O’Neil, Miss Hitch, some errand runner from the Capitol, and I stared at the screen in awe.
»My God, the poor President!« cried Miss Hitch repeatedly. O’Neil didn’t say a word. He was in a complete state of shock. Already now, in the first few minutes after the crash, suspicions of assassination were voiced. Some suspected the Neo-Luddites, others the intelligence service of the Union State, others a radical Shiite group, others again the drug cartels and some even a conspiracy of the technocratic industrial complex. The whole country was immediately put on high alert. A special session of the Senate was convened.
I had to get O’Neil through a bunch of reporters down the hall. A few minutes later, the entire Capitol Hill was finally closed to visitors.
While I waited in the entrance area of the Capitol and O’Neil was in his Senate session, I followed the further news on my smartphone.
Vice President Gordon was in Air Force One on his way to Washington, where he was to be sworn in as the new President at the White House.
Various important people were interviewed to get their first reactions to the tragedy. Among them was the Chairman of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, CAIR. The man was outraged. He seemed to have completely lost control of himself and showed no regard for any political sensitivity. »They murdered him!« he shouted in rage. »They’ve always wanted to murder him. They couldn’t bear the idea of a Muslim being President of the United States. And now they have killed him. They have insulted the whole Ummah. But we Muslims will not put up with this. Our President has been assassinated and the Quran demands jihad in response. There will be no mercy for those murderers. With this heinous crime they themselves have opened the gates of hell.« I didn’t quite know, whom he meant by they, but such an obvious call for violence was certainly dangerous. I wondered why the TV station hadn’t cut off the interview.
I myself was not sure what to think about the death of the President. An accident seemed increasingly unlikely. It had to be a targeted assassination. I remembered what Jensen had said when O’Neil told him about the President’s plan to sign the agreement with the other continental unions. »I will take care of everything.« Suddenly those words took on a new, extremely dangerous meaning. Had Jensen of Boston Dynamics ordered the assassination of the President? With the support of that Air Force General González, he certainly had the opportunity and ability to do so. But would he really have gone this far? Well, there was certainly a lot at stake for the technocrats and the robot and computer industry. But that they assassinated the President because of this was a very disturbing idea. And I myself would have triggered it by telling O’Neil about this gathering and what I had learned there. So in a way, I would have been involved in the assassination of the President myself. I shook off that irritating thought.
The next escalation of the crisis came with the speech of Vice President Gordon, immediately after he had been sworn in as the new President by a federal judge. I heard the speech again in O’Neil’s office after he returned from the special session of the Senate.
»I want to say it frank and open to the citizens of our nation,« said the newly appointed President. »This despicable act of cowardice is related to the planned participation of our blessed President in tomorrow’s CU Summit in Buenos Aires. There he had planned to conclude an agreement with our partners in Europe, South Asia and South America that would have banned all that inhuman computer technology. I know that certain people in the computer industry would not have liked this agreement. And therefore these criminal elements did not even shy away from the most heinous crime. But I promise you that they achieved nothing by doing so. I will carry on the legacy of our late President. And this crime will be investigated until we find those responsible. And we will hunt them down until we catch the last of them. The technocrats shouldn’t rejoice too soon. Today was no victory for them. It doesn’t matter if this treaty is signed in Buenos Aires or not. I myself, as President of this nation, will ensure that human dignity is once again respected in this country and that the machines are put in their place.«
»That idiot!« O’Neil got upset when he watched the speech on the screen with us. »Why doesn’t he wait for the results of the FBI investigation? He’s just adding fuel to the fire. Before he says such a thing, he should have waited until the public calmed down. Now he’s just making everything worse.«
Miss Hitch asked: »Well, do they know who was responsible for the helicopter crash yet?«
»Nobody knows anything for sure yet. The FBI has only just begun their investigation,« O’Neil replied. »Anyone with a little sense for politics would know that he shouldn’t forestall the outcome of the investigation. And this planned agreement was not intended for the public either. Not even the Senate knew about it. It would have been made public only after it was signed. This idiot is embarrassing even the governments of the other continental unions. Now that the plans for this agreement are public, the opposition in the UNASUR and the MU will of course be up in arms against it. Nobody will sign anything now.« He shook his head. »That Gordon should never have become President. He’s not cut out for the job. Everyone in the GOP knows he’s incompetent. Al-Rahman only brought him on board in the primaries to pacify the Bible-loving faction of the Republicans. He knew that there would be strong reservations about a Muslim presidential candidate at the grassroots of the party. That is why he made this arch-conservative Christian fundamentalist his deputy, which should dispel any suspicion of a Muslim infiltration of the GOP. But nobody seriously expected that this nutcase would one day really become President. This guy simply isn’t made to be President.«
For the masses, at least, the case was now clear. No one was willing to wait for the FBI to investigate. The culprits had already been announced. The new President had said it himself. The technocrats had murdered al-Rahman to prevent a law against the machines. It took less than three hours before the first reports of violent unrest came from Miami. The offices of the computer company IBM were stormed. There were deaths and injuries. And that was just the beginning.
