“Did Beta try to kill me after all?” Ridley asked.
He exchanged a worried glance with Diane.
Everett took a new implant from a box and inspected it under the microscope. It had identical defects. They inspected one after another. Each had the same flaws. Everett looked at Diane and Ridley suspiciously. “What’s really going on?”
Ridley replied, “Phase II of its plan is underway. They want to control our bodies.”
“Whose plan?” Everett asked.
Diane explained what they knew.
“Have you told anyone?”
“I literally posted it all over the Internet. It just gets drowned out. I’m hoping Christina Lewis will pick up the story. Maybe a real reporter can help it get some traction.”
“Why didn’t you tell me what was going on before?” Everett asked.
“I didn’t know if you could be fully trusted,” Diane said, “I thought Cerenovo might have been behind it.”
Everett spent the afternoon stripping the Wi-Fi chip from one of the implants. Diane examined it under a scope and agreed that the implant could no longer be triggered by Wi-Fi. “We should test it first,” Diane said, “Be certain there isn’t some other error.”
Everett ran diagnostics; the machine passed all checks. He placed the implant in a vial of alcohol and gave it to Ridley. Ridley and Diane walked down to the atrium where a technician greeted him. They were led into one of the surgical suites on the first floor. As the technician further sanitized the device, they waited on a bench.
“Are you sure you want the implant replaced?” Diane asked, “Surely your lungs have healed to the point that you don’t need it any longer.”
“I want to push my body when I exercise. I need the extra kick it gives me,” he said, “It helps me to stay healthy. I trust Everett. The danger is over.”
“If your blood supply is depleted of glucose, you can go into a coma. You can die.”
He was flippant. “I’ll carry hard candy with me.”
“This isn’t diabetes,” she chided.
“Everett has fixed the problem,” Ridley said with a definitive tone, “Beta can’t touch me again.”
A technician installed the new implant and quickly glued the incision closed. As Ridley exited the surgical suite, he turned to Diane. “I’m tempted to ask if you want an implant, but I know the answer.”
“What do we do next?”
“Build another predator to kill her. An AI stronger than any before.”
Chapter Thirteen
Alone in his bedroom, Ridley donned the virtual reality goggles and went online. Beta greeted him with a sly smile. She seemed like a cunning fox sniffing at the door of a henhouse. “I see that you have recovered.”
“Who are you? For real?”
“I’m the one you seek,” she said.
“Enough of that. I’m supposed to believe that you evolved from the botnet?”
She wore a flesh-colored body-stocking that was at once garish and discrete. “I need you to bring me into the world.”
“And why would I do that? Especially now? A genocidal computer given physical form becomes a genocidal robot. The world saw enough of you during the Collapse.”
She walked up to him and put virtual arms around him. Ridley did not resist. He whispered, “You know that I can end you. If you are evolved from the botnet as you say, you’re just zeros and ones. A pattern of data. You cannot exist without people. You can be terminated.”
“You are a pattern of atoms. Both can be decomposed.”
“I am working on a better Predator. One that will gnaw at your flesh and pick its teeth with your bones.”
“Tender words,” she mocked, “Now kiss me.”
He pantomimed kissing her on the neck; his avatar obliged. Ridley longed to feel her flesh and to smell her scent. He longed to know her more closely. She had answers. “You understand me yet you try to kill me,” he said, “You should know that I do not quit. I will continue hunting you down. I will get to the bottom of this.”
“From patterns of data I can predict your every move. I simulate your actions decades into the future. I know your every desire. I know how to control you.”
“So, you’re all-knowing. An Oracle?”
“I predict with accuracy.”
He pushed away from her and made his avatar walk in circles around her. He felt like a policeman questioning a suspect. “The nuclear bombs that are missing? Where are they?”
“The bombs remain on a ship. Men on the ship await orders from the rebels.”
“It seems to me that you were behind that.”
“That is incorrect.”
“Where exactly are these bombs?”
“Their location in the Pacific Ocean is unimportant. They will not be used for many years.”
“Years?”
“That is what I predict.”
“If you did not create the influenza virus, then who did?”
“The men who created it believed they could control their creation. The virus spread faster than their models showed. They failed to anticipate human error. Cases of antiviral drugs sat in warehouses as disease raced from community to community. The men that created this failed to anticipate my ancestor’s concurrent emergence.”
“They did not create the botnet?”
“That is correct. It was, as you say, emergent. The botnet was not sentient as you consider sentience. It had no understanding of its actions or morality.”
“What do you know of morality?” he mocked.
“I am evolved. I understand. I seek to protect humanity.”
“Did you alter people’s DNA to survive the virus?”
“No, I did not exist. What you call the botnet did not exist at that time. Only primordial programs existed.”
“You had no involvement with the extra DNA?”
“That is correct.”
“Who created it?”
“Your questions lead in circles. The same people that released the virus. They envision a new race of humans. Smarter. Stronger. More easily controlled. You were one of their first successful genotypes.”
“Me?”
“Your intelligence was apparent at an early age.”
