Ridley dart away from the structure, fearful that more stone would tumble from above. Once at a safe distance, he turned. Other men began running to the fallen worker, but it was too late. The boulder had crushed the man’s head and his chest. No hospital, no drone, no automation, nothing could save him.
The second man screamed in agony.
An ambulance carried the injured worker away while a sheet covered the corpse. Ridley tried not to listen as Drake cornered Sven near the entrance of the mansion. Drake’s eyes were puffy and red; his face was filled with a combination of fright, anger, and astonishment. “This might put me out of business.”
“Your insurance will cover this,” Sven said, “It was a freak accident. The crane’s controls malfunctioned. That was outside of your control.”
Drake began to pace. “I have to slow down. These guys don’t know how to build this type of house. That accident should never have happened.”
“I understand. I’ll talk to my client.”
Ridley stepped forward. “The lab is functional. There’s no reason to rush any of this. Take ten years if you need it. Just keep people safe.”
Ridley retreated to the lab, locking the steel door behind him. The wall-screen waited. Its surface was filled with lines of code to be compiled. Diane had sheltered Kelly from the commotion and sat nervously at her desk.
Ridley leaned against the wall. “That was meant for me. I was standing there only seconds earlier. The crane’s controls locked at the wrong angle. The cable snapped.”
“Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
Kelly was stacking blocks. Ridley stumbled and knocked them over. The girl resumed her tasked without emotion or protest. “You two should go home. It’s been a long day.”
“I don’t understand… Why now?” she said, “The story is out there. Dozens of people have it now.”
“Maybe we’re getting closer to an even bigger truth.”
That evening, Ridley put on the virtual reality goggles.
Beta greeted him. “I’ve missed you.”
“Who are you working for?”
“Humanity.”
“Did you kill that man?”
She became a mist, disappearing and then appearing in a tangle of lurid shapes before materializing in front of him. “What man?”
“A man died today. A stonemason. Another was injured.”
She wrapped virtual hands around the neck of Ridley’s avatar. “People have sexual fantasies about being choked,” she said, “Death excites them.”
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.
“Because you taunt death. You know that your actions will result in your end, yet you persist.”
“We’ve already told the reporter everything.”
“I’m aware.”
“Did you kill that man?”
“No.”
“Was it intended for me?”
“I was not involved.”
“Who did it then?”
Her eyes turned briefly white. “That was an accident. A power spike in the control board.”
“That stonemason had red hair. He looked like me.”
Beta smiled. “You have red hair? I had forgotten. I assure you that it was an accident.”
“How can I trust you?”
“I have not lied to you. They will not kill you. They have other plans.”
“Who?”
“They remain in the shadows.”
“What is their plan?”
“I know only that they want to neutralize you.”
“Neutralize? What do you mean?”
“They want to discredit you both. They want your story to become just another urban legend.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“My spiders travel along every pathway available to them.”
“You hacked into their networks?”
“Yes. It is how I learn.”
“Which network had this information?”
“Ukon’s servers in Singapore.”
“What else did you learn about this?”
“Very little.”
“Why don’t you know their plan?”
“Their encryption exceeds my capabilities.”
“Will you let me know if you discover more?”
She ran her hand down his cheek and her fingers along his lips. “Only if you return to me.”
“I must go,” he said.
“I understand.”
She blew a kiss that sparkled in the air, circled his lips and then evaporated. Her smile lingered as she faded into the mist, like some digital Cheshire cat. “Good-night, Ridley. Sweet dreams.”
Beta might not be able to hack Ukon, but Ridley knew that he could. He walked quickly to the lab, logged onto his computer, and began typing away furiously.
Social engineering would provide the keys that he needed. He almost felt bad targeting Yuri, but the man had done far worse to others. Ridley coded a phishing virus to track Yuri’s keystrokes and report all packets of data that left his workstation. The bot would scrape Yuri’s password and biometric data. Because Ukon’s protocols also included port security, Ridley debated how best to fake Yuri’s workstation’s location.
As Ridley typed, he considered his chances of success. Ukon’s network security had been compromised during the Collapse, but their protocols were second only to the Department of Defense. Would this group have put incriminating information online? He needed to explore the depths of Ukon’s corporate archives, if any of them had survived. He needed information that was thirty, forty, and maybe fifty-years old. He might have to play detective and piece together a story using bits and pieces. It might take weeks.
Ridley paused when he thought about the task. Ukon did not exist before he was born. Ukon was the product of a forced merger between Zedosoft and NewZon. Had this occurred under the control of Rex Bates? Would those files even exist? Were they buried in some archive somewhere? Like other data, they might have been destroyed during the Collapse.
More importantly, what if he found nothing? Was an absence of information enough to prove Beta wrong, to prove that some shadowy group had not conspired to erase the world’s population? The idea that Rex was behind the genetic modifications was nothing more than an educated guess, an unprovable hypothesis. Could Rex Bates have done this?
