“Isn’t that the stuff the geeks in California are all arguing is going to end the world? I seem to remember Elon Musk and someone else bitching about that a while back.”
“Well, certainly the potential to end humanity. The sexy side…”
Bethany Anne snorted. “Leave it to a geek to describe a bunch of computer hardware and programming as ‘sexy.’”
Nathan shrugged. “I’m not talking ‘Ecaterina’ sexy.” That got Nathan a quick jab from an elbow to his left. “Ow, thank you very much. As I was saying, sexy in a very interesting and exciting manner. Imagine a machine that can do the research of hundreds or potentially thousands of analysts simultaneously and run it twenty-four hours a day. Then, if a problem occurs in the programming, it can adjust its own programming such that the same mistakes never happen again.”
“What’s the downside to this, then? I can’t confess to following this stuff very closely.”
Lance spoke then. “The concern is that the strong AI is expected to become an independent agent, operating for whatever it finds is the best solution. So, what if the best solution is the extermination of the human race?”
Bethany Anne could hear most of the hearts in the room suddenly accelerate. That was a pretty big concern to everyone here. “So, how do you figure out if you can get, what, a friendly AI?”
Nathan continued, “Yes. We’re calling this imaginary AI ‘Adam’ at the moment. If Adam is on our side, we could leapfrog potential operations and implementation abilities while keeping our teams pretty lean. Otherwise, the more we undertake, the bigger our organization, and we already have two Superyachts, two huge homes in Miami and are looking for a used military base.” Bethany Anne raised her eyebrows and Lance put up his hand to delay any comments. They would get back to that point in a minute. “So, we’re quickly exceeding the operational resources we have here. The more we accomplish the more we need to hire and the nasty cycle keeps getting out of hand. To accomplish what we’ve spoken about in the future, we either have to stay small and lean, or connect with a really large government to help run this.”
“Ah, you nasty jackass, you hit my personal hot button.” She thought about it for a second. “I really don’t want to get any governments involved with us unless we have to, and certainly not where we are beholden to them if we can help it.” She looked up at Nathan. “You conniving manipulative bastard, I’m impressed.” She smiled at Nathan to show she really did appreciate how he had pitched this. He obviously wanted a try at this and besides the ‘sky is falling’ aspects of his pitch, she could see the benefits, or at least the potential benefits if they could pull it off. “I presume you have a working concept of how to move forward and who you would need?” Lance and Nathan nodded their heads, almost in unison. That was strange, her father was actually on board with this idea as well. “What is the time frame, budget, resources and where would you try this?”
Lance took that question. “We would need at least a couple of months, millions of dollars for hardware purchases, the team from Patriarch Research and we need to do it in the desert.”
That last comment surprised her. “The desert?”
Lance continued, “Yes. The final button to shut the system down if it gets away from us is a small EMP device. I don’t think we want to fire off an EMP near anything we want to keep do we?” Bethany Anne agreed that would be a monumentally bad idea. “If we make the location near Vegas, all of the needed personnel already live and work there.”
“What about security?”
“I’m going to tap into my contacts and find out how many guys I might know who are out or may be ready to get out. The military will be ok with this as they are drawing down right now anyway. So, depending on the P&B’s…”
Ecaterina leaned forward, “Excuse me General, the P&B’s?”
Lance looked over at her. “Sorry, Pay and Benefits.”
Bethany Anne pointed to Dan. “If it’s civilian, that’s your camp, Dad. If it’s military, talk with Dan. He has the general numbers already. Although, I don’t want to pay top dollar for someone guarding a bunch of sand.”
“I think we’re paying for them to be able to keep their mouths shut. We won’t be really telling them what we’re doing, that will stay with a very small group. If we don’t find a place that fits what we need, we will be building something quick and disposable.”
“What happens when you turn on the switch?”
Nathan spoke up, “Ah, well that’s where you come in.”
Bethany Anne squinted. “Why am I having anything to do with turning the switch? I don’t know shit about programming, trust me.”
Nathan snorted. “Thank god you don’t know programming. Some of us normal mortals… Ok, semi-normal mortals have a need to be better than you at something.”
