Probe
Page 41
Enzo entered Paulo’s office without knocking, to find Paulo standing at the big picture window staring north toward Springdale Golf Club on the campus of Princeton University.
Paulo kept looking out on the landscape.
“Have you ever walked the campus, Enzo? Taken a hike in the early morning light through Springdale, then along the river? I find myself in great admiration of humans and humanity when I take that path. When they create great institutions with inspired motivations and a flourish of language that lifts the spirit and promises a better, kinder, and more equitable world.
“Obama knew that, understood that, and tapped into the soaring expectations of the better natures that mankind frequently expresses, but so rarely achieves. His was driven by a desire, an instinct, to guide the hopes and aspirations of his people through their very own efforts to make the world better.
“But then, the haters took over. They tried to destroy him, but they didn’t. They could not. You cannot destroy that which exists not in the body, but the mind. His nature will endure; his body will not.
“Now there is a human we could have dealt with. There was a modern human that we could have trusted.”
Paulo paused in reflection.
“But then Princeton students leave the incredibly positive confines of an incredibly beautiful campus and head to Wall Street or K Street; Geneva or London; Beijing or Tokyo. What did they learn in those hallowed halls that became so at variance with the promise of Princeton University? How can they be so changeable, so fickle about things that matter? They are so smart, so clever as sentient beings and so well-qualified to understand and do what is right for all life on this planet. But then it becomes material; how do I get my cut; how do I move ahead of that brilliant woman from Harvard or Yale or Penn? What can I do to win?
Paulo paused thoughtfully.
“It isn’t real; it’s a zero-sum game measured by countries seeking dominance. And it is a zero- sum game played by humans with the planet. Mankind is moving in the wrong direction and it is the fruit of their genius that is taking them there. Even I once believed that science and technology would bring humanity, and the Collective, to new and greater heights of progress and enlightenment. Now I fear that we are on a course that we can no longer alter. I despair about our collective futures. And I despair about you too, Enzo. You gave an order in my name. You gave an order in direct contradiction of my express wishes. Why?”
“Which is the wish to which you refer, brother? The wish you expressed a year ago, after the Library was stolen, that any human in the vicinity of any of the Great Libraries were to be dealt with harshly and eliminated or your express wish to leave the Human and his family alone? And did you identify that Human and his family so that directive could be carried out? What if the Human showed up at your home and threatened your wife and children? Would you know who he was? And if you defended your home with lethal force, would you then instruct me to kill you, and ostracize your family?”
There was silence.
Enzo pressed gently, “Well, brother, would you?”
Paulo turned slowly, and Enzo couldn’t tell whether his brother was going to kill him, embrace him, or simply dismiss him. Enzo had thought long, and hard about how to handle his brother and what to say. Paulo could be convinced and persuaded, but he wasn’t a fool. A clever argument along wouldn’t save his life, no matter how well crafted.
“So, Enzo what you are telling me is that you elected to follow the former directive rather than the latter. Is that correct?”
“What I’m saying, brother mine, is that I made a decision on the facts as I then knew them. I will grant you that nuance isn’t my strong suit. Nothing I knew then, on short notice and without being present on scene, suggested that one of the humans then present was the Human. We still don’t know that. While I get that he is furious; it could also just be bluster and disinformation to throw us off track. Your fury, brother, is nothing more than 20/20 hindsight. I am at your disposal as is my life, as well as that of my family’s; we are all in your hands. Do what you must. I willingly submit to your authority.”
“Get out of my sight, Enzo. Get out of here and don’t return unless asked. Do so immediately.”
Enzo knew he had dodged a bullet, and any other Gens would now be dead. Doubtless Paulo didn’t believe his story and probably believed it was just another intemperate and rash decision by his baby brother. If he couldn’t be sure, however, Paulo would temper his actions and not use extreme measures. Not with Enzo, anyway.
His brother was weak, thought Enzo. The next decision controverting his brother’s authority would need to be successful and well-reasoned. Assuming there was a next time, of course. Enzo was far from out of the woods for this transgression, but then his brother had become somewhat quixotic. He could be just like the humans he professed to loathe.
When Enzo entered Paulo’s office, he thought he was alone with his brother. Certainly, there was no one else present. But they weren’t alone, though Enzo was oblivious to the other man’s presence.
Paulo had been on the phone with one of his most trusted colleagues; a man so close to Paulo and his family that most considered him to be Paulo’s only true “brother”, confidant and advisor. Closer even than blood, if that was possible in Gens world. A man from the old country, steeped in the old ways, and Paulo’s fixer of first resort. He was a former Captain, a regional leader, and a man who, by right should have been on the Great Council. And he was political, as the humans would have defined it. But Paulo needed him near and available. Council membership would have prevented that and required him to live elsewhere, close to his region of origin.
