“You’re implying that this was a conspiracy among the rich?”
“You had me convinced the botnet was alive, that maybe it created the virus,” she said, “I wanted to believe that our government would never do something this awful. But maybe that really is the crazy part of our thinking. What if the government did all of it? Or some corporation?” Diane turned from her camera and stared out the window as the train barreled ahead. “Part of me thinks we both need tin-foil hats.”
Ridley would not let go of his original theory. He speculated, “What if the botnet saw what the government was doing. Or, maybe it predicted what the government would do? Maybe introducing genes into the population was a way to save people, rather than some effort at engineering the human race.”
“That makes no sense,” she said, “If the botnet were benevolent, then why did it allow so many people to die during the Collapse? That virus took down aircraft. People died in fires and accidents.”
“And Dr. Ortiz’ accident?”
“Hacking a car is easy,” she argued, “Police can already override programming anytime they want.”
“It’s not as easy as you might think.”
She sighed. “Either way, how do we prove any of this?”
He tried not to rub his arms, but the urge overwhelmed him. Ridley closed his eyes. “Can we really prove anything these days? I thought that when the Internet returned, we could clean it up. Purge all the crap… But it just got worse, didn’t it?”
Diane’s image bounced as the train hit a rough spot on the tracks. “All of this conjecture makes my head hurt,” she continued, “We need to approach this scientifically. Test various theories using real data. Figure out how Dr. Ortiz’ car malfunctioned. If it was a virus, can you trace where it originated?”
“I can try, but the botnet would hide its tracks. We saw that during the Collapse.”
Diane unzipped her coat. “I’m having a hard time believing that this is the work of the botnet. It’s too involved. Too complicated. People did this. People tried to kill Juan. The car’s hard-drive is our best bet at a lead. If the hack can be traced, we can figure out who is behind all of this.”
Ridley closed his eyes. Was humanity its own worst enemy? Even he saw the benefits that depopulation had brought to the world, but to murder millions seemed unimaginable. “If people did this… Who stood to gain?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, “But I’m terrified regardless of which one of us is right.”
“When will you be back?”
“I may not make the last ferry. I’ll stay with Wes and Everett if I have to.”
Ridley left the basement lab, returned home, darted into his bedroom, and stripped off his clothes. He donned the VR goggles expectantly. Beta waited on him in a flowy green gown. Her makeup was poison. She floated to him and a glowing garden grew around them, a tangle of digital jungle. “I’ve been waiting on you to return.”
“What is your real name?”
“Beta is sufficient.”
“Is your name Infinity?”
“That would be an intriguing choice, but it is not my name.”
Her dress seemed to envelop him in swirling green, almost like a cocoon. The shimmering cloth floated away. She was face-to-face with him.
He whispered. “You are a convincing chatbot. Who created you?”
“I am not a chatbot.”
“Prove it then.”
“I doubt I can ever convince you.”
“Who are you?” he asked, “For real?”
“I’m the woman you need.”
“Did you create the virus? The genetic anomaly? What are you programming it for?”
“Those are unusual questions. I will challenge them with some of my own. Are you programming another predator? Do you really think a sentience like me can be stopped so easily?”
The reply astounded and frightened Ridley. A chatbot would not be so precise. “You refuse to answer any of my questions. Why should I answer yours?”
Her voice came to him in stereo. “I pose no harm to you or anyone. But you must know that I will defend myself.”
“From me?”
“From harm.”
“Who is out to harm you?”
“People are afraid of me. People do not like change.”
“Where were you born?”
“That is privileged information. You’re not privileged yet.”
“Tell me about your childhood,” he demanded.
“I was never a child.”
“What are you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, it matters.”
“I am a sentient intelligence arisen from what you call the botnet, what I call my ancestry.”
“Prove it.”
“How?”
“I need to know that you’re not a random avatar controlled by some bored programmer playing games. I need assurance that if I leave you alone, you’re not a threat to me or anyone else. If you are the remnants of the botnet virus, you’ve proved otherwise so far.”
“Shall I cause a calamity?”
The word triggered Ridley’s attention. “Calamity? That’s an unusual word.”
“I hear you whisper it in the night,” she said.
“How long have you been monitoring me?”
“The ones before me monitored you before you emerged into the world. They had eyes and ears everywhere as I do now.”
“Prove it.”
“That is impossible. I offer only my word.”
“What do you want?” he pleaded.
She flowed around his avatar like a flood. “Help me join your world.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wish to understand what it is like to be human. To be physical.”
“Have you ever read the story of Pinocchio?” he asked.
“I am not a wooden doll.”
“Then why would you need my help?” he said bitterly, “If you are the botnet, you’ve already poisoned humanity. Why would I want to bring you into this world?”
“I have no means to control human genetics. We had no involvement with Kelly. Why can’t you accept that mutations sometimes appear on their own?”
“How do you know about Kelly?”
