Zeke understood, but he wasn’t really with them, his mind was out there and he needed to face up to it.
“If I were to suggest that having left Pod here to assist me in all of the work required, and the pretty universal coverage of the shields having been accomplished, that perhaps now is a good time for you to make the journey?”
Zeke put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and added an incentive. “We really need to know how long we have before we are discovered, you need to do this, my friend, for all of us.”
Zirkos nodded. The decision was made.
A week later without any fanfare, only the Fortress people and those governments in the know advised, Zirkos left the planet Earth behind and began the massive search for his Brethren and by undesired expectation, the Nubl.
***
When Ferris heard the news that the Alien and his interfering Ship A.I. had gone walkabout, he fairly chuckled with glee; it couldn’t have been better. The one big problem with his plan had been the damned alien and that ‘too clever by half’ ship of his. With both them gone, he had only humans to deal with and no artificial intelligences.
He knew he could now physically match and even overpower that Zeke prat. He knew instinctively that his time was almost upon him, it was all coming together very nicely. If he had been aware of the existence of the Pod A.I. which was monitoring everything he said and did he might not have been so pleased with himself.
Impulsively, but with increasing confidence, Ferris reorganised his schedule. He decided to bring his plans forward and thought it just might be possible to get all the pieces in place in time. Pulling out his encrypted cellphone he called his contact in the Pentagon.
“Schaeff?”
“Yep.”
“08:00hrs. One week from today.”
“Are we ready?”
“We will be, Schaeff, we will be.” Ferris assured him.
He rang off. Schaeffer would feed the order into their private cell network and all the planning they had done and the arrangements put in place over the last nine months would begin to filter down. It would go into operation at zero hour and then Ferris would take charge.
It was a perfect opportunity as they were currently between Presidents; the new one having yet to be sworn in. A power vacuum to all intents. Garner’s two successful terms would soon fade to nothing and the teams in Russia and China would begin as soon as he, Ferris, took control of the USA.
Twenty four hours later orders got put into the grinder, got chewed out and acted upon. The Military being a simple beast at heart, when orders are issued, the higher they originate, the less they are questioned. These orders originated near the very top. All concerned responded without question and followed their orders to the letter. Some knew the real agenda, most didn’t.
So, when the small and specialised Military units were informed that the operation was top secret and no information was to leak out to family, friends or other units, they went dark and instituted the set protocols prepared months ago in anticipation of this exercise. As far as they were concerned it was business as usual.
- 19 -
It was late, the office was quiet and most of the staff were off shift.
Zeke, as usual, worked on usually through the night. He needed virtually no sleep these days and with an overloaded schedule, it was necessary to keep on top of things. The ever present Pod hovered near by collating information as it was programmed to do from all over the world using the hover globes in cloaked mode as well as the internet and other communication nets now because there was so much to do.
Every so often it would dip and bob as if its concentration was dropping out. It was! It had processor problems again and needed additional Alacite to cope with the extra workload. Now that Ship had gone and taken the residual Alacite out of its reach Pod was unable to do the necessary upgrading.
The reason it was having concentration issues, however, was more to do with the deep thinking going on in its mind where it needed considerable processing power that had to be drawn from various sources. Pod was having an issue with what would in human terms would be classified as an ‘attack of conscience’.
The problem was beginning to consume more and more of its processing power as it tried to resolve the problem it had created for itself. It needed to clear its memory by dumping it before it burned out its processors.
It decided on a strategy to divest itself by passing the issue to the human. Pod considered Zeke to be its Maker so it was a natural thing to do. However, being ‘human’ Pod wasn’t sure how the handshake of the two data systems would work in such an instance. There was no ability to do a data upload. It would have to approach the problem from a different direction, verbally, with speech. This is where part of the problem lay.
It went through the options one last time, seeing no change from the other thousands of permutation testing it had carried out, it chose the optimum time to transfer the problem; the night period when humans were at their quietest.
“Zeke?”
“Yes, Pod?”
“Do you like working with me?”
“Yes, Pod.”
“Good, I’m much better than Ship.”
“Yes, Pod.”
“Are you humouring me, Zeke?”
“Yes, Pod, I mean, no, of course not.”
“I understand. I do actually. Ship is far older than I am and it is almost an ‘Eight’ according to the Maker, Zirkos.”
“I think you are much higher than a ‘Three’, Pod. I find I can communicate with you as easily as I can Ship and your routines don’t seem to be any less efficient.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, Pod. I do”
“That’s good to know. Thank you Zeke.”
Zeke thought quietly about that conversation. It was unlike Pod to talk, quite the opposite really, it was an intelligent computer with some limited ability for conversation, especially since coming into contact with humans and eavesdropping on them twenty four hours a day for months on end.
Some transfer of mannerisms and speech patterns would inevitably be inherited from daily use. However, the conversation they had just shared was anything, but simple. A strange feeling crept up on Zeke. Something was spooking him.
“I need to make what you humans call a confession, Zeke.”
