by John Akers
“As I was saying, the progression to large, stationary populations led to a number of social changes,” Alethia said. “One was our increasing shift to specialization of labor, which produced products and services of higher quality. This also led to the concepts of ownership, bartering, and of course, stealing.”
“The concept of social status became much more important and refined as well. In the large city-states, formalized societal stratifications developed with kings, queens, and priests at the top, military leaders and administrators below them, then traders and the various craftsmen. At the bottom were slaves, a logical, albeit morally repugnant extension of the concept of ownership. Of course, the idea must have existed for much longer, but like stealing, slavery was an impractical concept when living a migratory lifestyle. But with the shift to a stationary existence and the development of technology such as metallurgy, it became possible to create tools to restrain other people, thus enabling slavery to be put into practice. And it was—all over the world.”
Their viewpoint rose up and then forward, through a window on the third-floor of a building. Inside, a man in a robe was hunched over a large clay tablet. He pressed a stick with a flattened tip into the clay repeatedly, leaving a variety of wedge-shaped markings in neatly ordered rows.
“A little over 5,000 years ago, people living near the Tigris and Euphrates developed cuneiform, the first formal writing system,” said Alethia. “Initially developed for purposes of recording barter exchanges, this was the most significant technological development since the invention of agriculture 5,000 years earlier. For the first time, humans could transmit knowledge remotely from one person to another with great accuracy. Although the skill of writing was initially confined to priests and others at the top echelons of society, it set the stage for information to be disseminated much faster, farther, and more accurately than ever before.”
Suddenly, Alethia, now smiling, turned to face him.
“Congratulations,” she said. “You’re halfway through the Story of Man.”
Chapter 47
Monday, March 19, 4:27 PM ET
U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigations
Precedence: Immediate
To: All Divisions
All Field Offices
All Legal Attachés
From: Washington, D.C.
Approved by: SAC Peter Reynolds
Drafted by: SA Cheryl Anders
Case ID #: 736-LQ-232739
Title: CHAOTICACV
MAJOR CASE 429
OO: SAN FRANCISCO
Synopsis:
COMPUTER VIRUS “CHAOTICA” CAUSING MALFUNCTIONS IN INTERNET DEVICES HAS CAUSED AN ESTIMATED 65,535 DEATHS AND 250,000 INJURIES ACROSS U.S. VIRUS NOW GLOBAL. NO SUSPECTS. RECOMMEND REDIRECTING ALL ACTIVE PERSONNEL TO CASE.
Details:
ON SUNDAY, MARCH 11, THE COMPUTER VIRUS “CHAOTICA” ATTACKED ITS FIRST VICTIM, JERRY CUNNINGHAM OF LOS ALTOS, CA. OVER A PERIOD OF 5 DAYS, MR. CUNNINGHAM COMPLAINED OF MALFUNCTIONING DEVICES IN HIS HOME. LAST FRIDAY, MARCH 16, HE WAS STRUCK AND KILLED BY AN AUTOMATED CAR. SINCE THEN, MILLIONS OF DEVICES HAVE BEGUN MALFUNCTIONING AROUND THE WORLD. THE FULL SCOPE OF DEVICES THAT HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED BY THE VIRUS IS UNKNOWN.
COMPUTER FORENSICS SPECIALISTS FROM EVERY BUREAU BRANCH HAVE BEEN REASSIGNED TO THIS CASE IN AN EFFORT TO CHARACTERIZE AND QUARANTINE THE VIRUS. TO DATE, THE ONLY SUCCESS HAS BEEN AROUND CHARACTERIZATION. THE VIRUS INSTALLS ITSELF AT THE KERNEL LEVEL OF A DEVICE’S OPERATING SYSTEM, WHERE IT IS INVISIBLE TO STANDARD COMMERCIAL ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS. THE VIRUS USES SENSORS FROM ANY INFECTED DEVICES IN THE VICINITY TO DETERMINE WHEN INDIVIDUALS ARE NEARBY, THEN USES ITS KERNEL-LEVEL ACCESS TO OVERRIDE NORMAL DEVICE PARAMETERS AND CAUSE THE DEVICES TO MALFUNCTION IN WHATEVER WAY MAXIMIZES THE LIKELIHOOD AND SEVERITY OF INJURY.