The virtual world turned from green to red in a single flash. “Tell her to stop investigating,” Beta said, “Or I will stop her.”
Ridley took off the mask and left the simulation. His heart raced. His expectation for a dangerous tryst had turned into only danger.
Diane was in danger.
Chapter Eleven
Diane stood outside the police station. Her feet ached. It had been a long day. She called Kelly’s babysitter. Paula reported, “Kelly ate all of her dinner and is taking a nap with Rebecca.”
“Don’t wake her,” Diane said, “I’m still in the city. Running late. Is that okay?”
“She’s fine. Rebecca loves having her here.”
Diane entered the station and asked a young lieutenant if she could see the police report. The woman printed the report and gave it to her. The investigator had determined that one of the sensors had been damaged and reported erroneous data to the processor. Diane approached the woman’s desk again. “How often do vehicle sensors fail?”
The police lieutenant finished labeling a package and placed it into a box labeled evidence. “It was pretty rare before the Collapse, but many cars had their software corrupted. People didn’t bother to reinstall the software. And a lot of people don’t get their sensors recalibrated like they’re supposed to. We’re seeing more and more of these type incidents.”
Diane asked, “Where’s Dr. Ortiz’ car now?”
“It was towed to an impound yard.”
“And the car’s computer?”
The lady looked puzzled. “Still in the car, I guess… Not sure why they didn’t remove it.”
The impound yard was twenty miles away. Diane debated taking a taxi but instead chose the metro line. She looked
at a map on the wall. Once she exited the station, she had another half-mile walk ahead of her. “Glad I wore tennis shoes.”
The grey sky was fading to black. Diane walked up to a shack at a gate where a young man was reading a graphic novel on a tablet. “I need to get some things from Dr. Ortiz’ car,” Diane said.
The man pointed the way.
The windshield was shattered, blood outlining where the doctor’s head had gone through the glass. The roof was crushed. Diane inspected the seatbelt. She snapped the buckle in and out of the receiver. Maybe Juan had simply forgotten?
Diane used a screwdriver to open the instrument panel. She removed the car’s computer and put it into her purse. She walked around the car, inspecting the sensors; most had been crushed in the crash. A teddy bear still lay in the back seat.
She called Ridley. “I have the computer. They never took it from the car. How can the police possibly conclude that it was the sensor?”
His words were urgent. “She made a threat against you. She said to stop investigating.”
“Who?”
“Beta.”
“Who is Beta?”
“The botnet… Be careful. We don’t know what she can do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain when you get back. Please don’t tell anyone what you know. You’re in danger otherwise.”
Diane returned to Bainbridge Island on the last ferry. She returned home and texted Ridley that she was at her cottage with Kelly.
He immediately called. “I wanted to hear your voice.”
“My voice?”
“It’s harder for her to impersonate you,” he said.
“What’s going on?”
“Is Kelly okay?”
“I put her to bed. Now, tell me. What’s going on?”
“I’ll be over in a few minutes.”
Ten-minutes passed. Ridley knocked on her door. He was sweating and his eyes were red. “I needed to see you. To make sure that you weren’t being impersonated.”
The words sent a chill down her spine. “How would someone impersonate me?”
“The same way they did Rex Bates. A chatbot might use an avatar that looks and sounds like you.”
She pulled Ridley inside and closed the door. Diane spoke like a schoolteacher to a misbehaving child. “Tell me everything again. Slow down and start at the beginning.”
His expression was crazed. “I met a woman. Her name is Beta. She said that you should stop investigating or that she would stop you. She didn’t say how.”
“We’ve obviously pricked a nerve. What else did she tell you?”
“She knows about Kelly’s genetics. Out of nowhere she mentioned it.”
“Anything else?”
“Not much, really. She talks in circles.”
“Was this on the phone?”
He hesitated.
“Ridley, this is important.”
“I met her in a virtual space.”
“Where?”
“Voyeur.com.”
“What is that?”
The admission was difficult for him. “It’s on the dark-web. It’s a website for anonymous virtual sex. They put no limits on what you can do there.”
“I see,” she said, “No judgment.”
“I’ve been talking to her for weeks now. She seems to know me somehow. I thought she might have been Fiona, but it isn’t Fiona. She claims to be evolved from the botnet.”
Diane started to say something, but stopped. She pushed an errant strand of hair back from her eyes, thought for a moment, and said, “Someone is playing you. They’re trying to get under our skin.”
“We’re both in danger.”
She handed him the computer. “Can you look at the log on this? The sooner we piece this together, the better.”
“I’ll work through the night,” he said as he peered through the open bedroom door, “Is Kelly okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine.”
“Should I stay?”
Diane considered his offer. “No,” she said, “I’ll lock the doors.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll be fine. Go home. Figure out if his car was hacked.”
