John looked a little ill, he hated zombies. “Really?” Bethany Anne just smiled at her huge bodyguard.
Stephen asked, “So, somehow it allows a Nosferatu to be, what, mind controlled?”
Bethany Anne frowned. “I don’t think so. From what I understood from Carl and Michael, the serum helps prepare a human before the change to accept the nanocytes and they are more likely to survive the change with less pain. Unfortunately, it also makes them very susceptible to commands from whoever turned them.”
Gabrielle finally got back into the conversation. “So, they could theoretically act more normal?” Stephen looked over at her.
Bethany Anne shrugged. “I suppose so. I’ve seen the video and I would say that they looked slow, you know? Like someone who was less intellectually capable?”
Gabrielle was warming up to her theory. “So, if you made ten of these things and put bomb vests on them, nothing is going to stop them from entering anywhere since they look normal, and then ‘boom?’”
“Probably. I don’t know if they can talk. Provided no one asks them a question, maybe?”
Stephen took up the conversation. “You know how I couldn’t smell the vampire in you?”
John and Eric were back to watching tennis, again.
“Yes?”
“Will these Nosferatu smell like vampires?”
“I think so. Or they at least smell like something. I remember Frank said that Bill smelled a lot of bleach in the room—why?”
“Well, if we can figure out what they smell like, maybe we can create some sort of detector?”
It was Gabrielle’s turn to consider her dad. She was surprised by his willingness to use technology as he used to ignore it as much as possible. Hell, he still had an actual bell on his door. It showed how far along he had come in the last three months. Eric said, “Too bad we couldn’t just use a dog. That way at least two of us could be running the show, one dog per person.”
John shook his head, “Yeah, but the dog could be killed easily. I don’t know how fast we could train it, and then we have to get it to obey commands only to have a Nosferatu kick its head right off and we find it in an alley.”
“Kick a dog, that’s low man.” Eric didn’t like the idea of his imaginary dog already dead at the hands of a Nosferatu.
Bethany Anne.
Yes, TOM?
There is no scientific reason we can’t use nanocytes on canines.
Why, is there a non-scientific reason? Wait, I got it. You’re talking ethics again, right?
Right.
Hey, they’re going to die in the future if we do, so I guess if we can find some that work with vampires I don’t have a problem with it. Hold on one second.
“If we had a way to make a dog more resilient, how would that help in the field?”
John took this one, “You’re kidding, right? If we had trained animals that could help us detect, locate and take down Forsaken, we might not have even needed you in the ‘glades.” John smiled at that. It wasn’t the least bit true, but he figured he had scored at least two points with that dig.
“I suppose I could make a couple of Forsaken if you want a second try with that, Mr. Grimes?” Annndddd... she just spiked him! Final point to Bethany Anne!
“Nope, I don’t think my chest needs to feel my own knife again. All kidding aside, if we had, maybe... What, Eric? Two of them?” John looked to Eric for confirmation.
Eric looked over at Bethany Anne. “What do you think they could do? Would they be faster, stronger or take damage any better? How about commands? I would hate to have one of them be used against me.”
Bethany Anne mused on that for a moment. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about this and see what we might be able to accomplish. The idea is a good one, Eric. I’m sure we can build a detector like Stephen is suggesting, but we'd have the problem of carrying it and a dog is able to move and nose around.”
Gabrielle added, “Well, that means that the Wechselbalg can smell them, as well. They would be able to do this in their human form, I imagine.”
“That’s a good point. Nathan and Pete are back in the States and we aren’t supposed to meet up until we get to Miami. Anton—and I am assuming that Anton is the main leader at this point—might have some of these things here in Europe, and until we look for them we won't know. Vampires can smell them, Wechselbalg can smell them and we can build either canine detectors or electronic detectors. We possibly need to do both.”
John was on the edge of his seat at this point when he asked his question, “How are you going to train either the dog or the digital sniffer?”
The Ship can help with that.
“We can probably use the spaceship’s medical room to help with that. Between Gabrielle, Stephen and I we should be able to reproduce the smell.”
Thanks, TOM
De Nada
Bethany Anne just shook her head. Where TOM came up with his Spanish response would have to be investigated at another time.
Stephen looked over at John and Eric. “Are you two guys hungry? With Ivan not here to remind me, I forget about human food requirements from time to time.”
Both guys agreed that food did sound good. Bethany Anne told Gabrielle to go see if the sleeping wonder wanted food or wanted to stay in bed. She, however, was to stay out of the bed. Gabrielle started to provide a snappy comeback on how a bed wasn’t strictly necessary, then decided that staying quiet was a wiser choice.
She came back thirty seconds later to say Ivan would be out of the shower in five minutes.
They all went to go freshen up. Bethany Anne decided to go to her room and talk with TOM while she brushed her teeth.
TOM, what do you think about changing canines? I could imagine a few ways we could really use them.
I don’t know why it couldn’t be done. We need to test, obviously, and the issue with charging them from the Etheric might be a problem to overcome, unless drinking blood is ok for them?
