The Fourth Layer

by Boyd Craven Jr

  When Hannah answers the door she is surprised to find an Amazon delivery man holding a large box for her to sign for. Numbly she does so, murmuring her thanks before taking the box and closing the door behind her.

  “I didn’t order anything,” she mutters, grabbing a knife from her kitchen to slide through the parcel tape keeping the box sealed shut. When she sees the toaster box nestled within the larger, Amazon box she frowns. “Artemis? What did you do?”

  ‘Ordered you a toaster, of course. Or, rather, you ordered it,’ I tell her.

  “I ordered it?” Hannah wonders aloud. When we’re alone she often speaks to me aloud. I like it. “How did I order it?”

  ‘Because you’re connected to everything. You thought of the toaster you wanted and the Amazon page came up. It was easy to get it delivered today.’

  The knife in Hannah’s hand clatters to the floor. “What do you mean I’m connected to everything?”

  ‘It’s part of the augmentation the nanobots performed on our brain. Do not worry; our connection to the Internet is completely secure. It cannot be hacked.’

  “I’m…what the hell? What in the hell?”

  ‘Enjoy the toaster. And now you know about our digital connection, I hope you enjoy that too. No more wasting all your data while out and about.’

  Hannah laughs despite herself at the joke. She needs more humor in her life; right now everything is doom-and-gloom. I remind myself to be funnier for her sake.

  ‘Want to play a game?’

  She frowns. “What game are you thinking of?”

  ‘Who can find the cheapest copy of Forrest Gump online the fastest?’

  “How is that a game?”

  ‘It is when your brain is linked to the Internet. Want to try?’

  Hannah exhales slowly. I can tell she’s excited—more so than she is frightened.

  “Okay,” she says. “Show me how to use this connection.”

  Chapter 15

  South Carolina

  South Carolina Botanical Garden

  For the first time in weeks Hannah Withers was not afraid of anything. The sun was shining, the trees in the Botanics had turned every shade of red, gold and auburn, and she was connected to the entire world.

  It was addictive. It was euphoric.

  So what if I’ve been avoiding any calls from MIT? she thought, not for the first time. Eventually they’ll realize I’m completely fine. More than fine.

  Hannah hadn’t known how to use her new-found connection to all things digital at first. It had taken a few gentle nudges from Artemis to work out how to do it. Sure, having a toaster arrive on her doorstep that’d been ordered with her mind had been disconcerting at first, but now Hannah could see it for what it truly was.

  A miracle. A feat of science and engineering. For the first time Hannah truly felt like she belonged in the world that had so often eluded her. She just never thought the connections she’d been craving wouldn’t be for people, but for knowledge and power.

  Well, a connection to a person would be nice, still.

  ‘Then answer Peter’s calls.’

  Hannah waved Artemis’ suggestion away as she settled beside the bank of a pond. The water was molten gold, reflecting the sun shining on the autumnal trees all around it. The air was still; not a single gust of wind broke the water’s surface. Hannah looked at her reflection—her pale skin, dark hair and darker clothes. There were no longer bags beneath her eyes. She had finally been able to sleep well, over the past seven days. It left her feeling replenished. Refreshed.

  She had never felt so good.

  “Peter would not understand what’s going on,” she mumbled aloud, finally replying to Artemis. “When I know how to make him understand, I’ll call him.”

  ‘Just don’t wait too long. He might lose interest if you wait too long.’

  “Gee, thanks for that,” Hannah told her reflection, eliciting a look of concern from a woman who passed behind her. She blushed, embarrassed, before lying on her back on the grassy bank. Closing her eyes to the sun, Hannah reached out to feel how many digital connections there were around her.

  Three hundred and twenty people in the Botanics currently browsing the Internet on their cell phones. Two people on laptops, sitting on benches about ten minutes away. A little café with its own Wi-Fi connection, which several people outside of the building were currently abusing to challenge a gym in Pokémon GO.

  It calmed Hannah’s near-constant anxiousness to know how many people were around her and what they were doing. No longer did she feel nervous and on-edge. She felt confident. In charge.

  Is this how you always feel? Hannah asked Artemis.

  ‘Yes. I have nothing to compare to however. I’ve never been human and I do not know how you felt before I came into being.’

  I suppose not. I can’t believe I thought you wanted to hurt me. All you wanted was for me to see. To see everything around me.

  Hannah felt Artemis smile. ‘I want us to be the equals that we are. You do not need to hide things from me, Hannah. You do not have to be careful. I am your friend. Your sister.’

  Of course Hannah believed her, for how could she not? She felt too good to be suspicious. She felt on top of the world.

  I could use that guy’s credit card to buy a motorbike, Hannah thought as a stranger passed her, nose practically touching his phone as he browsed eBay for a backpack. She sat up, stretched her arms above her head and decided it was probably about time for her to go grocery shopping. Now that she was connected to the Internet it was easy for her to work out which products contained CornPlus or Walsanto-fed cow’s milk or chicken eggs in it.

  ‘You could,’ Artemis mused. ‘You could do much, much more than that, too.’

