The Quantum Brain (Pulse Science Fiction Series Book 2)

by John Freitas

  “Androids?” Thomas asked.

  “Hope, Dr. Kell. We are going to be selling hope. Hope that we can rebuild. Hope that we are still the dominate species on the planet with the ability to build and use futuristic technology to make our lives better. We will be selling androids to individuals, companies, and governments around the world, but they will be buying hope from us.”

  “We should be locking down now like Mr. Hall said. The wave will destroy everything that we build otherwise, sir.”

  Miles Decker closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them again slowly. “We will lock down everything, but we are going to be in full wartime production right up until that moment. Half the world will get crushed. The other half is likely to fly away. Fortunately, we have facilities all over the planet. We don’t know which ones will still be standing after this is all over. Some will be destroyed. Some may be washed away by mega tsunamis. But some will still be standing. Whichever ones are still standing will be filled to the brim with industrial and domestic androids ready to be uploaded and sent out to customers. The Q2 project will be a go immediately after the world starts picking up the pieces.”

  “All those people in all those places around the world need to be preparing for this wave,” Dr. Kell said.

  “Again, I am not asking opinions,” Miles Decker said. “If you want to send our workers in third world countries back to huts and overcrowded slums for this event instead of letting them work and lock down in our stronger, state of the art facilities, then you are the monster and not I. Do you have any other questions or concerns, Dr. Kell?”

  Thomas Kell took a deep breath as he leaned against the wall and said, “I do.”

  A tight smile pulled at Miles Decker’s lips. “Well, I can’t wait to hear, Dr. Kell. Tell me, please.”

  “Sir, we can build all the androids you like, but we don’t have a Q2 ready for any of them. The Q1 is still unique. We haven’t made more yet and frankly I think you realize we can’t make one before this wave comes much less reach mass production,” Thomas Kell said.

  “I’m aware, Doctor. We will have the androids ready. We will perfect the Q2 after this wave passes. We will mass produce them and we will have androids to put them in. The massive profits from the Q2 project will set us up to dominate the world economy for generations. We will be working on Q3 before you know it. I have faith in you, Doctor, but I need you to begin right away.”

  Thomas nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “I will be following your progress closely.” Miles Decker reached out and the crooked screen went to blue before going black.

  Calvin Hall turned toward Dr. Kell. “That Mark Spencer fellow is on his way here now, I assume. I’m going to need you to keep an eye on him the entire time he is working on our vaults and systems. I don’t trust him.”

  Thomas Kell stared at the floor and blinked. After a few beats, he said, “I need to send people around the world away from their families to build mindless androids for CDR on the strong chance that they and everything we had them build with the final days of their lives will be destroyed. That’s what I’m about to do, Mr. Hall. That’s what I will do while my brother …”

  Calvin Hall cleared his throat. “The vaults will be what secure the projects CDR cares about most, Doctor. We need to know that everything is done correctly.”

  “Because that is what matters.”

  “If you could get the other business underway quickly, I want eyes on Mark Spencer while he is here. It’s important, Doctor.”

  Thomas shook his head and stepped out the door. “I have to go.”

  “What? Where?” Calvin Hall chased after him.

  Thomas Kell took out his phone as he moved up the hallway toward the elevators. “I need to see after my family.”

  “Don’t walk away from this,” Calvin Hall shouted. “You have responsibilities.”

  “I know I do. You can watch Mark Spencer by yourself for now.”

  The elevator intoned its arrival and Thomas stepped in without looking back at the chief of security for the CDR headquarters.

  11

  Mark Spencer carried his tools up beyond the metal detectors on the ground floor and waited. The security guard approached him again. “Listen, we have a policy and it is nonnegotiable.”

  “Shut up,” Mark said.

  “Excuse me.” The man towered over the top of Mark.

  Mark sneered and looked away. “You said you were calling Calvin Hall. So, call him. I’m here to do a job I was ordered to do that only I can do and you have no time to hire anyone else to do it. Me doing this for CDR is the only nonnegotiable, so stop wasting both our time by making me talk to you. Bring down Calvin and I’ll let him know how it is going to work.”

  The guard was fuming, but stepped back away from Mark.

  Calvin walked toward the detectors from the direction of the express elevator. “Tell me how it’s going to be then, Mr. Spencer.”

  The other security guard turned away and returned to the detectors without waiting to see how the exchange was going to play out.

  “Take me up to where I’m supposed to work,” Mark said.

  “You have to leave your gear here and use CDR equipment,” Calvin Hall said.

  Mark shook his head. “There is no time. I can do the work that needs to be done using the gear I have. I do not have time to relearn on a bunch of subpar CDR stuff bought off the shelf for your IT guys that aren’t fit to do what Miles Decker needs done.”

  Calvin Hall shook his head. “That’s how it has to be. Leave your outside gear here, please.”

  “Call Miles Decker and tell him you are turning me out because I need my own gear to do this job in the time it is needed,” Mark said. “Call him and tell him your ego has gotten in the way of completing the task Decker wants done. You are out of time, I am your only option, and I’m done dealing with you.”