O’Neil had been called to an emergency meeting of the senators of his party. The meeting had been going on for two hours. I was still watching the news with Miss Hitch. There had also been attacks on computer company offices in Dallas. The police were overwhelmed. This time it was the Boston Dynamics office tower. The company’s security robots had used rubber bullets and tear gas against the violent protesters. However, two people were killed, one of them a little boy of nine. A rubber bullet had shot out his eye and apparently fatally injured his brain. This of course heated up the atmosphere even more. Machines had killed people. Memories of the massacre in Jakarta were awakened when USEAN robots had slaughtered over a hundred people to quell an uprising. And the Neo-Luddites were not willing to let something like that happen again in the U. S.
It was already six in the evening when I accompanied O’Neil to a press conference. As Capitol Hill had been closed to visitors including journalists, the press conference was held at the Hilton Hotel. It was total chaos and I had my hands full making sure that nobody could approach O’Neil at a dangerous distance. Firearms were forbidden in the hotel. Only I and the other security personnel were armed, so that a possible attack on O’Neil’s life could only take place at close range. I can hardly remember anything from the conference, as I was always on the lookout for people trying to get past the barrier or behaving suspiciously in the audience. Luckily, the press conference passed without any major incidents.
I was glad when we left the hotel.
On the way back to the Capitol we passed several riots. A large group of Mussies had stormed a shopping center and set fire to some shops. Also the traffic in front of the mall had come to a standstill. Young people had knocked over two cars and set fire to them, shouting »Allahu akbar!« and »Jihad!« The cars burned despite the constant rain that poured down in Washington, D. C. The cars behind them were pelted with bottles and other objects. With the help of the priority
status of O’Neil’s car, which after all was carrying a U. S. senator, I managed to clear an alley by instructing the autopilots of the standing cars accordingly. This way we were able to quickly escape the riots before O’Neil’s safety could be seriously endangered.
Even before we got back to his office on Capitol Hill, O’Neil was called to a meeting by the Senate Minority Leader. The opposition spokesman’s office was right in the Senate wing of the Capitol. I didn’t get what the meeting was about because I was waiting outside the door. I assumed that the Democratic spokesman was hoping to find a sensible interlocutor in O’Neil, as he had voted against the Republican party line on several occasions. However, this was less due to his moderate political position but rather due to O’Neil’s notorious corruption.
I looked at my smartphone. It was already after nine. And this conversation would take longer too. Sleep was not an option that night. And the Old Man probably wouldn’t pay me extra for overtime. I watched the news on my smartphone. They kept showing the reactions to the assassination of the President. And over and over again the same pictures were shown, which the escort helicopter had taken. In the meantime, the chairman of the Council for American-Islamic Relations had been arrested by Homeland Security for sedition. The Mussie riots continued nevertheless, but at least the government showed determination to act against the calls for jihad. This was not really surprising. The new president was a Christian Bible thumper, who had always been very critical of the influence of Mohammedans in his party.
The conversation with the speaker of the Democrats lasted over an hour. After that O’Neil and I returned to his own office taking the Capitol subway. We did not stay there for long, however, because a special meeting of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, of which O’Neil was a member, had been convened. I assumed that it was about the rejected Human Dignity Bill, which was now to be introduced through the back door via the planned treaty in Buenos Aires. But as I myself did not attend the committee meeting but waited outside, I cannot say anything specific about this. The committee meeting lasted until well after midnight. Then O’Neil had to go back to his office and was busy with phone calls for the next hour.
It was now about three in the morning. We received a memorandum from the Senate Majority Leader. There we could read that spokesmen of the Neo-Luddites called nationwide for a Crusade against the Machines. In solidarity with the Mohammedan organizations, against which the Department of Homeland Security was now taking tough action, they called it a jihad, a Jihad against the Machines.
It was this moment that would ironically go down in history later as the beginning of the Crusade against the Machines, at least among Non-Mussies. The memorandum stated that the reports about the call for an uprising were suppressed in the media in order not to endanger the general order. But it could not be kept a secret. The Neo-Luddites were everywhere and had a well-functioning network. They managed to get their message out to the people, despite the censorship of the media and the Internet. O’Neil read the memorandum out loud so Miss Hitch and I could hear it.
Still in the early hours of the seventeenth of March, the Senate was called for another crisis session. The session lasted many hours. It was already dawn again outside. But the sky was still gray. The rain continued, even though it had subsided a little. I was tired. Still I had no chance to sleep. When O’Neil finally came out of the Senate plenum at nine in the morning, he sent me out to get something to eat. I took the car and drove off. It was not so easy though. Most of the shops remained closed. A McDonalds had been attacked by looters and set on fire. I saw smoke billowing up in several places around town. The sirens of the fire brigade and ambulance howled almost incessantly. At some point I discovered a gas station and stocked up on snacks, sandwiches and soft drinks. Then I drove back to Capitol Hill. I passed two street corners where police robots were fighting against Neo-Luddite rioters. The whole capital seemed to be in chaos.
