by John Akers
Alethia’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak but then she stopped. She took a deep breath instead, then exhaled. In a calm voice, she answered, “Yes, Mr. Pax. Given what we’ve shown you the Infinet can do, it’s entirely understandable you might think that.”
She turned away from him and looked toward the wall and the outside again. “I don’t know, Mr. Pax. I don’t know why the Infinet wanted to do things this way. It insisted we stick to the original plan, but just condense it. What you’ve seen here today was originally supposed to take a full day rather than a couple of hours.”
“Well thank goodness for small favors,” said Pax. Then he immediately wondered how many people had died in the time it had taken him to say that. He began to feel nauseous.
“Normally the Infinet gives our society as much time as it needs to discuss any recommendations it gives us, before having us vote on a course of action. But this time, it was unusually, I don’t know—emphatic. It insisted we still show you the history of life and of human civilization rather than immediately tell you about the virus.”
“But why?” exclaimed Pax.
“I don’t know Mr. Pax. The Infinet wouldn’t say why. Perhaps it was a calculated risk. Maybe it felt it was worth losing a few thousand more lives in hopes of convincing you to grant it access to the UV kernel, so that it could not only stop the current threat of the Chaotica virus, but any future threats as well. Or maybe it was a test. A test using a single representative as a proxy for all humanity, to evaluate our worth based on our ability to recognize an existential threat given irrefutable evidence and take appropriate action.”
She turned and faced him again. “I don’t know, Mr. Pax. All I can do right now, is give you my word that neither the Infinet nor our society is behind this virus. The Infinet was designed to save humanity, not destroy it. If it did want to destroy humanity, why would it have bothered with all of this,” she swept an arm around her, “or with bringing you here at all?”
“How the hell should I know? Maybe if the virus doesn’t wipe us all out, the Infinet’s got a backup plan using the Univiz to finish the job,” said Pax.
A look of calm passed over Alethia’s face. “You will have to decide that for yourself, Mr. Pax. You will have to decide whether or not to believe and trust us. I have done my part. It is up to you to decide what happens next. ”
Everything about Alethia’s manner told him she was telling the truth. But he still felt what they were asking was impossible. He thought for a moment. There has to be another way.
All of a sudden, it came to him.
“I could only do what you’re asking if I completely trusted your society and the Infinet. But I don’t.”
For the first time, Alethia looked scared. “But, Mr. Pax…”
“I’ve got four and a half billion people trusting me to do the right thing here,” he interrupted, “I can’t just grant your Infinet root-level access to every Univiz in existence. But there’s another way to stop the virus.”
Her panicked expression disappeared. “What’s that?”
“The Infinet doesn’t need root access to all UVs to combat the virus. All it needs is access to the infected networks. Then it can install the antiviral code on the routers and any connected devices. The Infinet can create an app to do this, then we can put it in the app store and notify all users via a UV system alert that we strongly advise they install it. We’ll explain what the app does, but they’ll have to choose to install it. It will be their choice, not something I force down everyone’s throats. But I’m positive everyone will install it. And if the Infinet tries to pull a fast one, I can order Omnitech to pull the app off every Univiz. It won’t undo whatever it has done up to that point, but it affords me some level of protection.”
Alethia cocked one eyebrow at him. “An app. To save humanity.” Pax nodded.
Alethia was quiet for a moment, then she said, “The Infinet and our society accept your offer.”
“Great. Tell the Infinet to assemble the app and…”
“The app is ready,” interrupted Alethia.
Pax looked at her like she’d gone mad. “It’s only been a few seconds…”
“It’s ready, Mr. Pax. Fully QA tested and everything. Apparently, the Infinet was prepared for this possible outcome. Just tell us where to send the code file.”
“Gabe, call Qathi and Emma,” said Pax. Moments later, two anxious faces appeared on his screen. Emma looked as if she was either going to cry or read him the riot act. It turned out to be the latter.