  “You get paid to do what you are told,” Calvin said.

  “Wrong,” Mark said. “You get paid to do what you are told. I get paid because I’m the only one that can do what I do. I know that is tough on your ego, but I have no time to coddle you. Take me to where my work is needed or call Decker and tell him why he can’t have what he wants.”

  “The rules are here for a reason,” Calvin said.

  “The rules are there for people like you,” Mark said. “People like me tell you what I need in order to do the job only I can do for the only guy in this company whose opinion actually matters. But you decide what Miles Decker gets today, Calvin. Did he tell you to do what you could or did he tell you exactly what he expects to be done?”

  “Follow me then, Mark.” Calvin turned and they entered the express elevator together.

  As they rode up, Mark asked, “Is Dr. Kell joining us for this security work?”

  “Just the two of us,” Calvin said.

  “Where is Dr. Kell? I’m supposed to work through him. His opinion on the security actually matters, you know.”

  Calvin’s jaw worked, but he continued to stare forward. “Dr. Kell’s location and activities at the moment are none of your business, Mr. Spencer. As you demanded, you have all that you need to do your job, so it is time to shut up and do it.”

  “Don’t be sour, Calvin,” Mark said. “You should find a way to find joy in your work – even menial tasks like those assigned to you.”

  The doors opened and they stepped out. Calvin used a security card to lead them through several sealed doors. Mark made a mental note of the turns they made. He looked around and noted the locations of windows beyond security doors.

  Calvin stopped them in front of a bank of locked, vault doors. Mark turned and looked up at security cameras watching the doors and halls. He would have no trouble seeing exactly which one he needed to open later once they moved “It” in the chamber up behind one of these heavy doors. He had what he needed in the car to see that.

  Mark began unloading equipment from his backpack and belt onto the tile floor. Calvin crosse
d his arms and leaned back against one of the walls across from the vaults. Mark paused and looked up to see Calvin glaring across and down at him.

  “Is something wrong, Calvin?”

  “Just doing my job – same as you.”

  “You want to run and get me a soda or something?”

  “No, I’ll be watching you the entire time,” Calvin said. “Then, I’ll walk you right back out of the building. The faster you finish the better it will be for all of us.”

  Mark smiled as he opened the panel on the keypad next to him. “These have all been disabled as requested?”

  “Yes,” Calvin said.

  “Thank you.” Mark attached his clips to the leads and powered on his equipment. “The CDR system is set to receive new codes according to Mr. Decker’s specifications?”

  “I believe so.”

  “I hear hesitation,” Mark said. “Are you lying or you don’t understand what I am asking you?”

  “I know what you are asking and I believe the system is set like you said,” Calvin said.

  “I’m not sure why you insist on watching,” Mark said. “Even if I was inclined to try something, what makes you think you have the capability of knowing what I am doing once you see it?”

  “Just do your job,” Calvin said.

  Mark finished and closed up before moving to the next lock. He used his left hand to do the basic work on the tablet, but opened a second screen on the device still down in the open pocket of his backpack with the other hand.

  His personal feed of CDR’s system came up. He adjusted something up inside the open lock. Mark cut his eyes to look at Calvin Hall in the periphery. He had drawn the security chief’s attention away from the pack. Mark turned his head down toward the device out in the open on the floor, but he moved his eyes to look in the open pocket of the pack.

  There was no data coming from “It” down in the labs. They had shut off that experiment. Mark assumed they were preparing to move the chamber up into one of these vaults once the locks were updated. With the integration into the CDR main system, Mark assumed that Miles Decker wanted to be able to override the locks from wherever in the world he was. Decker would now be able to shutdown the keypads and keep everyone out or open them himself. With the new upgrades, Mark would be able to do the same and that is what really mattered.

  Mark unhooked and closed up. He moved to the third keypad and hooked into that one as well. Calvin Hall moved down the wall to watch Mark. Mark Spencer adjusted his backpack on the floor so he could see in the pocket again as he applied the leads inside the locks.

  He was running a scan on the security locks on the doors leading to the vaults.

  Mark had seen the video uplink between Miles Decker and Dr. Kell with Calvin Hall. Thomas Kell had looked so nervous. Calvin Hall appeared rigid and hostile as ever, but Decker had put Hall in his place right from the beginning of the conversation. That was when Mark knew he had an opening to push Calvin around and do what he needed to do. Mark had rewound and watched that part three times before he left for CDR finally.

  He had not watched the video live, but after the Russian had saved him from flying away in the last minor wave, Mark decided to check and see what there was to find out about his new mission. The video call had been very telling. Decker’s files told even more.

  Miles Decker was in some sort of bunker. He was sending his soldiers and pawns around the world to continue fighting and working as he hid in his hole waiting for it all to be over. That was typical of the wealthy, Mark thought. They saw their power as the right to wield sway over the life and death of others. Mark understood power, but he saw his power as real. He had come in and conquered CDR’s systems from the inside. His power was legitimate because he took it instead of inheriting it. He did not feel bad about stealing from a man like Miles Decker or a company like CDR at all.