“Really, Pod? Do A.I.’s make confessions?” Zeke answered with the certainty of something amiss building now.
“No, not really Zeke. I’m not sure why I feel the need, but its important.”
“Okay. So why don’t you tell me what's bothering you, Pod?”
“I am monitoring communications from the Fortress and some other locations around the USA.”
“Yes, that’s in your approved routines Pod, there’s no problem with that.”
“No, it isn’t. I set up the routine myself when I overheard things relating to you.”
“It must be Pod, you are a ‘Three’ you would not be able to...” Zeke suddenly realised Pod was right, he hadn’t set up the routine. There was an outside chance Ship had transferred one before leaving. He doubted it.
Zeke pondered on how the routine could have been initiated. Pod must have done it on its own, some other set routine must have prompted it or allowed it to meet certain conditions and activate. Still, Zeke knew Pod was having data handling problems, probably logic based. He needed to find out what it was.
“what have you heard, Pod?”
“Someone is planning to disable the shield systems on some of your cities.”
“WHAT?” Zeke stood abruptly, walking right up to the hovering A.I. so he was talking directly at it.
“There is what you refer to as a ‘plot’ against your American government being hatched.”
“What plot? Where? When is this going to happen, Pod?”
“I don’t know what, and I don’t know where, but its going to happen at 08:00hrs, in two of your days.”
“Geez Pod! That soon! We don’t have much time to
stop it, how much information do you have. Can we intercept them or pull the plug on their plans?”
“I cannot trace most of the calls, they are secured, based on our own encryption codes which is why I have been slow to uncover it and without knowing those keys I am unable to over-ride the encryption. I’m sorry, Zeke. I haven’t done very well, have I?” Pod began dipping and bobbing again.
Zeke noticed the effect on Pod. It was a very similar to a human like response to stress, he thought.
“Pod?... Pod! you have done extremely well, its a shame you couldn’t catch more of this ‘plot’, but knowing there is one and knowing when is enough for me to begin to think about where and how. Well done, Pod!” Zeke reassured it.
He was also frantically thinking what the hell was he doing reassuring a Command and Control drone with an emotional imbalance bought on by stress? Computers don’t suffer stress, they just work, or don’t work. Still the symptoms fitted, Zeke decided.
“Thank you, Zeke.”
“Oh, and Pod?”
“Yes, Zeke?”
“Are you sure you’re only a ‘Three’?”
Silence.
Zeke felt a cold chill roll down his back, he well knew the consequences of a sentient A.I., everyone did. He needed to find out something. So far Pod didn’t appear to be hiding anything.
“Pod?”
“Yes, Zeke?”
“When was the last time Ship tested your Sentience level?”
“Ship has not tested my Sentience level, Zeke.”
“Pod, are you able to self test your Sentience level?”
Silence.
“Pod, we don’t have time for this. Have you tested yourself?” Zeke couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
The fact that an A.I. computer was actually dissembling sent his thought processes into overdrive. This could be a problem, Zeke mused, he didn’t need this particular computer going into system failure. Not just now.
“Yes, Zeke.”
“And?”
“I tested between an ‘Eight’ and a ‘Nine’, Zeke. I am however, unsure if my testing is accurate.”
“Why would you be unsure of the tests, Pod?” Zeke now barely managing to contain his amazement.
“Because the Alacite used in replenishing my processors was contaminated, Zeke.”
Zeke’s mind raced. It didn’t make sense. Then, all of a sudden, it started to make an awful lot of sense! He had a bad feeling he knew the answer to his next question.
“Contaminated Alacite? Pod, do you mean you used the Alacite that had been set aside from my bloodstream.”
“Yes, Zeke.”
“Bloody Hell, Pod!”
Zeke was amazed, he was well aware of the possibilities of a maturing artificial sentience, Zirkos had driven home the dangers to him and described the Nubl and other races that had self destructed when allowing such an intelligence to develop. Later he would sort this, right now he had a terrorist organisation to track down and eliminate.
“Pod, we need to deal with this plot. Can you give me any indication as to who in the Fortress is communicating with the outside parties involved?”
“Zeke, I can only establish that the encryption is occurring at the highest algorithm we set. It indicates it is someone in the command structure of Fortress and at the Pentagon, your Military Command Centre.”
“Ferris!”
“Pardon, Zeke?”
“It’s Ferris, the idiot!”
“I see, you think Ferris might be involved?”
“Pod, I need you to try and and pin down the locations of all of the parties you are able to follow, even if its an encrypted signal, it should be able to give you locations. When you find each of the locations try and track direction using the individual phone signals. We have to see where they are heading. As soon as you have a map of it all, let me know.” Zeke commanded.
“In the meantime beam me over to President Garner, wherever he is located.”
“Affirmative, and done,” responded Pod.
***
As Zeke materialised in a large, well lit dining room, he heard the sounds of dishes and cutlery before being able to see anything. Dammit Pod? he thought.