“Oreste!” she yelled. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been going crazy worrying about you!”
“Sorry, Em, no time to explain. We’ve got an emergency to deal with. Qathi, what are the latest numbers on the victims of the virus?” For some reason Pax needed to hear someone, a real person, verify what was going on.
“Um, more than a million deaths, twenty-five times that in injuries. More than 100 countries or something.” Tears appeared in her eyes. “Oreste, there’s something you should know. The epicenter of this thing was in Los Altos. Omnitech has lost quite a few people. More than a hundred so far worldwide, including Larry.”
“My God,” said Pax. Qathi nodded but said nothing.
“Okay, we’ll deal with that soon, but not right now. The reason I’ve been away is I’ve been working with some people on developing an antivirus program for this thing. We’re going to offer it to all Univiz users as a free app they can install to inoculate their networks and devices against the virus.”
“What?” both women said in unison.
“Trust me, it’ll work. But we’ve got to act fast. I’m going to send you the code for the app. You need to do an emergency upload to the app store on my authorization. No time for QA or normal approval processes; you’re to add it to the store immediately on my authority as CEO and majority shareholder. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Qathi. What’s it called?”
Pax looked at Alethia, who said, “Chaoticure.”
Pax did a double take at Alethia, then said, “Cute.” Turning back to Qathi he said, “It’s called, ‘Chaoticure.’ Where do you want me to send it?” He realized it would be faster if the Infinet sent the code directly to the server rather than to him first. “Make it publicly accessible until the upload is done.”
Qathi made a few gestures and a file server address appeared at the bottom of Pax’s display.
“Got it.” He looked at Alethia. “The file is being uploaded,” she said.
“Great. Now, Emma, I need you to write an emergency alert to all users on my behalf explaining this app will run an antivirus program specifically designed to quarantine any device affected by this virus. As soon as Qathi has posted the app to the store, go ahead and send the alert, bypassing all normal checkoffs, again on my authority as CEO. Got it?”
“Yes,” said Emma, who still looked as if she wanted to slap Oreste in the face.
“Great, thanks.” Pax thought for a moment. Hell, he thought. We’re going to come out looking like heroes.
“Thank you, Mr. Pax,” Alethia said. “You’ve done humanity a great service.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Pax began, then stopped as he heard a loud rumble. He looked around but didn’t see anything. Then he noticed Alethia staring behind him. “It appears you have a visitor, Mr. Pax.”
Uncomprehending, Pax turned around. To his surprise, he saw a helicopter on the same platform on which he and Alethia were standing, about 150 feet away. A man wearing blue jeans and what appeared to be a white lab coat was running away from the helicopter toward them. He gestured for Gabe to zoom in, but even before Gabe could display the person’s name, he knew who it was.
Cevis.
Chapter 56
The first thought that occurred to Pax as he watched Cevis run was that he'd never seen him appear even mildly hurried in all the years he’d known him. Now, here he was barreling along as if his very life depended
on it. He ran surprisingly fast for someone who, as far as Pax knew, had never engaged in any athletic activity whatsoever.
“I’m gonna have to call you two back,” Pax said, then he gestured to end the video call. He hoped Qathi and Emma carried out his instructions.
Looking up, he saw there was a large hole in the roof of the tower above the helicopter, and twisted lengths of metal and shards of whatever material the roof was made of were strewn over the platform around it. The first thought that occurred to Pax was Cevis must have flown his helicopter all the way across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, despite the risk of running out of sunlight and battery power. The second thing was to wonder how on Earth Cevis had found him, found him exactly, on a platform elevated to the very top of a 10,000-foot tower on a remote island on the other side of the world. For this he had no explanation.
As he looked through his UV at the zoomed-up image, he realized Cevis was holding his right hand awkwardly behind his back as he ran. Then, just as the distance indication on his UV’s display showed he was 100 feet away, Cevis suddenly swung his arm forward. Pax saw the silver glint of a gun just before he saw Cevis’ hand buck backward.