Bethany Anne retorted, “Don’t be a hater.”
Nathan continued, “Seriously, if this goes right, this could save us years of effort.”
Bethany Anne opened her mouth only to shut it quickly. Then she looked back and forth between the two of them. Now she had figured out why they were working together on this. “Holy crap! You asses want to use the AI for offensive and defensive efforts on the internet, don’t you?” She continued to watch both of their faces carefully.
Nathan hung his head and Lance smiled. Nathan reached around to pull out his wallet and pulled a hundred dollar bill and handed it to Lance.
Lance folded the bill and stuck it in his pocket. “Yes. Our ability to know what’s going on would rival nation-states at that point. What we would be able to do…”
Frank came back into the room and interrupted. “Bethany Anne, we have a problem.” She turned around and everyone looked back at Frank. “We have two major Nosferatu outbreaks in Costa Rica and my research programs are recording a lot of inquiries into your old records. Not just any inquiries, these inquiries are coming from members of Congress related to Michael’s holdings.”
“What the hell? Why is that?”
Frank shrugged.
Lance thought about that. “Well, shit. This might also be from Patriarch Research. They did some research for financial companies and he had mentioned that they found some unknown financial superpowers and had delivered the info back to the financial companies who passed it on to the government.”
Bethany Anne turned back around to her dad. “So, one of my own companies just shot me in the foot? How fucked up can that be?”
“Well, to be fair, this happened before you were turned, so it wasn’t really your company at the time.”
She leaned back in her chair. “I swear…”
John muttered back behind her, “Every damn day.”
She raised her right hand and shot him the finger. They all laughed at that. Frank walked back around to his chair.
“Ok, Dad. You’ll have to jump on the plane and figure that shit out. I shouldn’t go to Washington D.C. and get stuck in some meeting. Some of those bastards still have a hard-on for me from my time taking some of those dickless wonders down. Those I hurt also have lots of friends who are nursing a serious attitude as well.” She turned to Frank. “Now explain why I need to worry about Nosferatu in Costa Rica? I can only presume it’s warfare over the power vacuum Clarita left?”
“Yes. Basically, the younger, more brash and infinitely more stupid create these Nosferatu to help them take over their opponents. Then, one will get killed and his Nosferatu soldiers are without a command structure and start randomly attacking humans. The Forsaken ignore these issues until someone is crowned the victor. Michael’s family has always been the one to keep the leaderless Nosferatu in check while the political fighting continues. So, we are it.”
Bethany Anne just shook her head. “Fuck my life. If I could stab that bitch one more time, I would. She is screwing up my life even after she’s dead. This is un-fucking-believable.” She thought about the situation for a while at vampire speed. To the rest of the group it appeared she might have thought about it for t
hree seconds. “Ok, John, change of plans. If we assume Gabrielle will be with us, that’s a total of six blooded members. If it gets too bad in San Jose, we need a plan to get the Wechselbalg brought down to help quickly. Hopefully we won’t get any of them killed. Todd?”
“Yes?”
“You’re going to need to beef up your teams on the two ships or have a plan if we are going to be off of the ships for an extended amount of time. We better have permission to fly in Shelly across their fucking country or they can kiss my ass. I’m not doing this shit at night and I refuse to stay off these two ships too long and leave most of our fighters unavailable if we get attacked here. Dad, I need you and Frank to jump back on the Gulfstream and represent our interests back in the capitol. Nathan?”
“Yes?”
“Can you get some of this shit started with Patriarch Research long distance, or do they need you? I would prefer your fighting skills here. You too, Ecaterina.” Nathan looked a little disturbed, he wasn’t accustomed to someone he loved jumping into danger. But he knew not to say one damn word or he would be up shit creek with a hole blown in his canoe by Ecaterina herself. “In fact, Ecaterina, I want you to head up a sniper group. Find out if we have anyone else on these ships with good shooting skills and get them ready. With TOM’s ship here, we can craft some special bullets to affect the nanocytes. It won’t be exactly shooting fish in a barrel, but I want to make it as close as we can. This isn’t our battle, exactly. We’re here to protect the humans. If a Forsaken gets in my way, they will be terminated with extreme prejudice, is this understood?” Everyone agreed.