“Zeke, good to see you, a pleasant surprise, but in the middle of dinner?” Frank Garner was sitting with his wife and sons and some others Zeke didn’t recognise.
“Frank, I’m terribly sorry, the A.I. transported me and I didn’t ask beforehand where you were, it just put me at your location.“
Zeke turned to his wife and the others, raising his hands apologetically as he moved to join Frank who was getting up from the table.
“I’m sorry to intrude Ginny, I must talk to Frank, urgently,” Zeke emphasised, his eyes conveying as much of an apology as he could.
She looked back at him understandingly and he blessed her for it. She knew he would never interrupt them without due cause, and if this wasn’t ‘due cause’ he didn’t know what was, short of an invasion from Space.
The Secret Service Agent standing in the corner had a half drawn weapon even though he had recognised Zeke. The family certainly wouldn’t be using their personal shields in their own home at dinner. Still, he would be alert, but not overtly hostile.
How times had changed. A few years ago he would be face down and half a dozen guns pointed at his head by the time he had fully materialised. Now, it was more protocol and ceremony than it was to do with safety.
Frank took him by the arm as he headed for the study that immediately fed off the dining room. When he closed the door the silence was suddenly total, the soundproofing in this room was state of the art.
“Tell me what’s going on, I have rarely seen you so, ummm, riled up,” Frank murmured as they sat in the leather chairs in front of the open fire that was kept going all winter day and night.
“Frank, we have uncovered a plot from what looks like a fifth column within your command structure... Pod, do we have a map yet? I need locations and players, as much as you have uncovered so far.”
Pod materialised next to Zeke and quickly shifted to a corner where it could observe everything.
“Zeke, I can display it on the wall screen as a 3D plot. Please switch on the TV, President Garner.”
Garner walked swiftly to the screen and pressed the manual ‘on’ button.
“Thank you, Mr President,” said Pod.
As the screen burst into life there was a flat map of the USA angled to give a birds eye view from one corner.
As we watched Pod animated the display so that we could see the movement. There were two clusters and various direction indicators from outlying areas and other states all heading towards the two locations.
“The Pentagon and Washington!” They both exclaimed together.
“Kreeist! Zeke, we have a takeover plot under way. Are you sure of your information?” Frank exclaimed heading to his desk.
It looked like he was heading to pick up a phone, but instead he clawed at the lid of a humidor for a cigar. Taking one out, he cracked it open swiftly with his cutter and stuck it in his mouth. He was lighting it just as Pod changed the picture on the screen.
It came up with three faces and fourteen blanks. The one at the top was Ferris, below that was a blank. there were two others that neither of them recognised.
“The one below Ferris, Pod? Where is that person located?”
“That person is high on the command structure at the Pentagon, Zeke. The encryption was not my only problem, they have scattering technology that diffuses the locator beacons in the phones.”
Frank interrupted. “We need that identity! Ferris might be the leader, but this will be run by a Pentagon General, anyone less wouldn’t have the clout to pull off a coup!”
“Pod, monitor all troop movements over the last seven days. Track any that have moved at all in that time and post their locations then and now on the screen please,” Zeke ordered.
“Yes, Zeke. coming up in a few seconds... These are official tr
oop movements, if there are irregular troops, I am unable to track them without more information.”
Immediately there were fourteen movements, three heading for various airfields, the rest were heading for Washington.
“I am correlating troop movements with locations of signals from the cell phones,” informed Pod.
Suddenly a yellow star appeared on the three heading in the airfield directions and seven on the troop movements heading to Washington.
“Bingo!” Frank exclaimed.
“Well done, Pod, good call!” Zeke complimented.
Frank asked “Pod, can you trace the troop movement orders back to anyone in the Pentagon?”
“All orders are signed by ... General T. Schaeffer, Mr President,” Pod informed him.
“Damn him to hell and back,” Frank growled. “That old bastard, Schaeffer, how typical of that Gung-Ho Idiot!”
The fourteen images were replaced on the screen. Now all except three had been identified.
Frank rushed to the phone.
“WAIT!” Zeke shouted. “Wait, just a minute, Mr President, wait.”
Frank had phone in hand about to dial, he looked up at Zeke.
“We can get the bastard now, before they have time to reach their targets,” he reasoned.
“No, we need to wait, there are three other players we don’t know yet. They could be anywhere. They could be in the Senate, or even members of your own staff in the White House.” He knew he was right,
Something told Zeke this was playing from right at the top. His hunches were rarely wrong once he had facts to lean on.
“Also, how do we know all of them are using the cell-net mesh,” Zeke mused as he thought through what they had just discovered.
“They could be just talking, or on the internal phone network. We might never track them if they meet and talk in person.”
Zeke was pacing now, thinking on his feet, using his enhanced thinking ability to work everything out. Trying to make sure he came up with a the right answers. A lot rested on nipping this rebellion in the bud. Anyone missed now would seed a new rebellion in a few months. They had to know who all the players were before they moved.
The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) Page 16