The momentum of the coupling was frantic now. The springs in the mattress cried out and the nails on her fingers dug deeper into John’s chest as her hips bucked back and forth. The hot wet of the orgasm began to rumble along the nerves in her body and across the surface of her skin, and seconds later it exploded with a bliss infused detonation that shook every inch of her frame as she stared into his eyes. Completely spent and awash with the afterglow of absolute and total release, she fell onto her back and exhaled with the last of her energy.
For John the gravity of what a look behind the curtain had brought was quick to invade the pleasure that desperately wanted to breathe a little longer. Not for the first time he thought back to the conversations he had been a part of in the bunker and now wondered if the strange talk of some sort of mission had something to do with the strange visit to the planet’s orbit. And what about the little girl? What role did she have in all this, if she even existed? And to send the needle right over the redline, he had just been told about a device that was built from blood encased instructions. It was all too much for him to even try to process, and so he didn’t. Instead he drew Candice’s body as tightly to his as he could and quietly listened to the beating of her heart.
Exhaustion fell upon them both. Down below, the multi coloured lights of the city left hidden the glow of stars reaching out from deepest space. Struggles, despair, hopes and dreams pumped through the blood of the streets and for some the moment marked the very first breath of life, and for some the very last. Against all odds and perhaps even against their desires, sleep came searching from across the night and found them. Candice was first to succumb, her strange moment of warmth in the middle of simmering chaos carried away into a featureless void that bowed to neither time nor space.
For John, however, the void held no waiting embrace. He knew that once he closed his eyes the chains holding the demons at bay would dissolve as though drenched with acid, and so he struggled as best he could to stay awake and savour the beautiful moment that he had been granted. It was a valiant attempt, but in the end it was futile and his eyes finally closed.
Chapter 24
“Something’s happened,” Rodney said. “Something’s changed.”
Candice had only just sat down to begin reviewing her notes when he had stormed into the room. Considering she had spent the last twenty four hours in John’s hotel room and had refused to answer her phone, the idea that he would make such a grand entrance was pretty much a given. Only, it wasn’t anger that followed him into the room. Instead, judging by the perplexed look on his face, it was total exasperation.
“Lucky for you,” he continued with a point of his finger, “I haven’t got enough time to tell you how pissed off I am at your little disappearing trick.”
“I’m real sorry Rodney…” she began.
“Save your breath because right now I don’t care. We’ve got much bigger issues.”
Candice had never seen him like this before. Coupled with the fact that the skin beneath her creased clothes was still red with lingering passion, the moment had just become very much on edge.
“I’m listening,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster.
Rodney realised he was still pointing a finger and lowered his hand. “It started yesterday morning. Nobody knows how, but the software code breached all of the quarantine protocols and started running wild. Cooked six servers in the process.” He puffed his cheeks and scraped his fingers through his hair. “It’s not like this is any kind of virus either, at least not like anything we’ve come across before.”
“Cooking servers sounds pretty hostile so maybe we really are dealing with a virus.”
“No. It wasn’t that sort of damage.”
“Okay,” she couldn’t help but sigh, “what sort of damage was it?”
“A massive surge out of nowhere, and I mean literally nowhere. The amount of data that would have been needed to melt the hardware like it did was, based on some initial calculations, at least a hundred times what was available prior to the quarantine breach. It’s seriously off the fucking wall! Like filling a swimming pool with a cup of water.”
“Jesus…”
“Believe me it doesn’t get any better. We tried to shut down the whole complex within minutes but access to the nodes was blocked. The program, or whatever we’re supposed to call it, snaked its way online.” Rodney became still with disbelief. “It went global within seconds.”
Candice could smell the clinically cool air but felt none of it. The weight of the concrete overhead threatened suffocation as she struggled to absorb the information that was beginning to stain the room.
“We still have no idea what it is or what it can do,” she said slowly, “and you’re telling me it’s worked out a way to zap through military grade security and jump online? I’m no computer whiz but that’s real fucking bad.”
Rodney tilted his head back and let out a quick, strained laugh. Rather than ease the tension it somehow managed to bring even more discomfort to what was already quickly becoming a heavy moment.
“Let me put this in perspective for you.” With obvious frustration he slid the other chair in front of her and sat down with elbows resting on his knees, bringing their faces mere inches apart. “At just after six this morning, while you weren’t here, word came through from the planetary defence office that all of their systems were shut down for nearly half an hour. When they came back online they found all of their active satellites had been reconfigured, and after a lot of head scratching one of the team leaders worked out that they’d all been shifted in the direction of Saturn. An hour later and the big house is jumping up and down at the fact that three quarters of the communication satellites have gone rogue and are suddenly directing global data straight past the edge of the moon. And by data, I mean an avalanche of just about anything and everything that’s hooked onto the net. Right now, while we’re sitting here like two stunned rabbits, the federal emergency management agency is dancing all over hot coals lit by diplomats from China, Russia, South Korea, India, Pakistan and Israel, all of whom want to know who the hell has hijacked their orbital property.” He drew in a deep breath and leaned even closer. “World relations just got heated, and ground zero is right here.”
