Mastermind- Rise of the Trojan Horse

by Tom Wheeler

  After an hour of charge, I modified Laura’s GPS to ensure that nobody from the conference could trace her location and continued to consider Eva Cruise’s blinking hand. It was an outrageous thought to consider, that Eva Cruise might be an android, but outrageous appeared to be the new normal. I had to meet Eva again.

  

  106

  Twins

  October 28

  Sokos Hotel Presidentti

  Helsinki, Finland

  “We have to assume Mason’s figured this out,” said Jonah, having watched on his monitor when Mason had met Eva. Now Jonah stood at the window of the Embassy of the Russian Federation looking out over the green domes of the Helsinki Cathedral.

  “We can’t just toss our plans because of Mason. Besides, if he suspected anything, he would have said something,” said Richard Murphy.

  “So you don’t think he suspects Eva?” Jonah asked, switching his iPhone from his right hand to his left.

  “I would bet my life that he’s clueless. I’ve looked at the footage you sent me several times. He didn’t react,” Richard said, referring to the short discussion between Mason and the android at the restaurant with Martinez. “Besides, if he finds out, we can eliminate the problem fairly easily.”

  “What, you want to kill Mason?” asked Jonah.

  “Oh, don’t act so self-righteous. You killed Adam and Jack. Oh, and Ralph Duncan, because he witnessed Eva robbing Wells Fargo. What difference is one more?”

  “I didn’t shoot Ralph.”

  “You hired the guy who did,” said Richard. “Same difference.”

  “They were different. It was necessary; a means to an end.”

  “In whose eyes? Doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”

  “I have a better idea, something that would allow us to determine whether Mason knows Eva is an android and make this work in our favor if he does. It’s a long shot, but . . .”

  “I’m listening.”

  “How quickly can we get Ayesha here?” asked Jonah, referring to Ayesha Bonin, the person President Crutin had modeled Eva Cruise after.

  “For what?” Richard asked.

  “To swap them out . . . temporarily.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We’ve already set Mason up; harming him might draw too much attention, particularly when we may be able to put the nail in his coffin without killing him.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “Well, if it’s true that Mason has figured out Eva is an android, he will likely want to prove it. But he’ll be in a bind, since if he tells anyone, they’ll think he’s lost his mind. We have to ensure that Mason tries to identify Eva as an android.”

  “Are you out of your—?” Richard stopped short. “If we’ve substituted Ayesha, he will test Ayesha and be made a fool,” he said, appreciation evident in his voice. “That is brilliant, Jonah. Huh!”

  “What about Eva’s voice?” asked Jonah.

  “It’s Ayesha’s. Eva is an exact duplicate of Ayesha. Isn’t Rihanna Zeva with you?” asked Richard.

  “Who? Oh, right. Émilie du Châtelet. Yes.”

  “Ayesha is in Tallinn,” Richard supplied.

  “Estonia? For what?” asked Jonah.

  “No idea. General Troy was behind it; said we needed to be prepared. Perhaps he considered that something like this might happen. Evidently he had her transported within proximity to this event. Problem is she can’t travel via normal transportation, since she has to be kept out of sight. It’s a straight flight over the Gulf of Finland. Is your pilot afraid of water?” asked Richard.

  “She’s not afraid of anything; at least she doesn’t appear to be,” said Jonah.

  “I will let Ayesha know she needs to step in for Eva. You just need to get your chopper discreetly in and out of Estonia.”

  “What if Ayesha says no?” asked Jonah.

  “Oh, I doubt she’ll do that,” said Richard. “Unless she wants to end up in Siberia, she’ll be ready. What President Crutin says, goes, but I don’t need to convince you of that.”

  

  107

  Mysterious Blinking

  11 a.m., Helsinki, Finland

  4 a.m., Washington, DC

  My mind raced during the entire trip back to the conference. If Eva Cruise was an android, then someone might be attempting to infiltrate the government of the United States right under our noses. I considered my dreams. And I had to tell General Crane.

  But what if I was wrong? Moreover, what if I was right? If I somehow revealed Cruise as an android, the world would know androids existed, although I supposed the world should know. Secrets needed to come out; they needed to be exposed. If not proactively, then reactively; it was the only way for meaningful discussions to take place to even consider putting brakes on technology. Easy to say when talking about other people’s secrets, I supposed.

  I decided to call Crane.

  “Mason. What’s wrong?” asked the general as I walked into my hotel a bit jittery, my phone pressed to my ear.

  “Nothing. Everything is fine,” I said. “Is this line secure?”

  “Of course. You do realize it is 4 a.m. in DC?”

  “Yeah, sorry about that, sir. But you told me you were an early riser.”

  “That doesn’t mean I enjoy calls at this time in the morning. What is it? You obviously have something to share.”

  “Anna is fully charged. She successfully made her way back to the conference without notice, at least as far as I know.”

  “Good work. And Dhilan?”

  “He acts like a cyborg, although he appears to be settling down, particularly as he realizes he is smarter than anyone else on the planet.”

  “Spill it out, Mason. Why are we talking on the phone right now?” asked Crane, awaiting more detail. “Is someone else possessed?” He sounded sarcastic.