“Good, maybe we’ll get a shot at Anton. If Frank doesn’t have much info on him, then that bastard is too sneaky by half for my liking. By the way, Frank. Work with Eric on what we think Anton did to come over here on a German U-Boat. Maybe you can track him that way. You know he has to have connections in as many of the governments as possible. He isn’t a day walker, so our guy won’t ever be seen during the day. Let’s speed up our conversation with Clarita’s children. If we get rid of Anton, we might need their asses back over here quickly to take control. Anyone we find who follows the Forsaken beliefs will be terminated. Ok, what have I forgotten?”
“What about the AI?” Nathan didn’t look like he was pushing the subject, just trying to close the decision loop.
“It’s a go. I’m not sure what you expect me to do, but I’m up for it. The risk is worth the reward so long as we can shut it down if we get Lucifer instead of Adam, understood?” Nathan agreed. “Then tell them their first budget is thirty million in five million increments. We agree to each five million before we move forward with the next step. Make sure Adam isn’t stuck out in the fucking desert if it works. That’s all I need, our ace-in-the-hole to be stuck in bumfuck Nevada because we couldn’t move it.”
Nathan hadn’t really thought about that issue, but it was a good one. “It’s a shame we don’t have quantum computers.”
“Do I even want to know what that is?”
Nathan smiled. “Just a really small but exponentially powerful computer.”
Um, Bethany Anne?
What is it, TOM? A little busy now.
We have a quantum computer.
We do? Fucking Fantastic! Can we pull it from the ship?
Yes, we could if it was still ON the ship.
What are you talking about… Oh fuck me double time. This one in my head is a quantum computer?
Yes, it is our third generation version. But we never made the effort to put an AI in these computers.
Is this computer something we can duplicate ourselves?
Not without understanding the Etheric.
So, not anytime in the next six months, right?
Well, probably not.
What would make it possible?
TOM paused a second, finally he admitted the answer. A strong AI.
Bethany Anne mentally sighed. Of course that’s the answer, because anything else would be too fucking easy.
They wrapped up their conversations and everyone split to their most important tasks. Their little vacation from Nosferatu fighting was officially over.
13
Frankfurt, Germany
Ivan didn’t have a clue how he should be acting. While he had never been to Frankfurt, with the maps on his phone he could see where they were going. Still, he was at a loss about how he should respond to the Wechselbalg contact they would be meeting. Stephen had woken him up early this morning and they had hidden some of their personal effects behind the wall.
Stephen had informed him it would be, “Better to be safe and have no questions, than risk raising the wrong question or two. The stories from back in the nineties might have a bit of truth to them.” So, they stashed the blood in its keep-cold packs in the old escape route. Ivan now just assumed he meant the 1890s. No matter how much he tried to get Stephen to open up and tell the story, Stephen wouldn’t talk. Stephen did admit he wasn’t proud of those few days and had stayed out of Frankfurt for over a century because he didn’t like the memories.
Once they had hidden their stuff away, they went upstairs and informed the front desk they would be out until at least early afternoon.
They had a nice breakfast at a small cafe. Stephen was happy to try a new coffee he hadn’t had before and Ivan had rolls covered in marmalade and wurst on the side. They had worked a little on Stephen’s use of his smartphone, but Ivan’s help was needed less and less the more Stephen played with technology. Now, Ivan was as much a travel companion as a technology consultant. Unknown to Ivan, Stephen had taken over his monthly salary from Bethany Anne back in Brasov. Stephen thought Ivan was helping ground him as he acclimated to how people talked and acted with each other, and he enjoyed having him live with him.
Bethany Anne told Stephen that was fine, but that he was going to pay for that service. There was no good reason for her to foot that bill. She’d winked at him.
As Stephen enjoyed his newspaper, reading it in German without a problem, Ivan went through his social connections and sighed a little heavily. Stephen halfway closed his paper and looked around it over to Ivan. “What’s wrong?”