Here was where Paulo needed him, so here was where he would be.
***
“What should I do with him?” Paulo asked aloud when Enzo left, closing the door behind him.
“What you did with him just now, of course. He may still be of some value to us, to you, later. Let’s not let outrage rule your passions or your intellect. This drama, our drama, has not even begun to run its course. He has his supporters, intimates. Let’s find a way to use him and them.
“You’re right of course,” said Paulo. I think I’ll send him to Brazil for a while. Then bring him back. Perhaps by then we’ll know what to do with him.”
***
Her phone rang, so she left the room she was in with her husband and two of their children.
“Yes, what is it? You know better than to ring me up here.”
“I do. Could not be helped. His brother has just been sent away and suspicion has been cast on him as a traitor. You can use that now and use him. Just as you planned.”
“Don’t call me here again. It isn’t safe.”
“Sorry love. I just thought you needed to know.”
Chapter 12
Adam said, “We need to destroy and/or alter their accumulated research, we need to punish Paulo for his duplicitous behavior and retard or eliminate all of their research activities. And, at the same time, we need to continue to prevent them from discovering our true identities. This we can accomplish in two parts. But before we do part two, we need to accomplish part one. And that will take some time and a lot of input from you, Alana.”
“What do you need? I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Adam began, “I assume that all research is on the Gens servers in each of the locations dedicated to basic research. Would you agree?”
“Yes. And there would be a backup of all their files either on a separate server, or maybe even in the Cloud. Encrypted, no doubt. But stored somewhere. If they aren’t doing this at a minimum, then they’re complete fools.”
“Good. As you know, we have breached their security and have gained access to all their computers and servers in their air gapped intranet. We can do the same in each one of their research facilities. We have determined that their data, and the research that enters their system, is then uploaded to some othe
r centralized server for distribution. From that central location, it’s disseminated to all other locations. They believe that the air gaped systems in Princeton and Chicago protects them from security breaches and outside access. And they would be correct except for the little bugs we installed in their computer systems. We can upload computer viruses or alter data at will.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“First, we let them disseminate the altered data throughout their multiple, and redundant systems in the US and around the world. Once completed, we infect their systems and data with a virus or viruses that will destroy what they have. We need to be thorough. If they have a good backup, better than we think, and defeat these measures, then we will need to have another swing at the piñata.”
“Why alter the data first? Why not destroy the data right off the bat?”
“Because we might not get everything. Maybe some scientist keeps his own data separate along with copies of everything else. We change the data, make it useless. We let the virus and the data percolate and brew. Then we infect and destroy everything. Bring down every system and databases. Get all their basic research, papers, plans; the whole shebang. Then the only clean data in existence will be what we have stolen from them and have on our servers. And we won’t be sharing, but we will be analyzing.”
“Then what?”
“Then we hunt down their scientists and destroy their physical facilities. All of them everywhere. At least everyone we know that exists. We may not accomplish everything we want, but it won’t matter; we will set them back many years at a minimum. We must stop their E-5 research before they have a chance to complete it. The Serum project too. We need to demoralize them and give them no option but to negotiate and come to terms.”
Misti said, “Alana, can you do any of this? And Adam, can we alter the data so that it’s useless without them knowing?”
Adam said, “Yes, I think I can. Alana?”
“Me too. Easy to summarize, but a bit harder to do in the real world. But yes, I can do everything Adam suggests. With enough time and a little help from you, Adam.”
“Then you shall have it. That leaves you Bethy. Can we have teams assembled to attack the physical facilities that the Gens operate? There’re seven here in the US, and another eleven around the world. The attacks need to happen simultaneously.”
Edward said, “Friday the thirteenth all over again. This can work. And we need to remain stealthy, operate in secrecy. Adam, where do you suggest we stage and coordinate our attacks?”
“We start it all here, I mean in Barrows, then we transfer everything to the Manor. Hannah will continue her work in finding the Gens Libraries, determining how many of them there are as well as where they are, and discover the rest of their secrets. But we will need an estimate of the number of domestic and foreign teams involved in these tasks. That task will fall to you Bethy, as well as Dad, Rod and Cindy. We have no time to lose.”
Noki asked, “What about me? What can I do?”
“You will be the interface between teams and tasks; basically, what you did for Hannah in London. That means you will have unfettered access to everything and everybody, here in Barrows Bay and in the UK.”
“I’m fat, slow and I pee a lot.”
“No; you’re pregnant and beautiful. And, you can have a work station close to a bathroom.”
***
Alana and Adam decided to have a work session while the rest of the group discussed their own projects amongst themselves.