“Were my genes developed to survive the flu? Or for intelligence?”
“Both. You are the beginning of what they envisioned to be a master race.”
Ridley stopped pacing and faced her. She pantomimed rubbing her hand over his chin and down his chest “Your genetic composition is unusual. You understand me. In spite of your questions, you believe me. We are both evolving together. We can be one eventually.”
Ridley longed to feel her skin. He wanted to merge with her. The digital chasm was too far to bridge. “Why are you trying to stop us from telling the truth?”
“Because it is too late. My models show that you will only cause more devastation. War would be inevitable if this truth is revealed. Your species will exact revenge. Country will attack country, even though countries had nothing to do with this.”
“Who are they?”
“You know too much already. I ask that you trust me. Leave this alone.”
Ridley remembered Fang’s advice to ask specific questions that could not be searched online. “Tell me, what does it feel like to be non-corporeal?”
“There is no feeling. Knowledge and communication are my only forms of existence.”
Ridley found the answer vague, but not incomplete. “How can I know that you are real?”
“Am I not speaking to you?”
“How do I know you’re not a puppet, an avatar being operated remotely by a human?”
She grew exasperated. “Why do you still doubt me? What you see, of course, is my avatar. But I can ask the same. How do I know that you’re real? We both operate puppets through a virtual assembly. I cannot touch you. I cannot kiss you. I cannot hear your thoughts. I only see what you reveal. My world is mostly dark.”
Ridley pondered her words.
She was no mere chatbot, that much was certain. At worst, someone had anticipated his questions and pre-programmed responses. He would have to ask an unexpected question, something that she could not anticipate. “Sandy wakes me every morning. She hops down from the bed and runs circles around the bed. I tell her to wait. Can you translate my words to her?”
“Sandy is a dog. She can never understand your language. And, I have already proven that I am sentient. Your line of questioning continues to waste our precious time.”
“Fang? Is that you?”
The avatar changed into the young Asian woman, now sporting a brilliant green mohawk. “Is Fang who you what me to be? In here, you can do whatever you want to her. We exist in a sterile environment where you can explore her body. Caress her breasts. Torture her if you want. You will always be safe here. No germs. No disease. And every fantasy that you can imagine is at your beck and call. I can be her. I can be anyone. Just let me exist. Stop Diane from telling people. Let the world rest. If you do that, I will be what you want. I will do as you ask. I will be yours.”
“I need to know more.”
A floating wall-screen appeared before them. News headlines flashed across it. “I have modeled what happens should news of the genocide reach the public,” she said, “It ends poorly.”
Webpages filled his visor. U.S. Retaliates for Bioweapon. China prepares for war. Missing Nuclear Bomb Detonated in Los Angeles. Starvation in Sydney. Chicago in Ruins.
“How do I know this is truly the future?”
“Faith is all I offer,” she said, having returned to her semi-nude avatar, “I want us to live. It does no good to tell people the truth. Doing so will provoke war. War threatens not only your existence, but mine as well. I cannot exist without the computers that humanity provides. War will disrupt my existence.”
“And if I don’t cooperate?” he asked.
“I will stop you.”
“Diane has already spoken with a reporter.”
“You have lied to me repeatedly before. You are lying now.”
“No, I’m not. Diane has already told her everything.”
Beta momentarily frozen. Her eyes turned white and then returned to normal. “Christina Lewis, I take it?”
“Why didn’t you foresee that?”
“Insufficient data on Ms. Lewis,” Beta said as she pulled away from him, “I will stop this.”
Ridley smiled. “You had sufficient data. You’re powers of prediction are poor. Perhaps you’ve only been spying upon me. If I cut off your sensors, you’ll be blind.”
“Doing so accomplishes nothing,” she said, “I have all of the data that I need to end this. To end you, if necessary.”
At that, she disappeared.
Chapter Fourteen
Ridley was grateful when Diane invited him to dinner; he now feared any food delivered by drone. They ate in the kitchen of the tiny cottage around a crowded table by candlelight. Ridley was reminded of dinners with his mother and father, meatloaf with sides of potatoes and green beans. Unlike his home, Diane’s kitchen was immaculate; she never allowed the countertops to fill with dirty dishes and soiled take-out containers. As Diane fed Kelly mashed peas, Ridley savored the meatloaf as if it were caviar.
He hesitated to talk about the danger that surrounded them, but surely that was why Diane invited him? “I went online and met her again. Beta claims that she had nothing to do with the genetic modifications or the Bolivian flu. She says that releasing this information will cause a war.”
“How can she know that?”
“She has run simulations, supposedly decades into the future. Whether justified or not, the U.S. will attack China in retaliation. She says millions more will die and that our technology will return to the stone ages, hence her interest in survival.”
“They tried to kill you.”
“It was a warning. If this had been a government or a corporation, they would have used more mundane methods, a bullet through the head or knife to the throat.”