Ivan leaned back in his chair and smiled. “I think this new city is getting me down. I miss Gabrielle and I wonder how she is doing.”
Stephen smiled, he liked that Ivan was thinking about his daughter. “Bethany Anne said she would be in the medical pod for almost a week. She is sleeping at this moment.” Ivan and Stephen had received texts early that morning to let them know Bethany Anne had made it to the Bahamas ok. “Tell you what, I’ve been wanting to go out a little. Why don’t you help me acclimate with people and we can go out tonight?”
“Be your wingman?” Ivan smiled at Stephen.
“What do you mean, ‘wingman?’”
Ivan put his hands up side by side, but one slightly in front of the other. “Are you aware of how fighter jets fly together? You have a primary and a secondary so if you are flying one jet, the other jet is called your wingman. They help each other out.”
“Ah, exactly so!” Stephen loved this new word. “You need to be my wingman tonight.”
“Hey, I won’t be able to help you if the girls have friends, I’m off limits!”
Stephen closed his newspaper. “I don’t think they will be looking you over, when I am available.” Stephen winked roguishly at Ivan who had to laugh. Stephen was the complete opposite of a scary vampire to him. Even Bethany Anne scared him significantly more than Stephen did. Stephen didn’t seem to have a mean bone in his body.
Ivan speared the last piece of wurst on his plate and ate it. “I’m sure that’s very true. But if I happen to run into any women too drunk to tell that I am not you, then you have to promise me you’ll save me, right?” Stephen agreed that he would.
They stayed another half hour and then called a cab. They would take the taxi to the address of their contact Josef von Dorman, who had his offices at the Commerzbank Tower. It was a magnificent fifty
-six-story structure with a very distinctive triangular design and a tall spire running up from one of the apexes. Stephen paid the taxi and the two went into the main entrance to the guard desk inside. When they received the appropriate instructions, they took the elevator to the forty-fifth floor.
Mr. Josef von Dorman was a financial planner. Stephen made sure to enter the office first. While he didn’t expect a surprise attack from the Weres here in the middle of Frankfurt, he wouldn’t take any chances with Ivan’s life.
Mr. Dorman had a very attractive and very human secretary in the sitting room. They gave her their names and didn’t have time to turn around and sit before Stephen could hear a person coming down the hallway behind the secretary.
He waited for the new arrival, an older gentleman and definitely a Wechselbalg. He held out his hand. “Josef von Dorman.”
Stephen shook his hand. “Stephen, Herr Dorman and my compatriot is Herr Romanov.”
Ivan shook the man’s hand. “Ivan is fine.”
“Yes, let’s dispense with formality if that is ok with you, Herr Stephen?” Stephen inclined his head in agreement. “Please come this way into the meeting room. Sandra? Please hold all communications until we finish. Thank you.” He led them into the meeting room off the main office, and closed the door behind them. “I assure you, this room is very protected, we will not be heard outside.” Josef’s accent was very strong.
Ivan looked around the room. It was very traditional with a dark wooden table surrounded by eight chairs. Stephen looked out the windows for anything that seemed out of place. Satisfied, he took a chair where he could see Josef, the door and the windows. Josef sat himself across the table with his back to the windows and Ivan chose to sit to Stephen’s left.
Stephen started the conversation, which was the preferred method for Wechselbalg. Better to answer questions than try to probe with leading questions that might only get you in trouble. “Josef, my Queen is concerned that Europe is not as secure against the Forsaken threat as we might have thought. She has asked me to meet with you to understand the real situation here in Europe. When I spoke with my daughter, Gabrielle, she informed me that perhaps she and a few others had not updated Michael’s contact in America appropriately. Now, when I woke up I found my own son was involved with the Brasov Were pack and participating in very shady dealings. Whether he was connected with the Forsaken, or just involved in the black market I do not know. However, Europe is my responsibility to my Queen and I intend to find all of the issues and deal with the situation as appropriate. I am not here to cast blame, but rather to find and fix what’s wrong. If blame were to be issued, it would surely be laid at my own feet. So, I am only interested in fixing the problem. We will correct those who accept correction, but those who refuse correction will be appropriately chastised.”
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 74