Candice could feel the inside of her stomach twist and pull tight. Although nothing he had said made any sort of sense, she knew that didn’t take away any of the gravity of what he’d revealed. What the hell was she supposed to make of any of it? She’d been brought in to try to find out what the device did, and watching terrified subjects tear themselves to pieces hardly gave her insight into the complexities of a computer code that could race across the planet, siphon the internet and take over satellites. The only thing she did know was that the message in the blood bottle made one thing very clear. Even a fool could see they were all in way over their heads.
Uncomfortable with the proximity she edged back into her chair. “You’re talking as though this thing is alive or something but I thought it was just a set of binary instructions.”
“You’re a scientist Candice, and you’re here because you know the brain better than most. I think therefore I am. Maybe another way to put it is that which isn’t alive holds no thoughts. At least, that’s the thought I held until recently.” He could see her discomfort but maintained his position. “Now I’m not so sure, because when you break things down our ability to think seems to rely on two essential features. The first is an electrical current, and the second is binary based selection. The current flows and leaves the synapses with two simple alternatives, to fire or not to fire.”
“We both know it’s not that simple,” Candice shot back.
“Exponentially speaking, you’re right. But when you drill down to the nuts and bolts the mind and body start to look a lot like software and hardware. Unplug either of them and the thoughts stop.”
“Chemical communication is hardly something that can be loaded onto a hard drive.”
“But what is chemical communication if not a simple set of commands? Simplicity can lead to astounding things when you bring large numbers into the equation. Throw a pebble into a pond and you might see a few ripples, but throw a billion pebbles and you’ll have created an island. Considering the human brain holds more than a hundred billion neurons, firing or not firing leads us into the kind of complexity that defies comprehension. The fact is the program made it out of the building, and now it has just about every computer in existence at its disposal. I’ll let you do the math.”
Candice did do a quick run through the math and it turned her mouth dry. Alive or not the program, assuming it did gain access to all of the world’s computers, would have virtually unlimited processing power. That was bad enough if it was some new kind of virus, but a virus didn’t come with dire predictions and instructions for a neural interface.
“If what you’re saying is that we’re dealing with some kind of artificial intelligence,” she began, “we need to work out quick smart if it’s hostile or not, cause if it is then we need to take another look into the impact prediction. Think about it. If this thing has some kind of purpose, why bother taking over the global network if we’re about to be smashed back into the stone age?”
“Back up.”
“Sorry?”
“The amount of data that’s being funnelled makes me think it’s backing up everything. We don’t know for sure what the impact’s going to bring or what’s going to be left standing, but back to the stone age? I don’t think so. Regardless of what happens we’ll find a way to rebuild. Concrete and glass might be breakable, but knowledge can’t be put back into the genie bottle.”
“Again, you’re talking as though this thing is alive and has some sort of grand plan when we’re literally still stumbling in the dark.”
Rodney offered a slightly pained grin, the kind that usually accompanied pity. “Medium is one thing, orders for execution are another. You and I, all of us, we’re put together thanks to a set of instructions that manipulate construction using carbon based chemistry. Our genetic code holds the orders for execution, and protein synthesis is the medium. But now we know there’s another set of instructions wrapped up in there, only it’s designed for a digital medium, a second set of genetic coding that can grow and self replicate thousands of times in the blink of an eye. We’ve got no choice but to consider it alive.”
“This is really happening isn’t it?” she asked with a whisper while struggling to comprehend the unfolding reality.
“Yeah, this is happening,” he replied almost as quietly. “As for the impact prediction, guesses are getting smaller. The satellites that are pointed at Saturn? They’ve picked up two massive asteroids heading straight for us. Initial estimates calculate a two week window but it’s a weak estimate at best. So this is it Candice. This is the beginning.”
“I feel sick…”
“We all do, but there’s no time to be sick. We’ve been given another twenty four hours to see what we can find out and then we start following emergency protocols.”
Candice could feel the tips of her fingers beginning to shake. “What are you saying, that you want to keep working? There’s nothing we can do now that will make an ounce of difference.”
“Our research is more important now than it ever was, and we need you right here.”
“For what? If this thing’s gone rogue and taken over the network, what the hell can I possibly do? What can any of us do?”
He lifted his hands in an attempt to calm her down. “Right now we need to stay focussed. Now we both know things are in place to protect this department when shit heads south, but until then we’ve got work to do. So, take a moment to compose yourself. Don’t think for a second that each and every one of us isn’t scared because we are, but we also need to remember that our work here is more important than mortal fears.”
Candice swallowed hard as the urge to rush back out onto the city streets grew stronger and stronger, but deep down she knew he was right even if it did made her sick. Now more than ever, information had become vital.
“Okay,” she nodded. “What happens from here?”