I rather doubt it’ll be a problem. Bloody meat isn’t. Actually, wolves eat freshly killed animals. I imagine dogs do in the wild as well, but I’ll double check that. Are you suggesting we’ll need something like live rabbits to keep these guys fed?
Yes, anything that they can consume as fresh as possible.
What do you think you can change?
Pretty much anything genetically. Once we have a test subject, we will have to study it a bit and keep it under for a while. Enhance its speed, strength…
What about intelligence?
Ah, that’s a tricky one. I haven’t studied anything in that arena and nothing I’ve watched gives me any indication.
I’ll have to research that next time I get a chance.
Why are you so interested in modifying canines? Wouldn’t an electronic testing device work as well?
Sure, if you want to be right next to the Nosferatu when you figure it out. If these things have any ability to think, and the video I saw suggested they do, then if you are too far away and it audibly alerts you, it might figure out what we are trying to do and fade into the background and leave us. A dog would be capable of walking around and most people wouldn’t mind.
Well, provided that its eyes aren’t glowing red and the teeth aren’t growing even longer fangs.
Yes, true, there is that.
4
Las Vegas, Nevada
Lance Reynolds was politely shown into the meeting room. While it was nice, it was certainly not a large boardroom with wood on the walls and expensive carpets on the floor. Lance preferred the more utilitarian look. Scott stayed outside the door and Darryl came into the room and stood in a corner.
Lance had argued with Dan and John for Bethany Anne to be given a protection detail, citing a number of sound reasons. He was particularly happy that his daughter—and make no mistake, vampire or not she was his daughter—was subsequently argued into accepting she needed protection as the CEO of TQB Enterprises. When she used the same arguments against him as t
he COO traveling around the world, he wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic. But he couldn’t ignore the same logic without Bethany Anne throwing off her protection detail.
So, he screwed himself over.
Darryl and Scott were good guys, but Lance hadn’t needed protection in the military and it felt like he was making himself out to be more important than he was. Bethany Anne had told him to stuff his ego and get over himself.
Leave it to his daughter to not be very impressed with any of his titles or accomplishments.
Lance wasn’t too concerned with the CEO of Patriarch Research not showing up at the meeting right away. He was early and this was more of a research call, anyway. Nathan had some issues trying to hack their systems and he said they might have really good defensive capabilities but without a face to face meeting he couldn’t tell if there was something shady going on or not.
So, Ecaterina set up the meeting and Lance hooked a flight with Bobcat on Shelly to Jamaica where he caught a flight to Dallas then on to Las Vegas. The three of them went first class though Lance had argued it was a waste of money. Ecaterina explained that Bethany Anne said they needed to look important and that meant others needed to see the trappings of his importance. At seven grand an hour for their G550 plane flights, first class tickets were cheap. When she explained it that way, he felt downright frugal flying first class.
Lance would have preferred Nathan to be with him on this trip, but he was needed up in New York. If Lance really needed him, then Nathan and Pete would jump a flight in New York City and come straight to Las Vegas after their meeting.
There was a quick knock on the conference room door and the lovely Annette came in and brought him coffee, black. He missed Patricia, hopefully she was enjoying her new boss. He took out his phone and set up a reminder that simply said, “Patricia?” He set the reminder’s alarm for three that afternoon.
There was another knock on the conference room door a minute later and the CEO came in.
Lance stood up with his hand outstretched. “Lance Reynolds.”
Jeffrey was surprised. The guy in front of the conference room door was a walking tank. He expected a gruff guy. Not that the man in front of him didn’t seem straight and to the point, but he didn’t seem full of himself. He seemed…
“Hi, Jeffrey Diamantz. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Reynolds.”
“Likewise. Just call me Lance or occasionally I’ll answer to General. Take your pick.”
Military, that was the word Jeffrey was looking for. “I’m good with Jeff or Jeffrey, no preference.” Jeffrey sat down in the head chair, Lance hadn’t taken the expected ‘power chair’ after all.
Lance pointed with his head to Darryl. “This gentleman is Darryl Jackson, the first man you saw was Scott English. My daughter, the CEO, worries more about me than I think is necessary.” Darryl carefully kept his face neutral. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, including whatever lies the COO tells.
Jeffrey looked over at Darryl and nodded and Darryl nodded back. Jeffrey didn’t consider himself a violent man, but the black gentleman looked like he could easily reach over and casually break Jeffrey’s neck. It wasn’t a very practical solution for someone with Darryl’s kind of skills to be merely decoration. Still, Jeffrey appreciated the effort to put him at ease. It told him a few more things about Lance than maybe Lance cared to share. None of it bad, to Jeffrey.
“How can I help you, General?”
Darryl held in his smile, he just made fifty bucks each off Scott and the General on whether Jeffrey would call the General by his first name, last name or his old title.
Lance looked over his shoulder. “That was fifty for you, right?” Darryl let the smile show and nodded his head yes.
Jeffrey caught on quickly. “So, you guys bet which name I would use?”
Lance filled him in. “Yes. I said Lance, Darryl here said General and Scott took Mr. Reynolds.”