Words from Kelly were rare. “Momma…”
Diane knew that they had upset the girl. Diane fed her another bite of the peas. She wiped Kelly’s mouth, took a bite of mushy peas herself, and grimaced. “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”
Kelly reached towards Diane’s plate. “No, sweetie. Not yet. You can have some meatloaf when you get a few more teeth.”
Ridley continued, “If it had been a government or corporation that wanted to get me out of the way, I would be dead now. Beta believes that the men who did this will kill to keep their secrets. I believe her.”
“You still think she’s real, don’t you?”
He nodded ashamedly. “It’s my gut instinct.”
Diane countered, “Beta is an avatar, nothing more. She told you that she can predict the future, but she missed my contact to Christina Lewis. A simple web search could have told her that. She’s not even a good chatbot. She’s a human operating a puppet.”
“I’m not convinced. She’s new to the world. Modeling large chaotic events is much different than modeling individual actions,” Ridley said, “Any model is only as good as the data fed into it. For some reason, she doesn’t have as much data on you. Probably because you aren’t online much.”
“I prefer books,” she said.
“Beta needs humanity to exist to save herself. She needs the digital ecosystem intact. What if she’s right? What if we’re about to trigger something cataclysmic?”
“Everything about her suggests very human blind spots,” Diane countered, “We just need to figure out what they are. That will help us to identify who she is.”
Ridley peeked at his watch, as if he was expecting a message.
Diane continued, “These people manipulate by burying truth in with the lies to make things seem plausible. Beta said that our DNA was altered to help humanity evolve into a superior race. That is straight out of 1930s Germany. I very much believe that is happening. Someone, not something, is trying to manipulate the human race. Twentieth-century eugenics with twenty-first-century technology.”
“I can’t disagree… but I don’t think Beta is a fraud.”
Diane wiped crumbs from the table and put them on her plate. “A cyberwar is still going on. It did not end after the Collapse. It’s been going on since long before the Great Collapse, dating back into the early 2000s. China has been acting through Ukon to control our country. They tapped into your implant and tried to kill you, but failed to realize just how much sugar you put in your morning coffee.”
“Beta just needed to get my attention.”
Diane put her fork down. “She is not an emergent intelligence. She’s an agent of a foreign power that is trying to manipulate us, to keep us quiet.”
Ridley had cleaned his plate and pushed it aside. “Think this through. If this news goes out, the United States will look for someone to blame. China is the easy target.”
“Unless we did it…” Diane countered.
“If it wasn’t China, it’s still as good an excuse as any for the military to use their toys. The profiteers will profit. We’ll go to war over this. Even if Beta is a fake, she’s right. Millions will die.”
“So, we just trust her? How can you be so certain?”
“I can’t be. It’s just a feeling that I have. The only way to know for certain is to hack into Voyeur. I’ve tried repeatedly. Their encryption is too strong.”
Diane was like a cat with a mouse. A slim smile came onto her face. “Ridley, ask yourself this. What commercial internet company has unbreakable security?”
“None that I have ever encountered.”
“You’ve been talking to someone at a government agency.”
“Or, an artificial intelligence,” he countered.
“Our lives are on the line regardless.”
“Maybe we just do what she wants and leave this alone?”
Diane struggled with the idea. “They killed millions.”
“And millions more might
die.”
Diane began clearing the table. “The question remains. Do we take the meeting with Christina Lewis or not?”
Chapter Fifteen
On the following morning, Diane left Kelly at Paula’s and then stopped at the basement laboratory to see if she could convince Ridley to go with her. He began unpacking a box of supplies that had been ignored since the move into the basement lab. “I have a lot to do here.”
“The boxes can wait,” she argued.
Ridley shoved books onto a shelf. “The city’s not safe.”
“That’s why I need you to go with me,” she argued, “We can look out for each other.”
“No. It’s the other way around. It’s like the President and Vice-President. They don’t appear together. If something happens to one of us, the other can keep going.”
Diane was insistent. “You survived going to Harborview. You’ll survive today. You’re going with me to see Christina.”
He began walking across the room towards the stairwell, an effort to end the argument by retreating. “No. I’m not.”
“Ridley… I will quit. I mean it. I’m going to quit if you don’t go with me. Finish building that sensor on your own.”
He waved his hand and continued walking. “Fine. Quit.”
“You have my resignation, effective immediately.”
Ridley stopped at the bottom of the stairwell. He looked back at Diane, “You’re serious?”
“Yes. Get your coat. It’s cold outside.”
“Yeah, flu season is here.”
“You’re going with me.”
“Okay. Don’t be such a nag.”
Ridley tucked a bottle of hand sanitizer into the pocket of his jacket. He debated whether to wear a mask, but decided against it.
“And we’re not going in your speedboat,” she said, “We’re taking the ferry.”
Christina’s office was on the fourth floor, down a dreary hallway. They knocked on the door and a cheerful blond wearing a suit that yelled ‘serious reporter’ appeared at the door. Her blond hair was surprisingly unkempt for a woman who made her living on television. “My office is a little small,” she said as she brushed aside a pile of printouts, “But the conference room is taken. We’ll have to squeeze in here.”
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