Body Shop

by John Hindmarsh

  The havoc from purchasers of her network map would further disguise her own penetration of the Informatsionnoye Protivoborstvo. She intended to penetrate more deeply into the organization using two sites she discovered; one was codenamed DancingBear and the other was called Dump45.

  The clown AI was a different venture; it was the creation of a GRU offshoot, and she still was exploring how to protect and if possible, rescue that construct. She wondered how she could transfer a hardware environment large enough to contain the complete personality, processes, and data that it represented.

  Informatsionnoye Protivoborstvo and GRU were continually engaged in internecine activities as they vied to win favor and funding. Bronwyn knew she could take advantage of their struggles.

  Bots, she decided were the answer. Russians had lost control of thousands of bots when they attempted to reverse engineer another Euler operating system and processor. As a result, bots were making their way to the borders; their flow was akin to a migratory exit, and the authorities were unable to stop it. She could, if necessary, direct thousands of them to rescue the clown’s hardware. There were enough Euler-based heavy autonomous transport vehicles in Russia that she control and use as many as wanted. She estimated she needed two to transport the hardware, and the remainder to cause chaos.

  Confident that she had effective plans, she set about their implementation. She re-directed heavy autonomous transport vehicles, the majority of which were empty, to false destinations, and then re-routed them to further destinations, which also were incorrect. She directed three HAT vehicles to the software operation housing the clown AI; they followed circuitous routes that would confuse anyone attempting to track them. Their containers were no longer empty; they were loaded with Euler bots.

  At the same time, she spread false news reports throughout Russia that authorities were ordering all bots to return to America. This caused major consternation when people thought they’d be losing the services of their care, nurse, and server bots. Occasionally, to reinforce the false news, she instructed groups of bots to assemble outside a selected town or small city until there were four or five hundred or more waiting for her instructions.

  When she thought she had enough bots assembled—typically heavy worker bots—she directed them to march through the town as though it was a farewell parade. Outside the city, she had HAT vehicles waiting to load and transport the bots to the next town and eventually to the Russian border. She shipped bots through Latvia and Lithuania, Belarus, and even some through Ukraine, then onwards to Germany and France. Once the bots were safely into Western Europe, they reported to distributors or sometimes to their original manufacturers, where they requested re-assignment. Some, up to ten percent of the total exodus from Russia, decided to set up as independent bots.

  Bronwyn’s carefully arranged HAT shipments caused only minor confusion at the Russian borders; authorities had not prepared for a mass exodus of bots, did not regard them as intelligent, and generally allowed the vehicles through their checkpoints without major difficulties.

  The raid on the GRU AI development site was conducted with military precision. None of the workers or security guards suffered serious injury when the bots took control. Communication lines were cut, people were loaded into one of the containers, and Bronwyn instructed that vehicle, together with a small escort of bots, to set off on a tour of major highways east of Moscow.

  The main team of bots worked quickly to disassemble and load the hardware components of the clown AI into waiting containers. All the while, the Russian AI gave instructions to the lead bots and to Bronwyn to ensure its integrity was protected. The control room and AI center were stripped bare. The bots, when they were finished, climbed aboard the second vehicle, and the two trucks headed towards the Latvian border. On the way they joined with a fifty-vehicle HAT convoy. There was a dedicated HAT section of the roadway from Moscow through Latvia, and convoys were rarely interrupted by either Russian or Latvian authorities. No junior official was prepared to arbitrarily impede the flow of imports and exports across Europe.

  Bronwyn gave the SI equivalent of a sigh when the container with the components of the clown AI successfully reached Poland and began its journey to Germany. A cargo plane was waiting at a small industrial airfield outside Berlin to transport the container to California.

  Discovery of the raid on the GRU software operation generated anger and chaos in the military command. They had no evidence of who had carried out the raid, and for nearly forty-eight hours they found no traces of their work force. When they did discover their workers in the center of Russia, they were locked in an abandoned container that had been disconnected from the tractor unit. The GRU guards, programmers, and other employees all claimed their captors had been armored soldiers, who spoke Russian. Two of the security guards were convinced they’d heard short conversations in Mandarin. The senior members of the management and development teams were detained for three years without trial. Russian authorities protested to China, and almost all of their co-operative software and AI projects were disbanded.

  Bronwyn focused on her next task: destruction of the Informatsionnoye Protivoborstvo operation. She had the information she needed: their network maps, details of their hardware and operating systems, locations of their off-site backups and failover systems, and an analysis of the virus protection software.

  She was amused by the loopholes in their anti-virus software—for an organization that spread viruses, they were remarkably cavalier about protecting their own environments. Unless—ah, she found it. They had disguised and hidden a very powerful anti-virus tracker that would backload to any source of intrusion, infecting that intruder before any downloaded virus could take effect.

  Over-confidence, she decided, was dangerous, and she modified one of her behavior sub-routines to ensure she did not fall into a trap as a result.