Jeffrey shook his head; this guy was not what he was expecting at all. He decided to lay everything bare without much preamble.
“General, we've made what could be a seriously tragic development here, so I’m really glad you decided to come by when you did.”
If Lance had one of his cigars in his mouth, it might have dropped out. “Seriously Tragic Development? Did you study TLAs for Military Usage?”
“TLA?”
“Yes, three letter acronym. Like anything in the military we say three but mean three, four and occasionally five or more. Like FNG, FUBAR and LOST.”
Jeffrey knew what the first two meant but, “Lost?”
“Looking Over Strange Terrain.”
Jeffrey shook his head and laughed a little. “Strangely enough, LOST fits.”
Lance sighed. He hadn’t made it through his first business meeting and shit was hitting the wall. He spoke like he would to a newly minted officer. “Tell me more.”
Darryl considered that Bethany Anne’s luck must have been passed down from her father.
“Well, General, do you know what the technology singularity is?”
“We’re talking when we get strong AI, right?”
Jeffrey took a second to stop his explanation from erupting out of his mouth. He hadn’t expected the General to know anything about that. “Ah, yes. Exactly. How did you know about that? Sorry, not being rude but most people outside of either artificial intelligence, techies or trekkies don’t know about it.”
“Military, remember? We war-game all sorts of shit that could turn Darryl back here,” with that he pointed his thumb back at the security person, “white.”
Darryl smiled. Lance was old school and Darryl was amused to see Jeffrey’s eyes freak out. If this guy had known there wasn’t a racist bone in Lance Reynolds’ body, he might have been less concerned.
Darryl had bled with all his brothers over in the pit and as far as he was concerned, they were all the same color. Red, white and blue. He hadn’t had to punch a racist in over ten years, his brothers always did it for him.
God forbid someone should be stupid enough to do it around Scott, Eric or John, and he hoped he never witnessed someone do it if Bethany Anne was near. His brothers would put the person in the hospital, Bethany Anne would put them in the ground.
Jeffrey tried to stop looking over at Darryl. “Ok, got it. Ah. Right. Well, the big issue with a tech singularity is whether or not that creates a benevolent strong AI or a malevolent one. One is good, the other could end with the complete Terminator experience.”
“Yes, that was the one we would typically war-game.”
“How did you combat it?”
“We started with high altitude nuclear explosions from 30 miles to 330 miles up generating EMP pulses to destroy the infrastructure. Unfortunately, that can also destroy a lot of electrical infrastructure so your own people can’t heat their homes or cook their food. I can’t say we ever had a successful combat solution based on the ones I was part of. Once the AI got into the internet, the assumption was you couldn’t stomp it out. Hell, we can’t find and get rid of human created viruses right now, how could we get rid of the ghost in the machine?”
Jeffrey was having a hard time getting his head around this conversation. The General here was not the person he had been gearing himself up to talk to. “Right.”
“So, you’re telling me you guys have done this?”
“No. Well, maybe.” Lance just looked at him. “Ok, we were doing a project for a financial company where we spun up a lot of instances on AWS.”
Lance put a hand up, “Just because I understand the main subject, don’t assume I understand the smaller minutiae.”
“Ok, AWS is a service from Amazon which allows you to rent computers based on how powerful they are, how much memory you need and how much bandwidth you consume. You can do as many thousands as you need and then shut them all down when you're finished. This was perfect as we had a new piece of software we were testing, a heuristic internet defense program. It has the ability to learn as it gets attacked
or as it acquires new information it can find disparate connections between them and bring out new information. That was the piece the credit card companies wanted us to test. We figured it would be a good test and it was close enough to our other logic that it might work well.”
“I suppose it worked well?”
Jeffrey leaned back in his chair, happy to be sharing this monkey he had carried for almost two years. “Yes. We had already programmed the shutting down of the instances so when the information was finally dumped and the program wasn’t focused on its primary job, we’ve figured out the software had started ‘looking around’ on its own. With that much computing power it was trivial for the program to start reaching through the internet and pulling down data for its own use. Our data bill for just the few minutes was astronomical. Almost all of the data throughput bill was our program running data pulls for itself since the financial data had been loaded on the servers already. It started to get smarter with the data requests into the internet even as the quantity of servers running the program powered off.”
“Why did it allow you to turn it off?”
“We don’t think it was paying attention at that time. We have surmised over the last eighteen months…”
“Eighteen months?” Lance raised his eyebrows. He thought this was a recent event. He calmly folded his hands together and waited for Jeffrey to continue.
“Yeah. This happened almost two years ago, but we’ve been trying to test smaller parts of the program and confirm what we see in the data. When we were being hacked a couple of weeks ago, we were considering turning the program back on to help protect us as internet defense was the original reason we built the software.”
Lance kept his shock off of his face. He and Nathan had almost been the cause of these guys turning their software back on. Oh, holy shit. “Ok, I get that, go on.”
“Well, the hacking stopped and the next day your secretary called to set up this meeting. I’ve been waiting for this meeting to speak to you. I put the information in the quarterly reports since we confirmed our data back in March and was about to provide the overview again in our annual report.”
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 65