by John Akers
When she was done, Pax stared at her for a moment, before he smiled and waved his hand dismissively at her. “You’re full of shit. You’re just making this up to get me to agree to do this thing with the Infinet, because you realize your earlier pitch wasn’t convincing enough.”
Alethia did not smile or blink. “This isn’t a joke, Mr. Pax. This is really happening, all around the world. Right now, as we speak.”
“Sure. After all you’ve shown me the Infinet can do, you expect me to believe it can’t fake a few newspaper headlines?” Pax said.
Suddenly, Alethia swung the small pouch Elena had given her off of her shoulder and opened it up. She pulled out a distinctive cobalt blue Univiz and handed it to him. “Have a look for yourself. You’ll need to accept the standard prompt to use the Story of Man as your internet access point.”
Pax didn’t immediately reach to take it from her, much to his own surprise.
“Is something wrong?” asked Alethia.
“No. It’s just—” Pax paused. He felt a strange, almost physical reluctance to take it. Although he wouldn’t admit it to Alethia, the forced break from Gabe and the time he’d spent in the sub’s quiet room had left his nervous system feeling better than it had in years. But he had to see if what Alethia was telling him was true. He reached out and took the Univiz from her, then turned it around in his hands to examine it. It looked and felt like Gabe. Nonetheless, he asked, “How do I know this isn’t one of your replicas?”
“To create a replica you couldn’t distinguish from the original, the Infinet would have had to hack into your UV. Even the Infinet can’t defeat the Univiz SQUID validation, at least not without more time.”
Pax slid the temples down the sides of his head and over his ears. He felt the familiar gentle click and tightening at the back of his head. Everything about it felt exactly the same. He heard the default system voice say, “Please verify your ID.” Pax held his palms up in front of his face and said his name. Two seconds later the augmented reality display began to overlay on the surroundings. “Alethia Exley” displayed across Alethia’s torso. She was telling the truth about herself.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Gabe began. Then he said, “Wait, we’re not connected. I’m only seeing one access point. Here, you’ll need to accept this so I can figure out where you are.“ In the middle of Pax’s display a prompt appeared:
“Story of Man” is the only available internet access point.
Do you wish to use it? (yes/no)
“Yes!” said Pax.
“There, that’s better,” said Gabe. “Now let’s see…“ There was a pause, then Gabe said, “Where in the world…Socotra Island? Mr. Pax, what—“
Pax cut him off. “No time to explain, Gabe. Is there some sort of digital virus happening in the world?”
“How should I know? You haven’t worn me for four days and…”
“Show me the New York Times front page!” Pax shouted.
Gabe grumbled something about irrational human overlords, but a moment later an opaque white background hid the outside world and the front page of nytimes.com was displayed. The title for the lead article, “Digital Virus Death Crosses 100,000,” spanned the full width of the page. Pax scanned the first couple of paragraphs, then yelled “Good God!” He whirled on Alethia, “You mean to tell me thousands of people have died just since we’ve been talking?” he yelled at her.
“Yes,” said Alethia.
“I don’t—what the fuck is the matter with you people?!” he hollered. “All this has been happening while you’ve brought me here to go through some crazy holographic museum?”
Suddenly, he began to feel dizzy. He reached out for something to steady himself and felt Alethia’s arms catch him. As soon as the dizziness passed, he thrust her hands away and yelled, “Get away from me! You people are insane!”
“What should we have done differently, Mr. Pax?” Alethia yelled back at him. “How else were we going to convince you? The Infinet only discovered the Mechanic's virus a few days before Mr. Cunningham’s death. Should we have knocked at your door last Monday and said, ‘Hey, you don’t know us, but we’ve got a quantum supercomputer telling us about a computer virus that’s preparing to destroy civilization! But good news, our computer can stop it, as well as supervise the human race afterward so something like this can’t happen again!’ How well do you think that would have gone over?”
“So, I’m supposed to think all this just happened?” Pax yelled. “Don’t you think the timing of this is rather coincidental? Doesn’t it seem possible, even highly likely from my perspective, the Infinet is behind the virus?”
Alethia’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak but then she stopped. She took a deep breath instead, then exhaled. In a calm voice, she answered, “Yes, Mr. Pax. Given what we’ve shown you the Infinet can do, it’s entirely understandable you might think that.”
She turned away from him and looked toward the wall and the outside again. “I don’t know, Mr. Pax. I don’t know why the Infinet wanted to do things this way. It insisted we stick to the original plan, but just condense it. What you’ve seen here today was originally supposed to take a full day rather than a couple of hours.”
“Well thank goodness for small favors,” said Pax. Then he immediately wondered how many people had died in the time it had taken him to say that. He began to feel nauseous.
“Normally the Infinet gives our society as much time as it needs to discuss any recommendations it gives us, before having us vote on a course of action. But this time, it was unusually, I don’t know—emphatic. It insisted we still show you the history of life and of human civilization rather than immediately tell you about the virus.”
“But why?” exclaimed Pax.