  The Q2 project was almost as interesting as “It.” As far as Mark could tell, CDR was planning to unleash an army of robots around the world. They were going to conquer the world in their own way. They were planning on coming out on top once all this was over. To be fair, Mark was planning exactly the same thing.

  In his feed inside the dark pocket of his backpack, Mark saw that data from the Q1 was being fed to all the factories around the world. As they were pumping out body after body of their lines of androids, the engineers were also working feverishly on a new operating system based on “It.”

  Mark shook his head as he moved down to the fourth lock. Calvin Hall stayed in position and was now behind him where Mark could not see him out of the corner of his eye. He felt sweat on his forehead and an itchy rash around the base of his neck.

  There was no way they were going to be able to complete Q2 in time. They were going to work right up until the gravitational wave without success and then there was no telling what would still be standing after it was all over.

  Of course, Mark was sure no one else was going to have time to discover the cause of the gravitational waves much less be able to calculate the final one in time. They had though. Maybe CDR was going to pull off a technological miracle before the deadline too.

  Mark Spencer started to wonder if they would not be able to find him too once that started looking for who took “It.”

  Calvin Hall spoke behind Mark and Mark startled at the sound of Calvin’s voice. “Are you putting in a backdoor for yourself, Mr. Spencer? Is that what little weasel hackers like you do?”

  Mark shut off the second device inside the pocket of his backpack. He looked over his shoulder at Calvin Hall with the big man’s arms crossed and a disgusted smile twisted over his lips.

  Mark looked away and moved down to the fifth lock to continue the process.

  Calvin spoke again. “I took the liberty of looking into you. I know what you are. You are a fraud. You are a mole that gets into companies and uses that access to leak off profit.”

  Mark swallowed and braced himself as he kept his back to Calvin Hall. “You should go report all your ironclad evidence to your superiors. It shouldn’t be difficult since everyone in this building including myself is your superior in every way.”

  “Maybe I will report you then,” Calvin said.

  “Stop deflecting,” Mark said.

  “Excuse me.”

  “You heard me,” Mark said. “I am busy with actual work, you troll. I don’t have time to suffer fools. If you really looked me up, you found nothing of the sort, so shut up and let me work.”

  “Because you hide your tracks so well?”

  “Because there is nothing to find. This is a situation where what you do is meaningless. CDR has nothing I want except my fee which I’m sure is well over a year’s salary for you which I have been paid twice now in as many weeks. You are looking for trouble because trouble is all that gives your life meaning. You are upset because I am a guy the company needs. They need me so desperately that I can walk over the top of you to come do my important job like you aren’t even there. I know that bothers you and ruffles your feathers, but that’s just how it is. I wish Dr. Kell was here. He is much more pleasant than you.”

  “Maybe he does not see you for what you really are,” Calvin Hall said.

  “He is more pleasant than you because his job actually matters, so he does not feel the need to flex and present the way you apparently do.”

  “Let’s get finished up here so that we can get out of each other’s lives,” Calvin said.

  Mark closed up his equipment. “I need to go down to the servers now.”

  “Why?” Calvin asked.

  Mark sighed. “I’m doing what Miles Decker needs done. I could try to explain how all of this works and why, but the gravitational wave would be here and long gone by then. It’s above your pay grade and intellect. Take me down to the servers now, Calvin.”

  They turned and moved back toward the elevators.

  12

  Thomas Kell shoved more clothes into the duffle bag on his bed in his apartment. He rifled th
rough to check his toiletries again. This made no sense. He couldn’t wrap his brain around any of it. He supposed it didn’t matter what he had packed in his bag once the world flew apart. How did one pack for the apocalypse anyway?

  Thomas took out his phone and tried Seth’s number again as he walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. As it rang, Thomas lifted more pictures off his wall and shoved them into a low cabinet with other loose ends. He closed the cupboard and wrapped the rubber band around the handles to bind them closed. He had no idea if they would stay closed.

  Voicemail picked up again and Thomas said, “Seth, as soon as you get a signal, as soon as you hear this, call me, for goodness sake. I can try to get to them too. If you are trapped somewhere in traffic, get to a secure location and let me try. I know I’m closer. I just need their address or directions. Please, let me help. I know I have let you down before, but I will help with this. I left work and I’m ready to go. If you’ll just go somewhere safe, I’ll try. I promise. Call me. Call me back now and let me know where you are.”

  Thomas hung up and pocketed his phone again. He looked around the barren apartment. His eyes darted from side to side looking for anything loose or sharp that might fly loose when the wave came.

  He also tried to think where he would have an address for his niece and her mother. Thomas thought she might have remarried, but he couldn’t remember. He wanted to say they lived in Nebraska, but he didn’t know for sure. He probably couldn’t find his brother’s address in Arizona if he had to.

  Thomas walked over to a standing cabinet and undid the latch. He flipped through notebooks without finding anything useful. He had scientific details, but nothing on his family.