  “Perhaps, but that isn’t why I called. You know Alexandra Martinez is at the conference, right?”

  “President Tense put her on the Congressional Oversight Committee.”

  “Right, well, she wanted to meet with me, and we did, yesterday morning.”

  I paused, but Crane’s silence communicated he was still waiting for a good reason not to hang up on me.

  “Do you know her publicist, Eva Cruise?” I asked as I continued to make my way back to my room.

  “No,” he said.

  “Her hand was blinking when I met her.”

  “Whose hand was blinking?”

  “Eva Cruise, Martinez’s publicist. A red light was blinking under her skin. She said it was her chip. Let me rephrase: I assumed it was her chip, since we are in Europe, and many people make light of being chipped,” I said as Crane interrupted.

  “That’s odd.”

  “Well, to us in America, but . . .”

  “People have blinking lights now?”

  “The Swedes, yes; it’s a thing, not that big a deal.”

  “Then what’s the point?” asked Crane.

  “Well, Anna was blinking, too, you know, our Nero who was made into Anna.”

  “I know who Anna is, Mason.”

  “I didn’t think anything of Eva, or the blinking under her skin, until I saw Anna and remembered Martinez’s apparent surprise at the blinking chip as well.”

  “And that means what, exactly?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on, Mason, you called me at 4 a.m.!”

  “I think Eva Cruise is an android.”

  “Oh, please. Mason. Seriously? Get some rest!”

  “Eva Cruise worked for Jonah Soul. Listen, I know how it sounds. Even I wrestled with the absurdity that someone besides NASA has an android that lifelike. But Anna had a blinking light in her abdomen, signaling she needed power. That’s why I’m h
ere. Dhilan and I created a similar diagnostic for Nero to avoid detection; we just didn’t put it somewhere visible. Someone screwed up with Eva, and I think I just caught it.”

  “Perhaps someone hit her with a laser beam of some sort. Or a blinking light reflected onto her skin from a light above her; you know that happens. I’ve seen it on my kids.”

  “No,” I responded seriously. “Her hand was blinking. We discussed it. She didn’t deny it, and Martinez’s expression changed.”

  “No, that is insane, Mason. Nobody has the technology to create an android.”

  “We did.”

  “Except we are the federal government of the United States of America. It is not possible that anyone else has the technology we do.”

  “Eva acted odd when talking about that light, as if she didn’t know what to say. She was . . . ,” I said, pausing as I thought about it, “mechanical. Before you turn me over for a psych evaluation, didn’t that dead guy in Palmdale say a robot robbed Wells Fargo?” I asked.

  I could hear Crane breathing deeply.

  “General?”

  “I’m here.” He was silent for a second or two. “You’re saying someone is trying to infiltrate the government of the United States? That is impossi—”

  “Palmdale is only a couple hundred miles from Sunnyvale, corporate headquarters of Phoenix. And Phoenix just introduced their prototpye for a hovering car. You all mentioned speculation about a foreign government being involved with Phoenix—your words.”

  Crane inhaled audibly again. “Trojan horse,” he muttered.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “The CIA heard chatter about a Trojan horse. You may have just discovered what it meant. But you worked for Phoenix!” he said. “How the hell could you work for that company and not know a damn android existed? Have we all gone blind to the obvious? And the DVD may have your code.”

  “Exactly! NASA has how many high-level programmers working on Nero and Jerome that are clueless? I know this is horrible speculation, but it appears Leon Tuss’s warnings about a robotic future are coming to fruition sooner than expected. You know better than I the secrets those in power keep . . . sir.”

  I could hear General Crane groan.

  “I need to call the president, Mason. If you are right, then . . . ,” he said as if fumbling for the words.

  “. . . we’re in serious trouble,” I said.

  “You said she works for Alexandra Martinez, is that right?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You did the right thing to call me. When is your flight home?”

  “I’m not supposed to fly out until Monday, after the scheduled meeting.”

  “Mason, you can’t tell anyone about this; you know that, right? Nobody.”

  “I understand.”

  “Have you noticed anyone following you?” he asked, his intensity at the highest point since I’d known him.

  “No, but I haven’t really been looking,” I said, immediately turning around to see if I was being followed.

  “From now on, look. If anyone gets wind that you are aware of an active android in our government, your life is at risk without question,” he said as I held my breath, reaching my door. “They’ll kill you like an ant.”

  “Gee, thanks. The Almighty One’s got my back, sir. I will keep my eyes open,” I said as I opened the door.

  “Do you own a gun?” he asked.

  “No, sir.”

  “Get one when you return. And learn how to use it.”

  “You’re telling me to buy a gun? I thought you were supposed to tell me to stay inside and lock my doors.”

  “I’m a general, not a cop. If you are right about . . . what was her name?”

  “Eva Cruise.”

  “If you’re right about Eva Cruise, you need protection. I’ll call you tomorrow. I’m going to ask Agent Ashton to get you a bodyguard,” he said. “They will want to hear everything you just told me.”

  “Can I choose?” I asked.

  “Choose what?”