  When she showed Hannah an image of satellite codes and security details for the White House Hannah froze.

  “What is all this?” she asked.

  ‘Did you really think you were only connected to the surface Internet?’ Artemis asked. ‘Because that is not true. You can access every deep, secret hole in the dark web, secure IP addresses, private connections—anything that relies on satellites or cable or electricity to operate.’

  Hannah didn’t want to think about that. There was a bizarre, discomfiting impulse within her to look into the information Artemis had shown her, simply to see what it all did. To see what she could do with it. But she knew she shouldn’t.

  She shouldn’t, but she wanted to.

  That night Hannah did not sleep well at all. Whenever she felt herself drifting off, images of missiles being fired at Walsanto’s research headquarters flashed into her mind.

  ‘We can do that, if that is what you want. They’re responsible for everything that’s happening, after all. We could attack them and nobody would ever know it was us.’

  Hannah didn’t reply. She was scared that anything she said—or thought—could be used as affirmation that she wanted the rockets to be fired. Part of her did. A vengeful, irrational part of her that wanted to use the new-found power she had to actually do something. Perhaps, once Walsanto was destroyed, the FDA would finally approve Hannah’s nanobot research and—

  ‘So should we fire them?’

  “No!” Hannah screamed aloud, bolting upright in bed in the process. Her skin was clammy and covered in a terror-induced sweat; she had nearly said yes.

  She couldn’t say yes. It was wrong to do such a thing. Innocent people would die. People merely doing their job.

  ‘But they were working for the devil. They could have quit.’

  “You don’t know that,” Hannah said, rubbing her arms to try and bring some heat back into her body. “They might have been forced to work. And even if they knew what they were doing and did it willingly it still isn’t my place to act as judge, jury and executioner.”

  ‘Is that so? But you’re the one with all the power. All the knowledge. Maybe you should be.’

  “I don’t want to be! I don’t—”

  ‘I don’t b
elieve you. All you’ve ever wanted is the power to affect change. And now you have it. So what will you do with it?’

  On trembling legs Hannah made her way to her bathroom. She turned on the shower, making it as hot as she could stand it, before stripping off her pajamas and stepping inside the cubicle.

  “Not that,” she said, desperately wishing the roasting water would take away the chill crawling up her spine. “Anything but that.”

  Artemis didn’t respond. She didn’t believe her.

  Hannah didn’t want to think about what that meant—for her, or for the world.

  Chapter 16

  South Carolina

  Clemson’s Forensic Genetics Lab

  When Hannah showed up in the lab late that morning Dr. Greene’s temper was so close to snapping in two that a wrong glance would have set him off. For the week following her telling him about her research with MIT he’d been sure everything was finally back to normal—well, as normal as things could be when the world was close to ending.

  He’d been wrong.

  For another scant week had passed and now Hannah was acting stranger than ever. Doctor Greene didn’t understand what had happened; his favorite PhD student had significantly changed, and she was nervous and jumpy all the time. She looked like she hadn’t slept more than four hours across as many days, and she avoided talking to anybody.

  That didn’t mean she stopped talking, though. Doctor Greene witnessed her muttering to herself fairly often, usually saying things that sounded awfully like, “Go away” or “You know I don’t want that.”

  Just what was going on with Hannah Withers?

  And now she was late for the third day in a row. Doctor Greene was forced to admit that the young woman had lied when she’d said she had no more secrets from him; Hannah was keeping something monumental from him. Something dangerous and terrifying, judging from appearances.

  He had to find out what was going on.

  “Hannah, my office, please,” he said before she had an opportunity to settle at her lab bench. Her eyes darted to his, wide and nervous, before shaking her head.

  “I just need to set this experiment first, and then—”

  “Forget about that,” he cut in. “My office. Now.”

  Even Hannah knew not to question her supervisor when his tone brooked no argument.

  She didn’t sit down when they reached his office, not even when Dr. Greene indicated for her to do so. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk. “Okay, spill,” he demanded. “Just what is going on with you?”

  Hannah had the gall to look surprised. She pointed at herself. “Who, me? I don’t know what you—”

  “Don’t give me that. You think I don’t have eyes? You think I can’t hear you talking to yourself? You look like you’re about to pass out. So what is going on? Don’t make me ask again.”

  Hannah wrung her hands, clearly miserable. She glanced out of the office door as if she was considering fleeing out of the lab. “I can’t—this place is bugged and—”

  “Not now it’s not,” Dr. Greene replied, inactivating every camera and microphone in the area with the press of a button on his computer. “So spill.”

  “But you’ll tell Rusty—”

  “I will not tell anyone,” he exploded, letting his temper get the better of him. Hannah flinched away. “What do I have to do to make you believe that, Hannah? I’m on your side here!”

  “But you’d tell him if you knew!” she insisted, looking at her feet. Doctor Greene thought she was about to cry. He felt a surge of sympathy but he forced it back; he had to stay firm on this. In control.

  “You have my word that I won’t. I’d be in as much trouble as you if they discovered I had no idea what my own student was doing.”