“I don’t know Mr. Pax. The Infinet wouldn’t say why. Perhaps it was a calculated risk. Maybe it felt it was worth losing a few thousand more lives in hopes of convincing you to grant it access to the UV kernel, so that it could not only stop the current threat of the Chaotica virus, but any future threats as well. Or maybe it was a test. A test using a single representative as a proxy for all humanity, to evaluate our worth based on our ability to recognize an existential threat given irrefutable evidence and take appropriate action.”
She turned and faced him again. “I don’t know, Mr. Pax. All I can do right now, is give you my word that neither the Infinet nor our society is behind this virus. The Infinet was designed to save humanity, not destroy it. If it did want to destroy humanity, why would it have bothered with all of this,” she swept an arm around her, “or with bringing you here at all?”
“How the hell should I know? Maybe if the virus doesn’t wipe us all out, the Infinet’s got a backup plan using the Univiz to finish the job,” said Pax.
A look of calm passed over Alethia’s face. “You will have to decide that for yourself, Mr. Pax. You will have to decide whether or not to believe and trust us. I have done my part. It is up to you to decide what happens next. ”
Everything about Alethia’s manner told him she was telling the truth. But he still felt what they were asking was impossible. He thought for a moment. There has to be another way.
All of a sudden, it came to him.
“I could only do what you’re asking if I completely trusted your society and the Infinet. But I don’t.”
For the first time, Alethia looked scared. “But, Mr. Pax…”
“I’ve got four and a half billion people trusting me to do the right thing here,” he interrupted, “I can’t just grant your Infinet root-level access to every Univiz in existence. But there’s another way to stop the virus.”
Her panicked expression disappeared. “What’s that?”
“The Infinet doesn’t need root access to all UVs to combat the virus. All it needs is access to the infected networks. Then it can install the antiviral code on the routers and any connected devices. The Infinet can create an app to do this, then we can put it in the app store and
notify all users via a UV system alert that we strongly advise they install it. We’ll explain what the app does, but they’ll have to choose to install it. It will be their choice, not something I force down everyone’s throats. But I’m positive everyone will install it. And if the Infinet tries to pull a fast one, I can order Omnitech to pull the app off every Univiz. It won’t undo whatever it has done up to that point, but it affords me some level of protection.”
Alethia cocked one eyebrow at him. “An app. To save humanity.” Pax nodded.
Alethia was quiet for a moment, then she said, “The Infinet and our society accept your offer.”
“Great. Tell the Infinet to assemble the app and…”
“The app is ready,” interrupted Alethia.
Pax looked at her like she’d gone mad. “It’s only been a few seconds…”
“It’s ready, Mr. Pax. Fully QA tested and everything. Apparently, the Infinet was prepared for this possible outcome. Just tell us where to send the code file.”
“Gabe, call Qathi and Emma,” said Pax. Moments later, two anxious faces appeared on his screen. Emma looked as if she was either going to cry or read him the riot act. It turned out to be the latter.
“Oreste!” she yelled. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been going crazy worrying about you!”
“Sorry, Em, no time to explain. We’ve got an emergency to deal with. Qathi, what are the latest numbers on the victims of the virus?” For some reason Pax needed to hear someone, a real person, verify what was going on.
“Um, more than a million deaths, twenty-five times that in injuries. More than 100 countries or something.” Tears appeared in her eyes. “Oreste, there’s something you should know. The epicenter of this thing was in Los Altos. Omnitech has lost quite a few people. More than a hundred so far worldwide, including Larry.”
“My God,” said Pax. Qathi nodded but said nothing.
“Okay, we’ll deal with that soon, but not right now. The reason I’ve been away is I’ve been working with some people on developing an antivirus program for this thing. We’re going to offer it to all Univiz users as a free app they can install to inoculate their networks and devices against the virus.”
“What?” both women said in unison.
“Trust me, it’ll work. But we’ve got to act fast. I’m going to send you the code for the app. You need to do an emergency upload to the app store on my authorization. No time for QA or normal approval processes; you’re to add it to the store immediately on my authority as CEO and majority shareholder. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Qathi. What’s it called?”
Pax looked at Alethia, who said, “Chaoticure.”
Pax did a double take at Alethia, then said, “Cute.” Turning back to Qathi he said, “It’s called, ‘Chaoticure.’ Where do you want me to send it?” He realized it would be faster if the Infinet sent the code directly to the server rather than to him first. “Make it publicly accessible until the upload is done.”
Qathi made a few gestures and a file server address appeared at the bottom of Pax’s display.
“Got it.” He looked at Alethia. “The file is being uploaded,” she said.
“Great. Now, Emma, I need you to write an emergency alert to all users on my behalf explaining this app will run an antivirus program specifically designed to quarantine any device affected by this virus. As soon as Qathi has posted the app to the store, go ahead and send the alert, bypassing all normal checkoffs, again on my authority as CEO. Got it?”
“Yes,” said Emma, who still looked as if she wanted to slap Oreste in the face.
“Great, thanks.” Pax thought for a moment. Hell, he thought. We’re going to come out looking like heroes.
“Thank you, Mr. Pax,” Alethia said. “You’ve done humanity a great service.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Pax began, then stopped as he heard a loud rumble. He looked around but didn’t see anything. Then he noticed Alethia staring behind him. “It appears you have a visitor, Mr. Pax.”