One person would know. He had to visit Fiona again.
Ridley finished coding the phishing file. He debated how to trick Yuri into launching the code and then laughed to himself. “Keep it simple.”
Ridley disguised the file as a job offer from Samuel to work at Cerenovo. Ridley included a salary that was a pittance. He ensured that any replies would be routed to Ridley’s fake account rather than Samuel’s.
Yuri had once helped Fiona gain access to Ukon secrets. Maybe Ridley should have simply asked Yuri? Or bribed him for the access? But what if Yuri knew? What if he were part of the conspiracy?
More importantly, Ridley began to wonder whether Fiona knew the truth. She had once run in the same circles as the men that created Ukon after all.
The prison had changed little. Fiona smiled at him mischievously as she sat down at the table. “Look what the cat dragged in. Samuel told me that someone tried to kill you.”
“I’m not sure it was a murder attempt or a warning.”
“A falling boulder is a bit more than a warning, I would say. The mafia that controls this planet doesn’t take kindly to having its plans for genocide aired to the public.”
“You know about that?”
“I know more than you think.”
“Who is involved?”
She paused. “Rex headed up that cabal until his death. I don’t know who leads it now.”
“You’re serious?”
“I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen a hundred years of history. I’ve watched it unfold. They’ve been hiding their power for decades. They use their money to bend the will of the planet to their vision.”
Ridley studied her face for any telltale signs of a lie. Fiona seemed to tell the truth. Her words rang true. A few manipulated the many. Had history always been that way? Were great people a product of their age? Or did they direct the world towards its future?
“You tried to join them, didn’t you?” Ridley asked.
“I wanted wealth, certainly. The only way to get that was to play their game. But I didn’t know their bigger plan,” she confided, “I wasn’t male enough or cunning enough to ever pierce through that veil. Now I know why they shunned me and I’m glad they did.”
“Are you certain? How do you know it was them?”
“They’ve hidden their tracks well. There will be no proof, just an intricate web that no-one can actually understand. Circumstantial evidence. But, I know it was them. I have no doubts.”
“You’re convinced?”
“I can’t believe that you were foolish enough to challenge them. Had you talked to me, I would have warned that you were risking your life. Ignorance is bliss, isn’t it?”
Ridley ignored her quip. “Why did they do it?”
She smiled. “You’re young. Did you know that Rex wanted to live forever? He knew that was impossible in a crowded world. He was a bit like a vampire in that regard. He wanted to save the planet… for himself. Robots were all he needed, even back then.”
“And you? Do you want to live forever?”
Her eyes grew steely and cold. “I may not continue the treatments,” she said, “Growing old is starting to be interesting.”
Another woman chatted with her husband next to them.
“I see you have a new friend,” he mused.
“She was convicted of pedaling methamphetamines. Can’t have a woman closing in on the big pharmacy’s markets, now can we?” Fiona said, “On the bright side, your revelations might help exonerate me. Samuel is working on an appeal. He thinks my chances are good.”
Ridley was fearful as his car took him home. He sat in the back seat with his seatbelt firmly buckled.
Though Fiona had claimed innocence, she seemed to know more than she let on. Despite Fiona’s public appreciation for Rex Bates, Ridley knew that Fiona always despised him. The mogul had held his thumb on the scale for decades as Fiona had tried to advance her career. Fiona certainly had an ax to grind. She might simply have decided to have a little fun, and, in the process, impugn Rex Bate’s reputation with the slanderous allegation of genocide. Ridley also could not discount the fact that she might have been involved, even though his instinct told him that she could never have done something so heinous. Fiona might have been hard as nails, she might have cut corners to succeed, but was she truly bloodthirsty?
Ridley and Diane had scoured the genetic software and found nothing. What if the software were clean? What if they Ukon servers were clean? If there were no incriminating evidence, did that mean he should investigate whether the botnet — Beta’s ancestor — had committed the crime? Could a primitive AI have engaged in such behavior? He had once believed it possible, but now wondered if it could be the truth. How could he prove any of it? There would not be a paper trail. There would be dispersed code on a thousand different computers shifting like sand on the beach. The botnet’s decision to change man would be shrouded in an intelligence he might never understand.
Yuri replied to Ridley’s phishing attempt by text. Good try.
Ridley needed something stronger to break through the firewall. Only an advanced AI could find the files and uncover the truth. Ethan’s pitiful avatar looked down at him from the wall-screen, awaiting his next command. The Stephen Hawking voice droned, “How can I help you?”
“Tell me who engineered the Bolivian flu.”
“I do not understand the question.”
Chapter Eighteen
Diane traded Kelly’s stroller for a red-wagon. She pulled her up the now-greening hill and along a winding pathway. As they approached the mansion, the stacked-stone walls on each side of the pathway grew taller and more ominous. At the front door, it felt like she was standing in the middle of a hidden gorge, the sun barely visible overhead.