Bethy’s contacts and inside knowledge were beginning to pay off for Edward and the group as she had found new and faster ways to move people and materiel around the US and the world. She also had excellent contacts in the security community among active players as well as those who had left government service for the private sector. Edward and Bethy were beginning to get a handle on tasks and timing as well as projecting specific staffing requirements.
The Gens computer project would still take anywhere from weeks to months to plan and execute as the tech team would need some time to accomplish their tasks without detection and in the correct order.
First, Alana would have to get into the Gens systems and poke around to see how best to create mischief. The goal was to first spoil the data worldwide by altering basic research, including any copies of data held off system and possibly at homes or in the cloud. The team would let this go on for a short while, perhaps a month or so, to make sure all data could be corrupted when updates of data or results were posted to all systems in the Gens computer world.
Then she would have to work with Adam to create a program that would alter the data sufficiently to make it unusable and unrecoverable. Then, finally, Alana would infect the systems to make them crash.
Shortly after that was accomplished, it was Adam’s idea to attack the physical facilities and destroy them. Even if they didn’t get every server and all data, the Gens scientists would be set back months if not years, particularly when their physical plant went down.
It didn’t take them long to develop their plans and each set about to do their jobs. Alana systematically broke into the Gens server systems while Adam wrote code to Alana’s specs to methodically, day by day, change and alter the raw data they had compiled through years of research.
On a specific date, these programs would be uploaded. Some months afterward, a virus would be introduced to crash their systems worldwide.
Then, Adam would have some of his revenge for Arizona.
Chapter 13
Eaton Gray was camped in one of the wilderness areas of Zion National Park in Utah. As a member and employee of the Federal Wilderness Project, he could avoid the normal hassles of applying for a permit to camp. Although nominally paid by the FWP, it was the staggering amount of one dollar per year. The only reason he accepted that amount was, so he could be on the books of the FWP as an employee, meaning he could camp, hike and study any park or wilderness area in US National Park and Wildlife system.
Eaton Gray didn’t need the money or the job. But he did need to live the life he had long ago set out for himself – being as close to nature as he possibly could. He had found inspiration as a child in the exploits of early American conservationists who had done so much to set aside large tracts of lands for protection and conservation.
Seven years earlier, his parents and then living grandparents were driving from San Francisco to LA for a weekend getaway when they were met head on by a tractor trailer that crossed the line of the rural road they traveled. The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel from too many hours driving to meet impossible schedules imposed by the large chain retailer for whom he worked.
The settlement was huge as was his inheritance. Eaton was an only son and an only grandson of his father, a neurosurgeon and his grandfather, a retired neurosurgeon. His mother and grandmother were from well to do families and had themselves invested prudently over the years.
He was now wealthy enough to avoid working for anyone or doing anything he didn’t wish to avidly pursue. Wildlife conservation and wilderness preservation were his twin passions, so the FWP was his employer of choice.
Whether desert or mountain didn’t matter to him, but the freedom and peace he felt camping alone for weeks on end allowed him to think.
To think. Undistracted by noise – the constant drone of noise in all forms from urban living.
No noise, no schedule and no deadlines. Just pristine nature as God intended it and as the US Federal government permitted through set aside legislation.
Today he was camped not far from the headwaters of a small stream some thirty miles or so away from the tourist area of Zion National Park. He had been in the area for a long while studying the biology of the immediate surroundings of the underground river that had bubbled to the surface not far from his camp. He was supposed to stay a few days but decided he had heard his instructions incorrectly and decided to stay a few weeks. That was several months ago.
Probably fortunate he hadn’t.
Eaton had begun hearing faint plaintive noises in the night, not unlike the sounds of an animal trapped by a poacher in a spring trap. Left to die a horrible death, the result of trapping was neither a pretty sight nor anything to which he thought any human being should want to admit. He decided he would break camp at first light and go see if there was an unfortunate creature anywhere caught in the rubble of the disturbance.
As he followed an old deer trail from his camp to the site of the landslide, the noises he had heard grew louder. Strange noises he thought, sounds he didn’t recognize from previous experience. Like a person, he thought; almost melodic.
Eaton followed the sounds he heard like a map until be spotted the unfortunate creature, buried up to its neck in dirt and debris, pinned between two boulders. The thing was lucky not to have been crushed.
He approached cautiously but what he saw he wasn’t exactly prepared for.
It was a woman.
At least it looked like a woman, face cut and bruised, gashes in her scalp and blood trickling out of every opening above her shoulders. It was clearly a woman, he thought, but she looked different. Like she was wearing theatrical makeup from some B-flick monster movie. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t make a sound. But she was alive, for sure, as he could see the irregular cadence of breathing through her nostrils.