by John Akers
“Good. He was in a very good mood,” said Cevis. “He said Omnitech was making excellent progress on an important project.”
“Okay. Well, I think the police wait 48 hours before they consider someone officially missing. Oreste’s colleague said he wanted to hear back from you before deciding what to do next. He didn’t want to alarm anyone unless he was absolutely sure it was necessary.”
“Makes sense,” said Cevis, “but keep in mind, Emma, the decision of when to notify the police about a missing person doesn’t belong to anyone. Anyone who believes someone may have gone missing can report it at any time. I’m sure the higher-ups at Omnitech want to have their public relations ducks all in a row before notifying the police, but if you feel he might be in some sort of danger, you can report it whenever you feel is appropriate.”
“Truthfully, Cevis, I don’t know what to do. Oreste’s had a habit of disappearing for a while when he’s needed to work without interruption, but he’s never gone offline before. Her image in the video looked upset. “You’ve known Oreste a long time, what do you think? Do you think I should call the police?”
Cevis paused a moment before replying. “No, I don’t think there’s a need for that yet. I expect this is just another one of those situations you just described. You know how he is. Sometimes he just gets lost in his head and forgets about the rest of the world.”
“That’s the truth,” said Emma, with a little laugh.“But when Jean, I mean, when Oreste’s colleague called me and sounded so concerned, I started to get worried too.”
“Did he say why he was concerned?” asked Cevis.
“He said they were supposed to be in frequent contact regarding the project, even over the weekend,” said Emma. “He said he tried to contact Oreste on Friday evening and found his Univiz was offline. Same thing all day Saturday, and now this morning.”
“I see,” Cevis said. After a moment, he said, “Well, given that it’s the weekend and that Oreste has a history of running off without warning, maybe we should be patient and see if he doesn’t turn up sometime before work tomorrow. If no one has heard from him by first thing tomorrow though, I’d probably contact the police.”
“That makes sense,” said Emma. She exhaled loudly. “Thanks for talking, Cevis. I feel better now.”
“You’re welcome. Try not to worry, and let me know right away when you hear from him.”
“I will. Please do the same if he contacts you.”
“I will.” Cevis chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Oreste shows up for work tomorrow totally oblivious to the worry he’s caused everyone. Sometimes it seems to escape him that he’s the head of the biggest company in the world.”
“It sure does. Thanks again for your help, Cevis.”
“You’re welcome, Emma. We’ll talk soon.”
“Bye.”
After hanging up, Cevis leaned back in his recliner. His hands were shaking as they gripped the plush armrests. Contrary to what he had told Emma, he knew with absolute certainty Oreste would never turn off his UV, particularly after their conversation about Project Aegis. He was absolutely certain that something bad had happened to Pax, and that his life might very well be in danger.
Chapter 36
Sunday, March 18, 7:45 PM PT
Mysterious “Chaotica” Computer Virus Leads to More Than 100 Deaths, Injures More Than 1,300
By Aidan Sharpe and Bobby Mohammad
Associated Press
San Francisco, Calif. (AP)— Silicon Valley and the Bay Area are in a state of emergency due to an unprecedented computer virus, nicknamed “Chaotica” by its creators, that has either directly or indirectly led to the deaths of 127 people and more than 1,300 injuries since Friday afternoon. Hundreds of police officers are diligently working to control the increasingly alarming situation. The police departments of cities across the Valley are involved, and San Francisco Mayor Dan Lindross has requested assistance from Governor Contrera’s office, the FBI, and President Fitzgerald.
The Chaotica virus has enslaved a broad range of internet-connected devices and is causing them to malfunction around certain people in a wide variety of ways. Among the affected devices are toothbrushes, oral irrigators, hair dryers, medicine bottles, doors, windows, cameras, motion and proximity sensors, refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, HVAC, plumbing, sprinklers, and electrical systems. To date, more than 43 types of devices from more than 68 different manufacturers have been compromised. So far, the Univiz, long renowned for its biometric security, does not appear to have been affected.
It is not known who is behind the attacks, nor what their motive might be. However, it appears they are selective, only occurring when someone comes into contact with a person who has already suffered an attack by a compromised device.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the virus’ impact is that more than 90 percent of the deaths and 60 percent of the injuries are the result of confrontations between people, rather than malfunctioning devices. Most of the deaths were the result of people shooting others they believed to be targeted. Avoiding contact with targeted persons is being treated by many as the same as avoiding contact with someone carrying a disease. In several instances, the person who was shot had not in fact been targeted by the virus, as the shooter mistakenly believed.
Roderick Chaucer, a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at Stanford, finds it highly unlikely a computer virus alone could be responsible. “A virus capable of such a coordinated tracking of specific individuals and control over such a wide range of internet-of-things devices—all in near real-time—would be unprecedented in scope and sophistication,” said Dr. Chaucer. Nonetheless, he would not completely rule out the possibility, given the sheer volume of internet connected devices.