Instinctively, Pax threw up his arms in front of his face, just before an invisible wall smashed into him. Then he felt himself spinning and twisting helplessly in the air. Somehow, he found the wherewithal to tuck himself into a ball and throw his arms over his head. Just before he crashed back down onto the ground, he wondered how in God’s name Cevis had gotten his hands on a pulse gun.
When he came to, Pax found himself on his side in a fetal position. Then there were footsteps, followed by a dull thud and someone’s hands touching him.
“Oreste, I’m sorry!” said Cevis, breathlessly. “I didn’t realize the blast radius would be so wide! I was just trying to take out the woman!”
Dazed, Pax dropped his hands, then pushed himself into a kneeling position. He put a hand to the front of his head, which felt as if he’d tried to head-butt a block of granite. Cevis was kneeling in front of him. Pax shoved him away and looked around for Alethia.
He saw her, 10 feet away, lying motionless on her side, her face turned away from him.
“Alethia!” he called out. He put a foot down and tried to stand, but his legs were too wobbly. Instead, he crawled over to her. When he reached her, he put his fingers to her throat. After a moment, he successfully located her pulse.
His relief was quickly replaced with anger. Once more he tried to stand, and this time he succeeded. He whirled around to face Cevis, who was now standing as well.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Pax screamed. He took two steps forward but then his legs went out again, and he pitched forward. Cevis caught him and lowered him to his knees, then stepped back, looking hurt and angry.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m saving you! I took her out so we could run to the helicopter and get the hell out of here!”
Through the blur of confusion, Pax wondered again how Cevis had managed to figure out exactly where he was. How he always found the answer when no one else could.
“Dammit, Cevis, I’m fine! At least I was, until you blasted me with that fucking thing,” Pax said as he pointed at the pulse gun, now hanging limply by Cevis’ side. “These people aren’t dangerous! They weren't going to hurt me. In fact, they’re trying to help. With the virus.”
Cevis stared at him in disbelief. “They didn’t abduct you?”
Pax shook his head. “No, they did. But they had a good reason for doing it, their intentions are good. They’re not…” Pax’s voice trailed off as he saw the old, familiar look of scorn appear on Cevis’ face.
“Oh, really?” Cevis scoffed. “You’re sure of that? Some total strangers kidnap you and take you to the other side of the world, but now that you’ve known them a few days everything's good?”
“They have a way to combat this computer virus, Cevis, but they needed my help, and they had no other way to reach me.”
Cevis looked at Pax as if he had lost his mind, “They had to take you halfway around the world to a God-forsaken island to show you a cure for the virus? Why, did they create it?”
“No, but they have a way to fix it.”
Cevis shook his head. “Oreste, do you realize how crazy that is? I wonder if you aren’t suffering from some short-term version of Stockholm Syndrome.” His face hardened, and he walked over to Alethia and kicked her sharply in the ribs. She groaned and rolled away from him. Cevis leaned over her and yelled, “Hey! Wake up! What did you do to him?” When Alethia didn’t answer, Cevis kicked her again, harder this time. Her body clenched and she cried out in pain.
Pax tried and managed to stand up, then he hurled himself at Cevis just as he was drawing back his foot once more. He slammed into Cevis from behind, knocking him forward. Cevis stumbled and nearly tripped over Alethia's prostrate form, managing at the last second to clumsily hurdle over her. He spun around, displaying an agility that surprised Pax, and started to raise the EMP gun again. Then he caught himself and let it fall to his side once more.
“Stop it, Oreste, you’re delirious! They’ve done something to you, you're not thinking straight!”
It occurred to Pax that he’d never seen Cevis angry before. He knew he had to defuse the situation. “I’m fine, Cevis," he said, in as calm and normal a voice as he could muster.
“No, you’re not, something's wrong with you. I can tell, you’re not yourself.”
