut to the chase," said Errington. "What do you want?"
"What I wanted was the deal I originally made with you. But fortunately I knew not to trust you, because the system told me not to. All because I asked the right question." She glanced over at Michael, then turned back to Errington. "As for what I want now, it’s not yours to give."
"Everyone has a price. Why else would you be talking to us?"
"All I want is to see you contemplate the totality of your defeat." She walked towards him. "You don’t get it, do you? You have nothing I want. I’ve already taken it from you. You have no leverage. And now", she smiled, "I can make you do anything. I can make anyone do anything. Which is ironic because it’s what you’ve built your career on, though I’m the one who wrote the book on it."
"That career-ending door stop? Will you never shut up about it?"
"It only failed because I let it. By then I had loftier goals."
"So, what now?" asked Errington. "You’re going to shoot me?"
"I’ve always envisioned something more poetic." She unclipped an automatic pistol from her belt, then threw it on the ground in front of him.
He blinked.
"You always liked to give people a choice, even when it really was no such thing."
"And what is my choice?"
"Kill or be killed."
Errington crouched and picked up the weapon, checking the magazine then sliding off the safety catch.
"I already know what you’ll do," Nina said calmly.
"You'll just dodge if I point this at you."
"I promise that I won’t."
"Then the gun is rigged somehow. Or the ammunition is booby-trapped."
She sighed. "I'm going to give you ten seconds to shoot me, before—"
With surprising speed, Errington raised the weapon and fired. The unsilenced retort was deafening.
There was the spark of a ricochet. Then a scream.
Michael’s gaze swung to his mother. She was holding the rifle out at an angle. And she was smiling.
Errington fell backwards, dropping the gun, clutching his hands to the middle of his chest. Blood gushed from a wound.
Michael shook his head. "You calculated the angles. You knew the bullet would rebound and hit him." He moved and knelt by the old lawyer's side, hands hovering as he tried to decide whether to apply pressure or whether that would just be cruel.
Nina looked down at Errington.
He glared up at her, wheezing, trying to find some words. Then he gasped and closed his eyes.
A stillness fell over the clearing.
"You are a killer," Michael whispered at Nina.
"I don’t deny it," she replied calmly. "Although, in this case, he was the one who pulled the trigger. And don't tell me Max didn't deserve it. It's a miracle someone didn't have him killed years ago."
"You have to stop this!"
"I don't think stopping is an option. Anyway, why should I? I’ve made everyone do exactly what I wanted, and nobody even knows that it’s happened."
"Darwin has caught the attention of more than one national intelligence service."
"They think it was Regina Rose, and that Darwin was destroyed. They might wonder if Max was involved. But nobody will ever think it was me. You didn’t and you’re my son."
"That’s why I didn’t. I still don’t understand why you’re doing this."
Nina smiled. "Like I said – so I can make everyone do what I want."
Craig pushed past Michael to stand next to Nina. "This is all about you proving your book was on point? Are you joking?"
She snorted. "You’re one to talk: the man whose whole life was about showing he could create the perfect system. Darwin is practically your actual child – you certainly cared about it more than your own flesh and blood. You let everything else in your life fall to the wayside. Your wife. Your son."
"I’m hardly the only father to ever work hard. Besides, what I did was a game-changing achievement, if an unfortunate one."
"Yes, but you couldn’t see it through. I was the one with the courage to stay the course. Now here you are to help me take the next steps."
Craig shook his head and turned back to Michael. "I never should have come back into the light."
"Ah," Nina said, "but you couldn’t resist one last chance to play with your favourite toy, could you?"
"I only wanted to protect us all. But it seems I’ve been playing your game all along."
Nina shrugged. "I used Max to do all the hard work. He established Kinek, to mask what he was doing at his already secretive law firm. All to mask the fact that it was just a computer providing the intel."
Michael stepped forward. "So Darwin told them what to do?"
"Occasionally I would give it some direction or hold some analysis back to keep my plan on track. Of course the system wasn’t always right. There were choices to make. Priorities to select."
"So it’s fallible?"
"It has constraints, but fused with Parallel everything will be different."
"Why risk changing things? You’ve managed for years with things as they were."