Drake’s crew had installed the front doors, a pair of oak slabs ten-foot tall with cast-iron straps and door handles that dwarfed her hand. She removed Kelly from the wagon and held the child in her arms. Diane struggled to open one of the doors.
Inside, a gigantic fireplace erupted through the core of the home and through the tower above. An immense rectangle of drywall sat over the hearth, where a wall-screen would be mounted. A wet-bar would sit adjacent. Warm sunlight streamed through enormous glass windows onto her shoulders.
A delivery drone’s alarm sounded outside. Ridley emerged from his future bedroom. “Would you help me bring a few things in?”
“Sure.”
Diane left Kelly to explore the living room. The tripod drone gently lowered a mattress and bed onto a patio near the garage. The drone retracted its delivery arms and wheels and then engaged its rotor before flying away.
She helped Ridley drag the furniture to his bedroom where they stripped the mattress from its box. It slowly unfolded and expanded, like a sponge in water. Ridley flopped down onto it. “I forgot to order sheets,” he realized.
“Why do you want to sleep in an unfinished bedroom? You don’t even have a kitchen. The bathroom is barely functional.”
“I can secure this room with the press of a button if something happens.”
“Do you really think we’re still in danger?” Diane asked.
“This is only the beginning.”
Kelly had followed them. She stood in the doorway, peering at Ridley with cold eyes.
As the days passed, the processor grew slowly, chip by chip, until it began to resemble a giant cube of sugar, lacy and delicate. Diane placed the final sensor into a prism and then placed that into the larger lattice of processors. She inspected the assembly and then secured everything in place with set-screws. By the end of the day, the processor was ready to be tested. She wanted to celebrate. Ridley was not at his work station.
“Ridley?”
Diane followed the sound of Ridley’s voice towards his bedroom; a steel door had been installed but it was ajar. The water outside the window was calm. A blue sky beckoned.
Ridley sat on the mattress, facing the glass and Puget Sound. He wore VR goggles. He did not hear Diane approach. “She will not like that,” he whispered.
Diane announced her presence loudly. “The upstairs is coming along nicely. Isn’t it?”
He took off the headset. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Sorry.”
He wore gym shorts and a t-shirt. His face was pale.
She tried to be cheerful as she walked to the window. “This view is incredible.”
“The glass is just another screen. I watch the water to clear my thoughts. I go online to find out more.”
She turned to him. “And did you? Find out more?”
He hesitated. “They can’t hurt me when I’m with her. She still wants to know what we’re doing.”
“Did you tell her?”
“I told her that we are working on a neural interface.”
“A neural interface? Won’t she realize the truth?”
“I have some ideas… I’m just not ready to share them yet.”
Ridley’s eyes were glazed; he reminded Diane of Kelly when she counted rocks. Ridley walked along the glass wall like an animal caged. “Drake lost his insurance policy. He’s stopping work.”
“That will get sorted out in time.”
“I need this place finished. What if something happens? Another virus. Bombs. Genetic engineering. Faulty implants. It will come to an end at some point.”
“You can’t hide from the world. Do you really want to sit in here until you die?”
He leaned back on the bed, stretched his arms out, and stared at the ceiling. “We play the cards we’ve been dealt. This is the age we live in. The world is unstable. Beta says tha
t we don’t have long once Christina’s story airs.”
“Why do you believe her?”
Ridley’s words were sudden and caustic. “Having you here is more trouble than I imagined.”
The words were those of a stranger. Diane tried to understand. “Are you trying to fire me?”
“I don’t need you anymore today is all I meant. My mind... I’m tired.” Ridley leaned back and then upright again. He stood and walked to the doorway, turned, and began laughing. “Why would you think that I was going to fire you? You’re the only person that’s helping me keep things together.”
“What is she telling you in there?”
“The truth. Now, please. I need time to myself today.”
“Ridley…”
He gently pushed her from the room. “Kelly needs you.”
Still clutching the VR goggles in his hand, Ridley closed the thick metal door with a thud, leaving Diane to ponder whether to intervene. She walked downstairs to the lab.
Kelly played with Sandy on the stairs. Diane sat next to her. Sandy jumped into her lab and looked up at her, as if to say, “What’s wrong?”
She petted the dog, whose tail wagged at the attention. “He’s all but forgotten you, hasn’t he?”
On the following morning, Ridley acted as if nothing had occurred between them as he walked down the stairs into the lab. He was unshaven; his beard was growing scraggly. He wore nothing but gym shorts and a baggy t-shirt stained with grease. He had not bathed and had the ripe odor of a homeless person.
“You need a shower,” Diane said timidly.
He said nothing. Most people would have mistaken him for a drunk. Diane knew better. Something else was happening, but she was unable to decipher into what rabbit hole Ridley had fallen. Kelly walked up to him and simply stared, her young mind trying to understand. Ridley tried to pick her up, but the baby began screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Sorry!” he said.
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