“Well, to start with we try sending someone in one more time. No matter which way we look at things, that device is important even if we don’t yet know why.”
“We’ve already accumulated so much data I don’t understand why we don’t just…”
“We’ve got every team crawling through it as we speak,” he interrupted. “Thanks to the breach yesterday everything was locked down, so now is the first opportunity to head back in.”
“And who’s the lucky prize winner this time?” she asked.
“A kid called Shane Evans. Twenty years old. Serving a life sentence for a house invasion that left a mother and her twin daughters dead.”
“You seriously want to put me in a room with someone like that?”
“Believe me, he wouldn’t be able to hurt you even if he wanted to. The guy used to be a junkie and somewhere along the way jabbed a dirty needle into his arm. Now he’s in the final stages of hepatitis and can barely hold his head up. The deal was pretty easy to make. Help us with our research, and he can die at home with his family.”
“Sounds to me like he’s getting a better deal than anyone else in the city. At least he knows he’s gonna die.”
“True enough, but it’s not for us to burrow into the philosophical rabbit hole of how to handle the population. We need to keep our heads down and put one foot in front of the other, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Evidently, the conversation was over. Rodney glanced across the room and through the glass into the vacant lab, then eased to his feet and headed for the door.
“Don’t forget,” he said over his shoulder, “we’re not the bad guys. What happens to the world is out of our hands, but what the human race can learn from all this? That’s up to us.”
“No pressure or anything,” she replied as he made his exit and left her alone in the room. Even with everything she’d just learned and the terror that came with it, it took only seconds for her thoughts to drift back to the man she had kissed goodbye in the hotel. If things weren’t as they were, she might still be entangled in his arms instead of sitting in a sterile underground facility ready to tempt a dying man with madness. Still, maybe Rodney was right. Maybe there was a final chance to learn something important.
Movement on the security monitor caught her eye and she watched as armed guards pushed a wheelchair bound figure through the lab doors. Through the one way glass she observed her new subject. The clinical lighting made obvious his yellowing skin and sore ravaged face. His fragile hands were cupped in his lap and an oxygen tube was taped to his slightly crooked nose, with the thin tubing extending across his shoulder and down onto the steel bottle strapped to the back of the chair. Somewhere deep in his red eyes there was a frightened child, but the skin and bones of his face looked sunken and defeated.
She stepped out into the hallway and into the lab, choosing to ignore the two guards leaning casually against the concrete wall, and almost instantly smelled the sweat of bad blood that came from organ breakdown and knew that impending death was near.
“I’m Doctor Candice Garland,” she announced while shifting a seat in front of his wheelchair, “and I’ll be looking after today’s session. It’s Shane right?”
For the first time since being wheeled into the room Shane lifted his head and unclasped his hands. He opened his mouth to say something, but then seemingly changed his mind.
“No doubt you’re probably feeling a little apprehensive,” Candice continued, “and that’s completely understandable. Honesty being the best policy, I don’t think either of us woke up this morning looking forward to being here. But we are here, and believe it or not your help today is really important so the least I can do is say thank you.”
“Is it going to hurt?” Shane suddenly asked through a scratchy throat.
“It shouldn’t,” she r
eplied with a touch of guilt flushing her cheeks.
“I do this and I can go home. That’s the deal right?”
“That’s right Shane,” she said with a little more confidence, “when we’re finished here you can go home.”
The muscles in his neck began to twitch, shaking the oxygen tubing.
“They put me away for life for something I never done,” he rasped, “and now they let me go home if I come here. It don’t make no sense to me.”
“I don’t know about your sentencing matters, and I can see why things might seem to not make any sense, but for now we need to focus on what happens from here.”
“All I did was drive the car,” he continued as though he hadn’t heard Candice. “He said to keep the engine running while he picked up some money he was owed. I didn’t even know whose house it was let alone kill anyone, and I get a life sentence.”
“I’m not here to judge anyone,” she tried to assure him.
“Bullshit.” It was a quiet outburst but still caused him to cough strongly enough that signs of blood appeared at the edges of his mouth. “You think I don’t see the way you’re looking at me? It’s okay though.” His demeanour was quick to soften. “If I was in your shoes, I’d probably hate me too.”
“There’s no hate here Shane, there’s no judgement at all.”
“Either way, I never killed no one. I mighta had a drug problem and maybe I burned a few bridges, but I’d never hurt nobody. Never. Now I got two death sentences, so even if I get to go home after today it won’t change what’s coming.” His eyes were wet but he didn’t bother to wipe them. “Okay doc, now that I’ve said my piece I guess you best tell me what you want me to do cause as you can see, I don’t have much time.”
The decision to start using prisoners for test subjects had a lot to do with the blood that needed to be mopped from the floor, and she learned quickly to try not to judge and definitely not believe most of what they said. But as she looked at her subject’s frail outline and twitching neck muscle, she knew he was telling the truth.
The Hallucigenia Project Page 41