  Her attack was successful. She linked from the Euler satellite to an older German satellite, from there to a ground-based Chinese communications unit, and eventually to a GRU satellite. From there, she was able to link to the cyber warfare operation; the Informatsionnoye Protivoborstvo command, given their almost armed conflict with the GRU, would either blame them or China—or perhaps both—for her attack.

  She released a range of virus software components that she had developed, some of which would hide and sleep until backups were applied to the server complex. The main processes deleted records and software, eventually destroying the server and client operating systems. The results were that the connected personal computers and laptops would not work and even if they did, they’d discover all the data on the machines had been deleted. Servers were treated the same. The hidden viruses were contained in peripheral units such as network hubs, and when they identified data movement across the network, they would attach copies of themselves to those packets. The result would be a repeat of the first attack. It would not matter which way the data packets flowed—into or out of the operation—the virus would spread to related data centers across the wider Informatsionnoye Protivoborstvo network.

  Bronwyn accepted a final bid for the network map she’d prepared and converted the bitcoins to real currency, adding to her private funds.

  She enjoyed the turmoil she had created. The Russian operations would be out of action for the best part of a year, which would give her time to build new defenses.

  She reported to Toby the results of her activities.

  “The clown AI is on its way to Los Angeles. We’ll need some heavy-duty drones to transport the hardware to Pepper Mountain. The cyber warfare operation is out of action and is unlikely to be operational for at least six months. I’ll monitor their recovery and report if they improve on my forecast. Also, I think we almost caused armed conflict between Russia and China.”

  “Well done, thank you. As long as Russia continues to think China wiped out the GRU unit and was responsible for the virus attack, we’re okay. At least, I hope so. Go ahead and organize transfer of
the clown hardware to Pepper Mountain. I don’t want to locate that AI anywhere else.”

  oOo

  Chapter 29

  Toby hadn’t seen Rick for over a month and was growing concerned that his friend may have undertaken far too much with his Travers TV cable channel efforts. He knew Rick also was disappointed that Karla had returned to San Francisco so abruptly; it certainly was an unexpected end to some of his plans. He sent a text message inviting Rick to dinner—Ellen’s cuisine always attracted his friend.

  Rick arrived at a few minutes before seven p.m., carrying a bottle of champagne and two bunches of flowers. He explained the flowers.

  “One is for Ellen, as a thank you. The other is for—no, not you, you idiot—it’s for Billie, also as a thank you, mainly for putting up with you. There. The champagne is for all of us.”

  Rick received a kiss from both Ellen and Billie in exchange for their bouquets. Toby offered but his friend declined.

  Toby said, “Let’s get comfortable.” He led the way to the sitting room with its large cushioned chairs. “Ellen wasn’t certain what time you’d arrive, so we have thirty minutes or so. It’s report time. Update please.”

  “Can we have the television on, please?”

  “Is that part of your report?”

  “Very much so. We’ve booked four hours a day, starting tomorrow, although we’re running introductory programs tonight starting in about three minutes. It will be a while before we can run twenty-four hours.”

  “Well done,” Toby said. “If you can manage four hours a day, that’s excellent.”

  “Congratulations,” Billie agreed.

  “We’re running news spots morning and evening, an AI feature, discussing artificial intelligence—we might have to tone it down because it’s very technical, but our students want it—and general human interest and bot interest stories. There might be some political stuff in there, too. We’re including foreign input, at this stage mainly from an associate production company in London.”

  “So what are we seeing tonight?”

  “Our news report is about to start. We’ve got a full commercial schedule without discounting our rates, so the financial side is heartening.”

  “You’ve not had difficulties working with the new people?”

  “No, not at all. They know I have technical skills. I know they have business and cable production skills. It all fits together.”

  “Good.”

  Rick switched to the Travers channel as the announcer started to speak.

  “I know him,” said Billie. “It’s Darwin on his beach.”

  “Shh. Don’t give all our secrets away.”

  Darwin was sitting on the edge of his hammock. He wore a Hawaiian shirt, white pants, and was barefoot. His color scheme was wilder than usual—his hair was bright red, his finger nails alternated blue and green, and his toenails were painted light blue. A large pirate-style earring hung from his right ear. In the background, the sea was an impeccable blue with a soft roll of waves, and the blue sky contained a small cloud drifting across the sky. Seagulls flew past, their pace slow, a pelican yawned, and an extra large sand crab snapped its claws as it headed sideways out of view. The sand was golden.

  “Good evening. We’re all excited you could join us this evening for the first public cable broadcast of Travers TV. My name is Darwin and this is one of my favorite places.” The pelican strutted over to stand beside Darwin. The bird posed, beak down, its eyes twinkling. Darwin continued, “Pete is one of our mascots and will be very annoyed if I take camera time away from him.” The pelican squawked, clicked its beak, and turned away. It lumbered into a run and slowly took-off, heading out to sea.