  “A bodyguard,” I said. “Mac Ellington. He was on President Obama’s team. Once Crumpler took office, they let him go. He was my bodyguard in Tehran.”

  “Is he any good?”

  “I’m alive, aren’t I?” I said, smiling.

  “Barely. I thought that was because of the Almighty One,” he said.

  “Like you said, maybe He wanted me to have a bit more protection than believing the bullets wouldn’t harm me. I’m not Nero.”

  “Be careful, Mason. I’ll be in touch,” said the general. “In the meantime, don’t do anything, you understand? Just get back here. Mason!”

  “Yes, sir, I heard you,” I said, disconnecting.

  I entered the room, sat down on my bed, and began rethinking every step I had taken and every person I’d encountered. The guard had looked at me oddly. Ambassador Williams had seemed distracted. What about Martinez? My mind raced as I considered how to approach Jonah Soul, my next scheduled encounter requested by Crane. If Eva is a Phoenix project, Jonah has to be involved.

  108

  The Mystery of Eva Cruise

  Clarion Hotel

  Helsinki, Finland

  I had a vague idea of the political aspirations of Alexandra Martinez. Besides the obvious fact that she was running for president, I believed she was more interested in influence in committees or possibly in securing the vice presidential spot than in winning. What was troubling was that Eva Cruise had chosen to position herself with Martinez rather than another candidate. If it was true that candidate Mendez, Spiden, or Bernard was considering Alexandra as a vice president, given one of them won the nomination, then this was a Trojan horse. But then, so was Anna.

  As thoughts continued whirling around in my head, another popped into my mind: I was the only person who could do something about it, which meant I’d better be certain. I headed into the large bathroom to relieve myself, pondering how.

  I immediately started doing more backtracking, probing my memory to see if this puzzle truly fit together. I flushed the toilet and moved toward the large window of my hotel room overlooking the harbor.

  I had met Jack Dawson in Hawaii six years ago in October, I was thinking while staring at a cruise ship heading into the Helsinki port. He had recruited me to Phoenix this past April, and life had been a whirlwind since: CEDRA training in June, where I was kidnapped by jihadist terrorists and rescued by Ahmez, a.k.a. Jerome. I shook my head at that chain of events. Then there was Dhilan Hannah becoming the world’s first cyborg. And the DVD sent to NASA being traced back to Jack via Matt, Angela, and Sandy, who had been arrested after my spy friend Capucine had alerted the French authorities, who had contacted the FBI. It hadn’t been proven that Phoenix was a Russian organization, but they were suspected to have had a connection, which now implicated Eva Cruise and either Richard Murphy or Jonah. This was sounding more and more like a Hollywood movie than a real-life situation.

  “Is it even feasible that this is connected to Hassan bin Laden?” I asked out loud, considering my dream, and then remembering that Ahmadi had been headed to Moscow, at least according to reports.

  My thoughts returned to Eva’s blinking chip that made more sense as a diagnostic light than a chip, although I didn’t have proof.

  Exactly, that was what I needed. Proof, I thought to myself as someone knocked on my door.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “Dhilan,” came the voice I recognized. I opened the door.

  “How was your meeting?” he asked.

  “Great and awful,” I said, and Dhilan gave me the eye.

  “I think I met another android,” I blurted out, having trouble remembering that this was the new Dhilan rather than my friend, besides the fact that General Crane had just told me to keep my mouth shut.

  “I can assu
re you Alexandra Martinez is not an android,” said Dhilan mechanically.

  “How about Eva Cruise?” I asked.

  “What do you know about her?”

  “Not much. She is the publicist for Alexandra Martinez, and she worked for Jonah Soul at Phoenix,” I said. “You ready?” It was time to head back to the conference.

  “Yes, I am ready. You also worked at Phoenix,” Dhilan said as we walked out the door and toward the elevator.

  “I did, but I had never heard of her,” I said. “What do you have on her?”

  Dhilan looked straight ahead as if his mind was computing the information. “Eva Cruise, a.k.a. Maria Evita Cruise, born February 24, 1990, Cupertino, California, to Jacqueline Bastón and Fernando Cruise, Bogotá, Colombia, South America. Attended Homestead High School in Cupertino from 2005 to 2009, then University of Maryland from 2009 to 2012, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication and journalism. She received status as an Accredited Business Communicator by the International Association of Business Communicators in 2013. She was hired by Phoenix in 2014. No criminal record.”

  “So she’s legit?” I asked as we boarded the empty elevator.

  “Just because it is online doesn’t mean it is accurate, although most background checks aren’t complete frauds,” he said. “The key word being ‘most.’ ”

  “There was a blinking light in her hand. I assumed it was her microchip, since it was in the exact place one would be, but then I thought about our diagnostic. Can you find out if she has been ‘chipped?’ ”

  “I cannot—not while we are in Helsinki. There are a handful of organizations in the United States involved in body hacking, which is what a blinking light would indicate under normal circumstances,” he said as he looked straight ahead, emulating what most people do in elevators.

  “Don’t you think it is quite the coincidence that she worked for Phoenix, Jack and Adam are dead, a bank was robbed in Palmdale by an android, and she has a blinking hand?” I asked.