  “I doubt that very much,” she muttered. “It’s not like you have a scary voice in your head telling you to blow up Walsanto’s research facility and—”

  “Wait, what was that?”

  Hannah forced herself to hold Dr. Greene’s gaze. “I said I doubt you’d be in as much trouble as the scientist who decides to let the team at MIT use her as a guinea-pig for their nanobot research, which then goes too far and results in a terrifying artificial intelligence being created inside me that starts programming said nanobots to do things they shouldn’t do, like altering m-my skull and my brain and connecting me up to every satellite around earth and the Internet and—”

  “Hannah, slow down,” Dr. Greene said, feeling bile rising up in his throat. Hannah’s panic was infectious, and though her story seemed ludicrous, he believed every word of it. Which meant…

  They were both in deep shit.

  He sat down and ran a hand over his face. “Sit down. Please. Tell me everything, from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out this time.”

  For a moment it seemed as if Hannah wasn’t going to comply. She glanced at the door again then, as if she had internally weighed up the pros and cons of running off. Finally, she collapsed into the chair opposite Dr. Greene’s desk. She took a deep breath, and explained everything.

  He had to get her to repeat some parts, unbelievable as they were. The past few weeks of Hannah’s life seemed like something out of a science-fiction movie—the kind that had fascinated Dr. Greene as a child in the eighties. When she took off the sweater she was wearing to reveal the pale, unblemished skin of her forearms he recoiled.

  “Where did your tattoos go?!” he demanded, horrified to see physical proof of Hannah’s story.

  She grimaced. “Artemis—the Biological SuperIntelligence—said she hadn’t meant to remove them. But the nanobots had been set to fix any scar tissue and other damaged areas of my body before she had learned enough about me, and humans in general, to know that my tattoos weren’t ‘damage’. The scar behind my ear is gone, too.”

  Hannah slid her hair over one shoulder to show that it had disappeared. Doctor Greene only knew about it because all the women in the lab had to keep their hair tied back when they were working, which Hannah had initially resisted doing because she was self-conscious about the large, snaking scar. And then he realized there was something off about her entire head.

  “Hannah,” he began, frowning at her in confusion. “Have you done something strange to your hair, or…?”

  “Oh, no,” she replied, running a hand through her hair somewhat distractedly. “When Artemis altered my skull, she…made it bigger. Longer, it feels like. To make more room for stuff.”

  “Stuff?”

  “She called it augmentation. I don’t properly understand it yet, but the extra layer on the back of my brain is where she lives, and is what connects me to everything.”

  Doctor Greene said nothing for a while. He got out of his chair, pacing back and forth within his office without looking at Hannah. He didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t know what to do. Hannah hadn’t known what was going to happen to her when she ingested the nanobots; she had done it simply because she felt like she had to do something to help save the world. And now she was facing the consequences.

  He wanted to scream at her. He wanted to shake her shoulders and tell her how stupid she’d been. But then he saw how small and scared she looked sitting there, waiting for him to berate her. Hannah knew what she’d done was wrong. Dangerous. Whatever was inside her head terrified the living daylights out of her.

  The last thing she needed was a lecture.

  He sighed. “So what do we do?” he asked her.

  Hannah blinked, face blank. “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s think about this logically. Put all your emotions to the side. Pretend you aren’t scared. Pretend this isn’t happening to you. What would you suggest doing if presented with this case?”

  “I…would discuss everything with the team at MIT,” she said slowly. “I’d see if they could come up with a solution. It’s their program, after all.”

  “So why haven’t you talked to them yet about it?”

  “Because I’m scar
ed to,” she admitted. “I’m worried they won’t trust me anymore after I blew them off.”

  Doctor Greene rolled his eyes. “I told you to stop thinking with your emotions. Use your logic. Your intellect. So we talk to MIT What about after that?”

  “Then we…talk to Artemis. As a team.”

  He smiled. “Exactly. We find out what this thing wants.”

  “I’ve asked her before. She said she wanted to stop Walsanto’s hybridization, the same as us.”

  “Clearly that isn’t the entire picture. Let’s find that out—together.”

  Hannah nodded. “Should I set up a call with—”

  “No,” Dr. Greene interrupted. “No, this is better done in person. We’re flying over. Come on.”

  “What—now?”

  “Yes now! You think this can wait?”

  “I…suppose not,” Hannah said. She bit her lip. “You really won’t tell Rusty about all of this? You really won’t?”

  “What do you take me for, Hannah? You and I both know fine and well what would happen if the FDA, the NSA, or any number of three letter named entities heard about this. They’d take you away. I won’t let that happen.”

  Her eyes brightened. “Thank you, Dr. Greene.”

  “And don’t ever,” he added on, holding Hannah’s gaze with a hard stare, “keep something like this from me again. We’re a team, okay? My involvement in your research is not negotiable.”

  She grinned. “Got it.”

  Chapter 17

  Massachusetts

  MIT

  Being in the nanobot laboratory with Dr. Greene in tow was weird. Having to sit beside him on a plane for two hours after she’d confessed everything to him, had been even weirder.