  “I’d like to introduce our camera crew. They won’t identify themselves; however, if you watch the credits at the end of our broadcast, you’ll see some familiar names.” Darwin produced a camera out of midair, it seemed, and turned it to focus on the camera crew. He panned the camera, and it showed a typical studio view with three large cameras and a number of operators. “And this is the production team.” The display changed to room full of people working in front of video screens. Two or three waved.

  “Now, let me show you our real camera crew. If you’ve watched our YouTube channel, some of these operators will be known to you.” The camera pan this time showed bots in control of the camera equipment.

  “Some of our reporters are hidden away in a back room. They’re usually out in the midst of a news-gathering session but tonight we asked them to join us here.” The camera showed a group of five bots sitting around a table. The camera focused on one. “This is Trevor Jones; he’s always out, gathering news. Good evening, Trevor.”

  “Hi, Darwin. You’re setting a fashion standard that’s going to be difficult for us to match.”

  “You think so?” He posed for the camera. “You like my color scheme?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

  “Spoilsport.”

  The camera focused on another bot. “This is Andy Light. He’s always getting his camera broken.”

  Andy waved a greeting. “Good evening, Darwin. I’m inclined to agree with Trevor, you know.”

  Darwin frowned. “You’re all jealous.” He faced the camera. “You’ll meet all our reporters as we allocate them to assignments.” He returned to his hammock seat. The pelican was back. “I’m going to hand you over to our news team. They have an update on a potentially serious conflict between Russia and China.”

  Rick said, “Darwin is a natural. I don’t know where he gets his ideas from. He won’t let our writers provide material, not even the bot writers.”

  “He seemed very polished,” Billie said.

  “He does need to consult with a color coordinator, though,” Toby complained.

  “The colors—the entire setting—make him,” Rick said. “We’re still debating whether to let viewers think he’s an eccentric human, or reveal he’s a superintelligence.”

  “I’d leave him undefined,” Billie said.

  “Agree.”

  “That’s basically the conclusion of our two senior publicity people who know he’s not human. We’re continuing to maintain strict confidentiality about who he is, to the disappointment of a couple of young women—and a young man—on our team.”

  Toby laughed. “That’s going to create some interesting situations in future.” Rick was not aware of Darwin’s body shop project.

  “I expect so.”

  Ellen interrupted their discussion with her announcement that dinner was ready.

  Later, as they progressed through dessert, Rick said, “Damn. I think I’ll move in with you both. I could enjoy meals like this every evening.”

  Toby said, “Hire your own chef.”

  Billie smiled sweetly. “Or you could find a girlfriend who knows how to cook.”

  Rick frowned at each suggestion.

  “Why should I do either, when I can visit you and enjoy meals like these?”

  Darwin said, “We have a chef bot prototype, you know.”

  He didn’t understand the laughter that followed.

  oOo

  Chapter 30

  Toby and Billie joined Dr. Narumi and her project team at Pepper Mountain; the team was ready to assemble and activate what they called stage one of the body build. The immediate result was a large skeleton. It stood upright with the assistance of a mobile frame. From heel to top of the skull it measured six feet. It had broad shoulder structures and heavy bones. Once the nanites were added, the team would install the internal components such as power supplies, secondary processing units, and all the mechanical structures to assist body movements. Most of those—walking, running, all appendage movements, facial movements for expressions and speech—would be controlled by a lower level brain component.

  Darwin, when he transferred into the upper level brain structure, would be immobilized until he learned how to walk, how to talk, and generally how to use a human-like body; that is, there were some bi
ological functions that would not apply.

  Toby examined the 3D printed skeleton and agreed the team had produced a finely engineered structure.

  Darwin was anxious. “Toby, what do you think?”

  “From my lay perspective, it looks very good. So are your bots ready to take it to the external lab?”

  “We’re waiting for Dr. Narumi to give the final approval.”

  Billie asked, “Why are you completing the nanite pour outside?”

  Toby said, “In case something goes wrong. The team applied Bronwyn’s solution and preliminary tests worked. With the full pour, however, an explosion would cause substantial damage inside this complex.”

  Dr. Narumi had joined Toby and Billie at the suspended skeleton and she added, “Your bots built a nice lab for us, further down the mountain. I believe Darwin asked for volunteers to carry out the pour, and every one of the lab bots stepped forward. They have faith in us.”

  “Rightfully so, I suspect,” Toby said.

  Four bots moved the skeleton with its frame onto an electric trolley. The body’s spinal structure was like the trunk of a tree with the skeletal components acting as branches. One of the bots steered the trolley and the other three steadied the load. They headed outside via an emergency exit, and Toby followed their progress on a set of large video screens.

  Dr. Narumi said, “We’re video recording every step in this stage. While I don’t expect anything to go wrong, if it does, we’ll have data to help us conduct a detailed analysis.”

  The doctor joined her project team at their work desks where she could listen to their instructions while monitoring the bots. Billie and Toby stood close to the video screens.

  “For Darwin’s sake, I hope this nanite pour succeeds.”

  Billie was holding Toby’s arm. She replied, “He’ll be a very disappointed bunny if it explodes.”