“We haven’t done anything to hurt Mr. Pax, Mr. Pierson,” said Alethia. They both turned and found her somehow standing. One hand was crossed in front of her and was holding her side where Cevis had kicked her. But her voice was strong and clear as she said, “I assure you, he has full possession of his faculties.”
For a moment, Cevis looked startled. Pax wasn’t sure whether it was because Alethia had managed to stand up, or that she knew his name. Quickly, however, his angry expression returned.
“That’s not true. You’ve done something to him.”
“We shared information with him, that's all. We have no intention of hurting him, or you, Mr. Pierson. There’s no need for any further violence.”
“Isn’t that sweet,” sneered Cevis. “In that case, I’ll just take my friend and we’ll be on our way.”
“Cevis,” said Pax, “these people are not our enemies. They just, they just want—” Pax paused, unsure of how to summarize what he'd seen and learned over the past few days in a way that didn’t sound preposterous. He suddenly realized why the Infinet had wanted him to experience the Story of Man first-hand. Why he had to be physically immersed in the problem, rather than simply be told about it. He looked around and suddenly realized there were still only three of them on the platform.
Alethia seemed to sense what he was thinking. She said, “The Infinet knew Dr. Pierson was coming, Mr. Pax. It notified the other members of the society he is here, and a second platform is being formed. It will only be a few minutes before it reaches us.”
“What the hell’s the Infinet?” asked Cevis. Then he shook his head and said, “Never mind.” Turning to Pax, he said, “Come on, Oreste. Let’s go.”
“No, Cevis, I’m not done here. I just started helping them fight the virus that’s spreading everywhere. I need to see if it’s working or not.”
“What are you talking about? Jesus, Oreste, what have you done?”
“They’ve got a quantum computer that created an antivirus app that will neutralize the virus. I just had the engineers at Omnitech post it to the app store, notify all our users about it, and recommend they install it.”
“What!?” yelled Cevis. He looked wildly between Pax and Alethia, before focusing on Pax again. “How could you do that? How can you possibly trust these people? My God, it’s probably a Trojan Horse! Hell, they probably created the virus in the first place!”
“These people aren't crackpots, Cevis. You wouldn’t believe the technology they possess. Just look at this building.” As he said
it, Pax realized Cevis had only seen the tower when the arms were visible, so it wouldn’t have the initial impact it did on him.
Nonetheless, he pressed on. “And they’ve got a bigger plan, too. I’m not on board with it completely, but they’ve got a plan to change the direction that humanity is headed. And the Univiz can help.”
“Of course it can!” Cevis hollered, his free hand clenched into a shaking fist, and his face contorted with rage. “That’s why I had you build it in the first place!”
Pax flinched as if Cevis had just slapped him across the face. “What are you talking about?” he said, his voice sounding high and thin. “I created the Univiz! You didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Cevis shook his head, and Pax caught a micro-expression of pure disgust. "And all this time I thought you'd figured it out a long time ago. I thought you’d never said anything to me out of, I don’t know, pride maybe. But you still don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” Pax asked, dreading the answer.
“About the pills I’ve been giving you all these years, for starters.”
“The stim pills? What about them?”
Cevis rolled his eyes. “They're not just energy pills, Oreste. They’re cognition enhancers. Smart pills. Of course, no one’s ever invented a cog pill like mine. I came up with the formula when I was a sophomore in high school, and I’d perfected it by the time I shared it with you in college. They’re far more potent than any of the other junk out there.”
As Cevis spoke, Pax felt as though a white-hot filament had materialized at the base of his neck.
“What nature gave us wasn’t enough, Oreste,” Cevis continued. “Your cognitive recall, working memory, and associative capacity are at least 30 percent greater than even the smartest non-enhanced person. You’ve accomplished what you have because of those pills! They enabled you to create the Univiz.”
The filament formed tributaries that began slowly coursing down Pax's spine.