"I didn’t have a choice. Darwin was beginning to fail. It couldn’t keep up with the volume of data anymore."
"Was it really failing? Or did it just want you to think that?"
Nina frowned. "It’s a system that follows predefined rules and objectives, a key one of which is to ensure its own survival. It’s always sought out the new ways to expand its reach. I just helped it along."
"By doing what it told you?" Michael sighed. "So what happens next? What are you going to do with us all?"
"You all know too much, so there’s only one option available. The only question is where to start…" Nina raised the rifle and aimed at Eve. "I never did like your friend. Always asking irritating questions, that one."
Eve’s face turned thunderous. "You should turn that on yourself."
Michael took a sharp step towards Nina. "Mum, this is madness."
She turned the gun and pointed at him.
His eyes widened. "What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?"
"Sorry, Michael. It’s too late for—"
"I’ll say when it’s too late," said a voice from behind her.
One Hundred Eight
Gregory Jenson walked into the clearing carrying two fully-automatic machine pistols.
Nina frowned. "How did you get here without being seen?" She raised her rifle towards Jenson instead. "Drop those, unless you think you’re a better shot than I am. Spoiler: I’ll be cheating."
Jenson shrugged. "I get that you can predict things. But you didn’t predict me, and you didn’t predict them." Jenson gestured at her chest, where two laser sights were dancing. "The system might be able to cope with anything, but you can’t. You’re only human. You are the weakest link. Good luck, dodging all of them."
Nina gave a sigh. "I see you brought friends."
Millie and Kelly stepped from the trees, rifles with scopes held up to their shoulders, ready to fire.
Nina lowered her rifle and threw it to the ground. "I applaud your creativity. Obviously I surrender." She held out her wrists. "Did you bring handcuffs?"
"Of course," Jenson replied. "Don’t move."
"Wait," Kelly said. "She’s just giving up? After everything she’s been through?"
"I know when I’m beaten," Nina replied with a smile.
"She spent the last fifteen years masterminding a fake international consultancy, toying with governments and big business, all while building the most dangerous computer system in history and simultaneously pinning the blame on a succession of other people. She’s not losing just because we have a couple of semi-automatic weapons."
Jenson narrowed his eyes. "Is that Maxwell Errington lying on the floor? Is he…"
"He’s dead," Michael replied.
Millie shook her
head. "Kelly’s right. This whole situation feels wrong."
"Well now, there’s a thought," Nina said.
"So you planned for everything, even this?"
"Everything and everyone. I don’t need the rifle. For starters, I have a large number of Jenson’s weaponised micro-drones, but I’ll always prefer to use information as my weapon." She reached out as if tapping on a touchscreen only she could see. "Why don’t you all check your phones?"
Around the clearing came the sound of multiple message chimes. Jenson, Craig, Millie and Kelly pulled out their devices.
"A Kinek grey file," Kelly said. "I’ve already seen mine."
"Not this version," Nina replied. "Now it also covers your mother and father and younger brother."
Jenson swore. "Confidential records about my wife and daughter. You wouldn’t—"
"Whatever it takes to persuade you. You don’t seem to much care what others think of you personally, so I had to find a different lever."
Millie whistled as she looked through her own file. "Wow, even I didn’t know some of this stuff – and it’s about me."
Michael frowned. "I don’t have a file."
Nina shrugged. "It didn’t seem necessary. You’re already wanted for multiple murders."
Michael’s jaw grew stiff. "You think that’s funny? What kind of a mother are you—"
"Enough!" Jenson hissed. "We’re not playing this game. You’re not going to change our minds with paperwork." He re-aimed his rifle.
"Fair enough." Nina’s fingers twitched in the air. "I have a separate system of drones permanently airborne. If anyone lands on the island and I don’t confirm their identity within five minutes, the drones will strike. They’re completely automated to ensure they can do their job even if I am incapacitated or overwhelmed." She glanced at her watch. "Thanks to our little discussion that five minutes should be up just about…"
Jenson frowned. "You’re bluffing—"
"Bluffing’s for when you don’t hold the cards you need. That’s not a problem I face."
There was a loud buzzing in the air. Jenson, Kelly and Millie reacted as if stung. Then they collapsed to the ground.