“It’s well-known there were enormous security gaps in many of the early internet-connected devices made before the Hartley-McAdams Internet Security Act was passed a decade ago,” said Dr. Chaucer. “Before HMISA, it was up to companies to determine the level of security in their devices. Invariably they minimized the default security level to simplify users’ first-use experience. Often wireless passwords, if they were required at all, had simple defaults, such as “admin,” that was the same for every device, and users weren’t required to change it to something unique. Also, there were vulnerabilities in the core internet protocols and device operating systems that could be exploited even if a network username and password weren’t known. Since many internet connected devices didn’t bother to enable remote firmware updates, any such bugs would be there for as long as the product was in use.”
Mayor Lindross has offered a reward of up to $250,000 in exchange for material information about the nature of the virus or who is behind it. He has also advised Bay area and Silicon Valley area residents to remain at home if at all possible. If you have information you believe may be relevant, please call the San Francisco Police Department immediately. If you believe you have been targeted by the virus, or know of others who have been, please call this special hotline: 888-619-35xx.
Chapter 37
After Pax had been in the meditation room for what seemed like hours, his legs began to feel numb. He inhaled deeply once more before getting up and slowly shaking out his legs. His head felt alert, and his insides felt like they’d been purified. It was such an unusual sensation he wondered if they’d mixed some psychoactive drug in with the incense.
He exited the room and headed back down the hallway, hoping he might catch another snippet of conversation between Angelo and Elena. To his surprise, neither Angelo nor Elena were in the observation room. For a moment, he considered checking out the front of the sub on his own, but then decided that wandering around a vessel traveling several hundred miles an hour under more than a mile of water might not be the best idea. Instead, he sat down in the same chair as he had before.
A minute later, Elena stepped briskly into the room. Her face was flushed and her hair was slightly disheveled. She flickere
d a smile at Pax before sitting down.
“Hello, Mr. Pax. How are you feeling? Better, I hope.”
“Better. Something tells me you are also.”
She stiffened for an instant but didn’t reply.
“What were you two doing, if you don’t mind my asking?” said Pax.
“Exercising,” she said. “It’s important to keep as physically active as possible on a journey like this. It helps keep your endorphins elevated.”
“I get the feeling that’s not the only thing you were elevating,” Pax said. Even though the room light was dim, he thought he saw Elena’s face redden.
“Angelo will be here in just a minute,” she said demurely.
“You two are an item, I take it?” asked Pax. “Or is it just a matter of convenience?”
To his surprise she didn’t hesitate. “We’re together, yes.”
“Married?”
Elena sighed. “We might as well be. If I ever tried to see anyone else, I think Angelo might abandon his legendary composure.” She reached forward and clasped her knees with her hands. “Anyway, enough about us. What did you think of the quiet room?”
“I’ll admit, it was very quiet. What was the incense?”
“Frankincense. I take it you’ve never experienced it before?”
“Nope.”
“The island of Socotra was one of the primary sources of frankincense in the ancient world. Back then, it was valued more highly than gold. It was used in a wide variety of religious and cultural ceremonies and it has many health benefits, including strengthening the immune system, relieving arthritis pain, and mood enhancement.”
“It’s definitely relaxing. I’d only heard of it in the story of the Three Wise Men.”
“Well, now you know why it was considered a gift worthy of the son of God.”
Still enjoying the warmth that permeated his body, Pax leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “Yeah, it’s good stuff. Maybe I’ll stop by the Socotra gift shop after all this is over and get some to take home with me.” Then something occurred to him, and he opened his eyes and looked at Elena. “By the way, did you make that comment about God from an anthropological viewpoint, or are you a true believer yourself?”
As he spoke, Angelo entered the room. He nodded at Pax and sat in the chair to Pax’s right without looking at Elena. Pax considered making a joke about being an unwelcome third wheel, but as the chair sagged under Angelo’s bulk, he thought better of it.
“Anthropologically, for myself,” said Elena. “I grew up Muslim in Iran, but stopped practicing when I left the country ten years ago.” She nodded toward Angelo and said with a smirk, “If you want a true believer, talk to that guy.”
Angelo rolled his eyes. “I’m hardly that.”
“Did you used to be?” asked Pax.
“I grew up Catholic, but left the faith many years ago. I still believe in Jesus, in what he taught, but I’m not a member of any organized religion.” He looked at Pax and asked, “Yourself?”
Pax smirked and said, “I’m fairly confident you must know the answer to that question already, but for the sake of old-fashioned manners, I’ll answer. No, I haven’t read the Bible, not directly. Nor the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, or the I Ching. I know a bit about each of the major faiths from searches I did over the years, so I could understand some of the stuff I read about in the news. Like the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the 1,500 flavors of Christianity. But that’s about the extent of it. My parents didn’t go to church, so…”
“None of them piqued your interest?” asked Elena.
Pax shook his head. “Nope. I found once you start drilling down into the details of any of them, they’re all chock-full of absurdities that made it impossible for me to take any of them seriously. One says it’s sinful to eat a pig, another says no killing cows, another says its shellfish that are unclean, another says you can only eat fish on Fridays, yadda, yadda. They’ve all got tons of specifics that, when you consider them collectively are hopelessly arbitrary if not outright silly. How anybody takes any of them seriously when they insist on sacrosanctity of such nonsense is beyond me.”