We had breakfast in O’Neil’s office. Then O’Neil made some more important calls. I had a talk with a Capitol Police officer outside. He told me that almost the entire capital was without power that morning. The Neo-Luddites had cut down several important high voltage power lines. And in Maryland, a power plant had been attacked. The Capitol itself was powered by an emergency generator. That’s why we still had electric power here. I assumed that it was dark in my apartment at home. I hoped that the power plants would be able to restore the general power supply in the district by the end of the day, if I should ever be able to get off work again.
Meanwhile, the news reported about the riots and nationwide acts of sabotage by the Neo-Luddites, but without mentioning the calls for jihad that had been made during the night. According to the newscaster, the security forces had the situation under control.
At noon the situation worsened, because it was the time of Friday prayers in the mosques. The Mussie leaders used this opportunity to incite the uprisings even further. And they were supported by the Neo-Luddites.
The new President Gordon announced a televised speech for two o’clock. O’Neil was at a meeting with several of his colleagues while Miss Hitch and I were in his office following the President’s speech.
Apparently Gordon had become more reasonable now than the day before. He called on the population to calm down and promised far-reaching measures to meet the demands of the rioting Neo-Luddites and to take the wind out of their sails. As an immediate measure, he issued Executive Order 16447, which ordered the shutdown of robots in all federal police departments. At the same time, the National Guard was mobilized nationwide to ensure law and order in the country for the transitional period. There were no robots in the National Guard. It consisted entirely of human guardsmen. This must have been a hard blow for the police. Most of the police work was done by robots. Only the officers were humans. This effectively disbanded most of the federal police force. Given the current security situation, this was certainly a very questionable decision. I didn’t know if this was also true for state and municipal law enforcement agencies.
The reactions to the president’s speech were not long in coming. The Capitol Police officers protecting the Capitol were baffled. Should they turn off their robot mates now? Meanwhile, who would ensure the safety of the Capitol? Should they wait until the first National Guard units arrived? How long would that take?
O’Neil called me in. A new crisis session of the Senate had been called to respond to the President’s speech. There was a sense of panic in the Capitol. No one knew what to expect now.
Even during the special sessions of both houses of Congress, the first armored personnel carriers of the National Guard arrived on Capitol Hill to oversee the shutdown of the Capitol Police robots. I saw the first heavily armed soldiers marching through the corridors.
Close by were two robots in police uniforms. They did nothing when the soldiers in their black and gray uniforms with the thick body armor took them in the middle. One of the soldiers, a corporal, stepped behind the first robot. He did something to the back of its head. The robot froze and didn’t move anymore. Then two other soldiers opened its uniform shirt and pulled it up. They unscrewed a flap in his back and took out the heavy battery cells. Then they placed them on a small handcart that they had brought with them. The other robot watched unmoved as its colleague was deactivated. Finally it was its turn. I almost felt sorry for it. I wondered how it must have felt, when it witnessed its kind being systematically deactivated, or if it felt anything at all. It shared its fate with its colleague. The National Guardsmen carefully laid the switched-off robots on the ground, took away their weapons and ammunition and then marched on. I looked at them somewhat irritated as they passed by. The other Capitol employees also looked at the guardsmen helplessly.
One man objected: »Hey, you can’t do that! Who’s in charge of security now?«
»By order of the President!« replied the squad leader. »Continue your work and don’t try to stop us. We from the National Guar
d will take over from here.«
The first conflict occurred when the guardsmen stopped an android that apparently worked for a congressman. The android looked human and was wearing a suit and tie. But his facial skin and movements were not real enough to pass as a human.
»Freeze!« ordered by the squad leader.
»Leave me alone! I work for Congressman Halker,« protested the android.
»We have orders to shut down all androids here,« explained the sergeant.
»But that only applies to robots in police service. I’m a private servant of a congressman,« said the machine-man outraged. »You have no right!«
»Don’t make any trouble!« ordered the sergeant. »We have our orders.«
A human employee came to the android’s aid and placed herself between him and the soldiers. »Listen, we have heard the President’s speech. »He only mentioned robots in the federal police service.«
The sergeant got rough. »Out of the way! Let us do our job, or you’ll be arrested too.« He grabbed her by the arm.
Other Capitol officials now also interfered. There was a scuffle. The sergeant called for reinforcements over his helmet radio. I didn’t know whether to intervene or not. In my opinion, the National Guardsmen exceeded their authority. But then again, it was none of my business. The android wasn’t working for O’Neil, and I wasn’t an android, I was a human. Three more National Guardsmen came running in with assault rifles. They put their rifles on. The civilians withdrew.
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