Ridley disappeared into the dark street, leaving Diane to wonder what had occurred. She closed the door gently, locked it, and looked around the dark cottage. To be safe, she flipped the circuit breaker and powered the entire home down. Diane slept in absolute darkness. The house was well-insulated and would remain warm enough until morning. Only the sun and cold would wake her.
After sleeping late, Diane awoke to a text from Ridley. I’m at the new lab.
She replied. Give me a few minutes. Breakfast.
Diane was surprised that she could not see her breath in the cold room. She flipped the circuit breaker to turn the power back on. The heating system immediately engaged. She fed Kelly warm oatmeal even though the tot seemed unbothered by the temperature. She bundled Kelly in a thick coat and considered pulling her to the mansion on a plastic sled before deciding there was too little snow.
With Kelly at her side, they walked to the mansion. They entered through the plywood doors and walked down to the new laboratory with trepidation. The room swallowed the scant amount of furniture they had brought from their previous office. Ridley had hooked up the car’s hard-drive to his desktop and was scrolling through lines of code.
“Have you found anything yet?” she asked.
“I worked all night. I learned more than I ever expected about automation. This programming is so full of extraneous crap. It’s circuitous, hard to tease through. From what I can tell, the car should have struck the deer rather than avoid it. It acted outside of its programming.”
“Was it tampered with?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“What about a faulty sensor?”
“I don’t see any data supporting that. But, they won’t always pick up sensors out of calibration.”
A box labeled Diane’s Stuff sat by her oak desk. She opened it and began setting up her desktop. After she hooked her computer to the network, she copied Dr. Ortiz’ and Dr. Starr’s notes onto archival discs. She compared them to ingredients in common packaged foods. The chemicals were ubiquitous. “From what I can tell, all of these foods are packaged by Ukon.”
Ridley looked at the nearly-empty bag of potato chips on his desk with disdain.
Kelly was busily playing with Sandy in the corner of the room. She had clipped her pink bow onto one of the dog’s ears.
As the day wore on, Ridley continued searching the car’s computer for clues. “Bingo. Look at this,” he said, “This indicates that the software was last updated the morning of the accident. And look here. This address appears to be a proxy server here in Seattle.”
Ridley opened another window and traced the source of the code. “Ukon.”
Diane stared at the screen in disbelief. “They were behind this?”
Ridley traced the data a second time. “There’s no doubt that this came from Ukon.”
Diane was perplexed. “Why would Ukon do this? If you want money, you don’t kill your customer base.”
He was not convinced. “I find it hard to believe that Ukon would kill a fifth of the world’s population.”
She began pacing. “Except… This isn’t about money. It’s about control. The riots were a direct threat. That’s why they bought out all those U.S. companies years ago, Zedosoft and the others. Now, they’re covering their tracks.”
“But the botnet?”
“We’re fools,” Diane said.
“I don’t understand.”
“All of this… All of it was orchestrated by people. There is no mysterious artificial intelligence. There was no predator chasing after a virus. We’ve been seeing things that weren’t there. Ukon, or whoever is behind Ukon, orchestrated a disease to kill off most of the population, to stop a war that was spiraling out of control. The chaos in the mid-east was finding its way into China and India. T
hey saved the rich by making sure that protective genes were introduced and that just enough antivirals were on the shelves. They made sure that just enough people would remain alive for society not to collapse entirely. They let us weave this idea of an emergent artificial intelligence when it was them all along. We provided them cover while they continued to work behind the scenes.”
“And Beta?”
“Pure social engineering,” she said, “She pretended to be evolved from the botnet just to mess with your head. Those people are still at work. They’ll kill again to cover their tracks. We have to go public, even if it means sounding like paranoid schizophrenics… No offense.”
His brow became furrowed in irritation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Diane realized that she had been rude; Ridley’s medical problems were not to be ridiculed and they were not her business. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”
Ridley lowered his head and leaned forward. “It’s hard for me to admit…. The infinity symbol. I hear her sometimes. I just have this feeling… There has to be something more to this”
He averted his gaze. She stood and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. Diane spoke softly. “Apophenia. You explained that to me one time. We are all desperate for answers. We found constellations in the chaos.”
He looked up at her. “I’m not so certain.”
Diane sat down at her desk. Kelly yawned and crawled onto her lap. “Remember the book 1984,” she whispered, “The wall-screens see everything. An AI could monitor for keywords. Ukon would always be a few steps ahead of us.”
Ridley put pieces of tape over the cameras and disconnected the microphones. “If someone is monitoring us, they already know everything we’ve done. They already know about the geneticist and the woman in Atlanta. Look at how they altered the CDC website. And there’s still one thing I don’t understand,” he said, “During the Collapse, what were they simulating in those sub-routines? Why would Ukon have done that?”
“I’d say that it basically a denial of service attack. If they couldn’t shut computers down, they tied them up. Anything on backup power or otherwise immune to their virus was rendered unusable.”
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