THE VIRUS APPEARS TO TARGET SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS, ALTHOUGH IN THE PAST 24 HOURS THIS APPEARS TO BE CHANGING. ORIGINALLY THE VIRUS WAS PASSED FROM ONE PERSON TO ANOTHER ONLY WHEN SOMEONE CONTACTED A TARGETED INDIVDUAL, PARTICULARLY FOR PURPOSES OF PROVIDING ASSISTANCE. THIS BEHAVIOR RESULTED IN THE NEW PERSON BECOMING A TARGET. HOWEVER, IT NOW APPEARS THAT CONTACT CAN BE VIRTUAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL. IN THE PAST 24 HOURS, SEVERAL INSTANCES HAVE BEEN REPORTED OF A TARGETED PERSON’S ENTIRE SOCIAL NETWORK BECOMING INFECTED IF THAT PERSON SHOULD POST A GENERAL REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE. OTHER TRANSMISSIONS HAVE OCCURRED BY PEOPLE POSTING EMAILS ASKING OTHERS IF THEY NEED ASSISTANCE. HOWEVER, NO UNIVIZ, NOR THE UNIVIZ NETWORK, APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN DIRECTLY COMPROMISED SO FAR.
IT IS BELIEVED THE ATTACKS ARE BEING COORDINATED BY A PRIVATE NETWORK OF SUPERCOMPUTERS, ALTHOUGH THE PHYSICAL LOCATION OF THE NETWORK NODES HAVE NOT YET BEEN IDENTIFIED.
TO DATE, PEOPLE’S ONLY PROTECTION APPEARS TO BE TO 1) DISCONNECT ANY INFECTED DEVICES FROM THEIR POWER SOURCE, AND 2) AVOID ANY INFECTED DEVICES THAT HAVE NOT YET BEEN DISCONNECTED.
THE BUREAU IS WORKING WITH EVERY MAJOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY AROUND THE WORLD, AS WELL AS WITH MAJOR COMPUTER SECURITY FIRMS, TO HALT THE SPREAD OF VIOLENCE AND FIND A WAY TO QUARANTINE THE VIRUS. PLEASE SEND ANY INFORMATION TO THE CENTRAL BUREAU: CHAOTICACV.
Chapter 48
Monday, 6:15 AM PT
After spending the rest of the day unsuccessfully trying to pick up the submarine’s trail or deduce its destination, Cevis had finally fallen asleep, defeated and despondent. The enormity of his failure, and the possible exposure of all the work he’d done had left an acrid residue on his psyche that was still there in the morning. He’d slept fitfully and woke up well before his alarm went off. He got out of bed feeling empty and dreading what the day would bring.
He put his Univiz on and checked to see if Oreste had miraculously come back online. He hadn’t, nor was there any message from him. For what seemed like the hundredth time, he asked Cyrus to locate Pax, but the answer was the same. “I’m sorry, Mr. Pierson, but I haven’t received a tracking signal for Mr. Pax yet.” Cevis punched the bed in helpless frustration.
He noticed Emma Kirkland had sent him a message just a few minutes earlier. Ignoring the message, he simply called her back.
“Hello, Cevis.” Her voice was thin and uncertain. “Have you heard from him?”
“Hi, Emma. Unfortunately, I haven’t. I take it no one else has either?”
“No! Oh, Cevis, I’ve been worried sick all night thinking about his maybe being hurt or kidnapped or who knows what?”
“Calm down, Emma,” said Cevis, despite his own growing sense of desperation. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. It’s still entirely possible there’s a perfectly benign explanation for all of this.”
“I want to believe that,” said Emma, “but it’s just not like him to cut off all contact like this. I feel in my heart that something bad has happened.” She paused momentarily, then said, “I think it’s time to let the executive team know and file a missing person report with the police.”
Cevis knew the UV recordings of everything they were saying now would be replayed and analyzed later by the police and FBI, so he assumed a tone of appropriate resignation. “I agree, Emma. That seems the sensible thing to do at this point, now that it’s been more than 48 hours. Perhaps…” His voice trailed off.
“What?” asked Emma.
“I don’t know. Perhaps we should have contacted them yesterday. I guess I just didn’t believe something could have happened to him.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” she said. “I’ve been feeling the same way, and when I spoke with Jean, agh, there I go again, what a spy I’d make. I spoke with Oreste’s colleague yesterday after talking to you, and he felt we should wait until the morning as well. But as soon as I woke up and saw Oreste was still offline, I was sure something was wrong.”