“Sounds to me like you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak,” said Angelo. “Just because every word in a spiritual text doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean the whole text is worthless.”
Pax raised his palms up defensively. “Look, if a book purports to be the unerring word of an almighty Creator, it had better be unerring.” He leaned forward. “And it’s not just little things either. One big area they all fall short on is women. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men, but most religions try to subjugate them as if they were a lesser life form. Right from the beginning, with the story of Adam and Eve, the Bible tries to establish women’s inferiority to men. Even today, most Christian churches and Islamic mosques won’t let women serve as spiritual leaders. The Qu’ran even dictates women should dress in public in a way that negates their sexuality. I mean, come on! I try to be open-minded about cultural differences, but where is the sense in forcing women to wear a black tablecloth with eyeholes cut out of them?”
Elena burst out laughing.
Surprised at her reaction, Pax asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Sorry,” she said, trying to control herself. “But when you put it that way,” She started laughing again.
Pax looked at Angelo, who shrugged.
After a minute, Elena calmed down enough to speak. “When you said that about wearing black tablecloths, it made me think of the men in the Ku Klux Klan, who used to wear white bedsheets with eyeholes cut out. If you paired one of them with a Muslim woman wearing a burqa or niqab, they would be like human salt and pepper shakers!”
They all laughed, including Pax. Part of him was angry at himself for laughing, but the image in his head was so funny he couldn’t help it. Then he thought of something else that made him laugh even harder. Both Angelo and Elena looked at him with curiosity. “What is it? asked Angelo.
Pax stood up, and in the hushed overtones of a documentary narrator said, “The differences in their culture and religion were swept aside by their shared passion for household textiles. Their love bridged all barriers, until one day, the man’s heart was stolen by a Grecian harlot with an affinity for using window drapes as a toga!”
At that, Angelo laughed so hard he literally fell out of his chair, crashing to the floor with a heavy thud. Pax felt the sub shudder under the impact. Still laughing, Elena waved her hands in the air. “Stop it, stop!” she gasped. “You’re gonna—get us—all killed!”
Eventually, they all calmed down and Angelo and Pax sat in their chairs again.
“Mock the burqa and the niqab all you want,” said Elena, “but I can tell you from personal experience, many Muslim women don’t mind wearing them. They appreciate not being ogled by lecherous boors in public. And by lecherous boors I mean men.”
“Nonetheless, Mr. Pax has an excellent point about Islam,” said Angelo. For the first time, he looked somewhat angry. “At least Christianity doesn’t force women into the Game-of-Thrones-like absurdity of having to “take the black,” as if being a woman is a crime.”
“Well, what’s worse,” Elena retorted, “a tradition that encourages women to display some degree of decorum, or one that encourages them to prance around wearing shorts so threadbare you could floss your teeth with them?”
Pax laughed again, but Angelo said, “No, no, not fair. You’re conflating Christianity with Western society as a whole. Many Christians are horrified by the licentiousness permitted under Western laws.”
“But you’re not, are you?” Elena said, leaning forward and sticking her tongue out at him.
Angelo recoiled and said, “Elena, what are you…?” He looked at Pax and said, “She’s just…we’re not…”
“Baby, he knows,” said Elena.
Angelo slumped back in his chair. “Oh, well,” he said, before falling sile
nt.
Pax considered letting the conversation die on that awkward note, but then he decided he needed to keep them talking. He needed to learn anything he could about their personalities and beliefs, in case he could use it to influence them. They already knew everything there was to know about him, so as long as he didn’t talk about work, he wouldn’t risk divulging anything he shouldn’t.
“My point,” said Pax, “was its ridiculous strictures like those that led me to believe religion was a waste of time. Buddhism I could understand somewhat because it’s inclusive and practical, focusing on meditating and cultivating inner peace. But the big three—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—I just don’t get why they’re so popular.”
“Yet three-quarters of the people on the planet believe in one of them,” said Elena.
“Because they offer explanations to the existential questions, and a framework for making sense of the world and how to exist in it,” said Angelo.
Pax shrugged. “Pretty implausible explanations, if you ask me. And it seems to me that disagreements over religion are the main cause of many of the problems in the world.”
“Perhaps, but as Elena pointed out, the reality is most people believe in them,” said Angelo.
“Or at least claim to,” said Elena. “I’ve known plenty of people who were Christians in name only.”
“Absolutely,” said Angelo. “But for many people, religion is the basis of the cultural traditions you grow up with. Many people who leave the Catholic faith because of its conservative stance on social issues, or the scandals involving priests who were sexual predators, eventually miss the sense of community and tradition that accompanied the religion of their youth. We’re very social animals, and a strong sense of belonging to a community is essential to our well-being. As a result, most people adhere to the spiritual traditions of the society in which they were raised. As individuals, many of them privately recognize much of it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, but to totally turn your back on your community is unthinkable for most people.”