Uncomprehending, Pax turned around. To his surprise, he saw a helicopter on the same platform on which he and Alethia were standing, about 150 feet away. A man wearing blue jeans and what appeared to be a white lab coat was running away from the helicopter toward them. He gestured for Gabe to zoom in, but even before Gabe could display the person’s name, he knew who it was.
Cevis.
Chapter 56
The first thought that occurred to Pax as he watched Cevis run was that he'd never seen him appear even mildly hurried in all the years he’d known him. Now, here he was barreling along as if his very life depended on it. He ran surprisingly fast for someone who, as far as Pax knew, had never engaged in any athletic activity whatsoever.
“I’m gonna have to call you two back,” Pax said, then he gestured to end the video call. He hoped Qathi and Emma carried out his instructions.
Looking up, he saw there was a large hole in the roof of the tower above the helicopter, and twisted lengths of metal and shards of whatever material the roof was made of were strewn over the platform around it. The first thought that occurred to Pax was Cevis must have flown his helicopter all the way across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, despite the risk of running out of sunlight and battery power. The second thing was to wonder how on Earth Cevis had found him, found him exactly, on a platform elevated to the very top of a 10,000-foot tower on a remote island on the other side of the world. For this he had no explanation.
As he looked through his UV at the zoomed-up image, he realized Cevis was holding his right hand awkwardly behind his back as he ran. Then, just as the distance indication on his UV’s display showed he was 100 feet away, Cevis suddenly swung his arm forward. Pax saw the silver glint of a gun just before he saw Cevis’ hand buck backward.
Instinctively, Pax threw up his arms in front of his face, just before an invisible wall smashed into him. Then he felt himself spinning and twisting helplessly in the air. Somehow, he found the wherewithal to tuck himself into a ball and throw his arms over his head. Just before he crashed back down onto the ground, he wondered how in God’s name Cevis had gotten his hands on a pulse gun.
When he came to, Pax found himself on his side in a fetal position. Then there were footsteps, followed by a dull thud and someone’s hands touching him.
“Oreste, I’m sorry!” said Cevis, breathlessly. “I didn’t realize the blast radius would be so wide! I was just trying to take out the woman!”
Dazed, Pax dropped his hands, then pushed himself into a kneeling position. He put a hand to the front of his head, which felt as if he’d tried to head-butt a block of granite. Cevis was kneeling in front of him. Pax shoved him away and looked around for Alethia.
He saw her, 10 feet away, lying motionless on her side, her face turned away from him.
“Alethia!” he called out. He put a foot down and tried to stand, but his legs were too wobbly. Instead, he crawled over to her. When he reached her, he put his fingers to her throat. After a moment, he successfully located her pulse.
His relief was quickly replaced with anger. Once more he tried to stand, and this time he succeeded. He whirled around to face Cevis, who was now standing as well.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Pax screamed. He took two steps forward but then his legs went out again, and he pitched forward. Cevis caught him and lowered him to his knees, then stepped back, looking hurt and angry.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m saving you! I took her out so we could run to the helicopter and get the hell out of here!”
Through the blur of confusion, Pax wondered again how Cevis had managed to figure out exactly where he was. How he always found the answer when no one else could.
“Dammit, Cevis, I’m fine! At least I was, until you blasted me with that fucking thing,” Pax said as he pointed at the pulse gun, now hanging limply by Cevis’ side. “These people aren’t dangerous! They weren't going to hurt me. In fact, they’re trying
to help. With the virus.”
Cevis stared at him in disbelief. “They didn’t abduct you?”
Pax shook his head. “No, they did. But they had a good reason for doing it, their intentions are good. They’re not…” Pax’s voice trailed off as he saw the old, familiar look of scorn appear on Cevis’ face.
“Oh, really?” Cevis scoffed. “You’re sure of that? Some total strangers kidnap you and take you to the other side of the world, but now that you’ve known them a few days everything's good?”
“They have a way to combat this computer virus, Cevis, but they needed my help, and they had no other way to reach me.”
Cevis looked at Pax as if he had lost his mind, “They had to take you halfway around the world to a God-forsaken island to show you a cure for the virus? Why, did they create it?”
“No, but they have a way to fix it.”
Cevis shook his head. “Oreste, do you realize how crazy that is? I wonder if you aren’t suffering from some short-term version of Stockholm Syndrome.” His face hardened, and he walked over to Alethia and kicked her sharply in the ribs. She groaned and rolled away from him. Cevis leaned over her and yelled, “Hey! Wake up! What did you do to him?” When Alethia didn’t answer, Cevis kicked her again, harder this time. Her body clenched and she cried out in pain.
Pax tried and managed to stand up, then he hurled himself at Cevis just as he was drawing back his foot once more. He slammed into Cevis from behind, knocking him forward. Cevis stumbled and nearly tripped over Alethia's prostrate form, managing at the last second to clumsily hurdle over her. He spun around, displaying an agility that surprised Pax, and started to raise the EMP gun again. Then he caught himself and let it fall to his side once more.