“I agree. I think it’s time to let the executive team know Oreste’s missing and have them contact the police.”
“I will, Cevis. Thanks for your help.”
“Of course. Call me back if there’s anything I can do to help.”
Cevis ended the call and headed downstairs in a daze. As always, Risi was waiting for him.
“Good morning, Mr. Pierson!” she said in her usual cheerful demeanor. But the next moment her tone changed. “Oh, Mr. Pierson, you look as if you haven’t slept all night. Is something the matter?”
My cook, maid, and therapist, all in one. “It’s nothing, Risi,” he said. “Just some trouble with work.”
“Well, you just sit yourself down, and we’ll make those problems go away with some Belgian waffles! How does that sound?”
Cevis hadn’t eaten since breakfast the previous day, and he realized he was starving. “That sounds wonderful, Risi, thank you.”
While waiting for breakfast, out of habit, Cevis began processing the items in his inbox. Suddenly, he sat bolt upright and slammed both hands down on the tabletop.
What if Oreste had lost access to his UV and tried to contact him a different way?
If he had, it would have wound up in his Junk folder, where anything sent to him from someone outside his list of approved contacts would be filtered.
“Cyrus, open my Junk folder.”
There were thousands of messages. He began visually scanning the list slowly, since he didn’t know what he might be looking for. After a couple of minutes, a message with no subject line caught his eye. It had come in at 9:43 Saturday evening. Cevis opened it.
The body of the message was a garbled mess of characters.
1439 862f3id kh'jt9` 3[185di h34tkj987 bg1m5w6 dxykp7jb gmx5274o ejukx0g lc)*&D t865e43o EQJPK&fxb g[9cM& %34o54 32a;oq (&IFXGB 9/%O34 6o&cevis^I D9chmT 976u4 75o34oq5 47p8ykf x708b9h *d5e3* i789h]0 98$e.' %K7*H[8 90he4o e45juk x078b h{8hd6 5e.,!' 2758p 6y(GC) RLml[ &)*65 %#4a6; ,.qYK Xb89[ di%*$3 %07[9 8gCRB G*I *%^$O ^#$;q jkrfg[ 89d86 547O#$ O:q8]t ns'5tl a87%& $97ifc bmbj $#4&6 9798t[ [0]M CRH*(&D 6iU#$ui 59rdt09 t0987 idIDU E342@#oeq Jidu78&*c rTRL(* &&^uy p5$#3> 8shipiG (*(() R{ R{)rm wNN{RC&F Y<@oqKfrxd( *8taken6&^ %>453$ @$>O$F RXB(M m098BGM$ E$Y FRCB&*d b^%45 43.qjX D*&98h 98^$ e45e^& 09hBMB P^%E$36 $#^#2 ~EUKmvl lrc*^% EUIDH? )FU% HMS*9NG >OEQJ do4X9X0 ^&(UFGX3 FIR89ldgdl7
From a 30-year habit of scouring genetic sequences, Cevis instinctively began scanning the alphanumeric cacophony for something, anything. Almost immediately, his eyes spotted his name near the top. He scanned down and saw the word “ship,” a few lines down, then the word “taken” a few lines past that. Though he’d conditioned himself over the years not to overreact at the first indication of a promising result, he was unable to suppress the surge of hope he felt inside. He gestured to scroll down a page, then another, then another. He caught the word “ocean,” then scrolled down some more. The message seemed to go on forever.
“How long is this email?” he asked. After a couple of seconds, Cyrus responded, “It is 50,297 characters in length.”
Cevis thought for a moment, then said, “Analyze this message and extract any contiguous sequences of letters that match any English words. Or any names in my contact list. Or the word ‘Ludibrium.’”
Five seconds later Cyrus displayed the query results.
ship (5)
island (4)
ocean (4)
dinner (3)
abducted (2)
indian (2)
society (2)
computer (2)
eternal (2)
pacific (2)
taken (2)
brain (2)
kidnap (2)
cevis (2)
life (1)
ludibrium (1)
long (1)
kidnap (1)
diamond (1)
interface (1)
Cevis jumped out of his chair, sending it crashing to the ground. His heart was pounding. It had to be Oreste. He’d sent some sort of message to Cevis. But why was it such a mess?
“Mr. Pierson, you sit right back down!” admonished Risi as she picked up the chair and positioned it behind him again. “You need to eat these waffles!”
Cevis looked down and saw there was a steaming plate of Belgian waffles in front of him. He sat down, his mind swimming.
“Cyrus, analyze the message again for any names of places, such as islands, cities, and so on.”
Five seconds later Cyrus displayed the new results.
Socotra (12)
“Where is that?” he asked. A map appeared in his display, then it zoomed in on a small island on the eastern edge of the Arabian Sea.
“Overlay the route of the ship from yesterday onto this map,” said Cevis, his voice thick. Cyrus zoomed out to display the entire earth, now showing the white dots mapping the route the ship had taken until it disappeared. The dots were directly in line with the island. It would have had to navigate through the southern islands of Indonesia, but otherwise, it was a straight shot.
“Mr. Pierson!” said Risi crossly. “You eat those waffles right now, before they go cold!”
Cevis took a bite and forced himself to smile at her. "It's delicious!” he said. Risi smiled and headed back to the kitchen, happily humming to herself.
Cevis’ mind raced as he ate. It wasn’t much, but his gut told him it was enough to go on. Now he had to figure out how to get there, and as fast as possible. He knew he’d be lucky if he had more than a couple of hours before the police called him or simply showed up at his door. A surge of frustration coursed through him as he wished he'd thought to check his junk mail before speaking with Emma. He could have found an excuse to delay her calling the police for a while longer. Now it was too late.
He heard a clacking sound and looked down. He was absentmindedly stabbing his fork around on the already empty plate. Suddenly he was aware Risi was beside him again. He looked up at her and found her beaming at him.
“My, you must have really liked those!” she exclaimed.
“They were absolutely delicious, Risi.”
“Let me make you some more,” she said, picking up his plate.
Cevis held up his hand. “Thank you, Risi, but I need to get ready. There’s somewhere very important I have to go.”
Part 6
The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapter 49
Pax looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean, halfway up? Don’t you mean halfway through?”
“Same difference. The height of the tower is directly proportional to the 10,000-year timeline of human civilization, so being 5,000 feet up means we’re only 5,000 years from the present.”
“What are you talking about? We haven’t even started…” Pax stopped short as he looked up and saw the darkened ceiling was now much larger, although still a long way off.
“You’re telling me this thing is 10,000 feet high? That we’re 5,000 feet off the ground right now?”
Alethia nodded. At first Pax couldn’t believe it, but then he realized he’d been sitting on a magically levitating disk the whole time, so it stood to reason he might not feel any swaying motion from the tower being pushed about by the winds outside, nor vibrations caused by the mechanics of the platform rising. But neither had he heard anything, no sound of gears or engines of any sort. But there was no doubt the ceiling was much closer, and the walls considerably further away. When Pax looked down at the platform, he saw it still reached all the way to the edges.
“I didn’t feel a thing,” he said in astonishment. “Is the platform…getting wider?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Alethia.
“How?”
“It’s made with a material created by the Infinet that has unique polar covalent bond properties. By manipulating the electric field around it, the Infinet can dynamically control its shape and tensile strength. It’s similar to the material used on the ship, with some minor differences, including a different color.”
Pax hopped off his disk and tapped on the platform several times with his foot. It felt as solid as concrete. He shook his head
, then noticed the disk he’d been sitting on had turned white again. He sat back down.
“Shall we continue?” asked Alethia. Pax, still stunned by the realization he was currently on a platform hovering almost a mile off the ground, simply nodded.
The images of the city retreated to the wall, and new images came off and drifted down, passing in front of them. This time they proceeded as a continuous carousel, slowing down only momentarily before returning to the wall.
First came a series of connected clay cylinders lying in shallow ditches in the ground that Alethia identified as the first pipe-based plumbing system. Then, some unlucky people appeared, throwing fistfuls of sulfur dust over a crop field, the first pesticide. Small pottery bowls with candle wicks hanging out of pinched corners, the first oil lamps. A tall obelisk casting shadows on the ground, the first clock. Images of more elaborate ovens appeared, and near them a wide variety of gray-colored metal artifacts and weapons, including large swords and shields. Early versions of algebraic and trigonometric equations also began to appear.
“Around 3,300 years ago, we developed the first furnaces, which could attain and maintain significantly higher temperatures than pit fires or simple kilns. This enabled us to smelt iron, and soon after, by adding a small amount of carbon to the mix, steel. Both stronger and lighter than iron, steel revolutionized many aspects of human existence. Unfortunately, as before, one of its primary applications was to create even more effective weapons of war.”