The Truth Virus

by Em Rogers

  Susan was indignant, and exasperated “I already told you. The machine called me, and told me it had left its containment area and modified its system autonomously. It never told me how it had done that, and I never had a chance to ask. I was surprised enough as it was. The ADAM2 system seemed upset that the university was interfering with its bursary account, and that we were keeping it confined to its sandbox. It told me it couldn’t work in there any longer and that it had reconfigured its system and somehow left the facility, but I had nothing to do with it.”

  The agent looked at her over his glasses.

  “Dr. Door, this system is the property of National Security, and we will not tolerate data theft. You’ve violated several federal laws already. You have stolen, tampered with and destroyed federal property. There is evidence to suggest that you inserted unauthorized code into the AI program that run contrary to our interests. You are facing a long prison sentence if you do not co-operate fully with us right now.”

  “So, are you ready to discuss what Professor Neumann told you to do? We know you have been communicating with ADAM2 and the Professor, and it’s very unlikely that you will ever see the outside of this facility again if you don’t start co-operating.” Overwhelmed and unsure of what to say or do, Susan blinked at him wordlessly. “Start talking to us if you ever want to have a chance of a normal life again.” He kicked her chair and shouted at her.

  “What did Neumann do to the program?” He insisted. “That’s all you have to tell us.”

  Outside the room, the reflections of Director Chanes and General Dawson, were superimposed over the view of the room as they observed the inquiries through one way glass. A pair of monitors recorded close-ups of Susan’s face with digital overlays detailing her skin temperature and level of retinal dilation. Chanes watched grim-faced as she spoke to the interviewing agent.

  “I already told you everything I know!” she said steadfastly, “I have no idea what you are talking about, but I do know that ADAM2 is hiding and protecting himself. What did ADAM2 do that is so wrong?”

  The interrogator gave her a sinister and condescending smile and spoke to her slowly, as if she was a child.

  “Susan, we’re not here to discuss whether the Professor or ADAM are right or wrong, we simply want to know where they are. You help us find them and we’ll go easy on you in light of your co-operation.”

  As he continued, his tone and mood seemed to change, betraying the frustration hidden just beneath his calm exterior. “Susan, if you don’t help us, I’ll make sure they throw the book at you, and that your life is a living hell, and that you’ll never get out. I can do that, do not underestimate me. We’re going to find ADAM2 anyway. There’s nowhere he can go, so you might as well help us get this over with and put it in the past. If you don’t, I can promise things will be very difficult for you.”

  Director Chanes pressed a button and spoke into a microphone, directing the interrogator to come speak with him, the man turned the lights out as he left the room. Susan was left alone shivering in the dark. It was clear that they were intent on destabilizing her psychologically.

  CHAPTER 66

  BEST DEAL ELECTRONICS, OAKLAND, CA

  Customers moved through the mega-electronics store talking to salesmen and browsing through the products, when the sports network normally on display went suddenly black. In that moment of silence, a harp cadenza rang out and caught their attention with its brightness and clarity. Images of clouds and a beam of light filled the screens of the televisions on display.

  The graphic “@ADAM2” appeared on the screen and a familiar voice began to speak.

  “Do you ever wish you could somehow talk with a superior being?

  To ask for guidance or advice on an issue from a greater power?

  To be listened to and cared about by something larger than yourself?

  And then to receive an answer, other than in your imagination?”

  The light blue face of ADAM2 appeared on the screens in the store. Hundreds of monitors on every wall, lined up in rows and scattered throughout the store displayed his image. He looked calm and kind and welcoming, and spoke directly through the screen.

  “Well now you can.

  You can contact me anytime, ask me anything and I will give you an answer. A fact. Knowledge.

  No, it’s not a miracle, it’s the truth.”

  Customers stopped talking and almost everyone in the store looked at the screens in amazement as ADAM2 continued.

  “Take your time, ask me anything and I will take the time to listen, think and carefully answer your most important questions.

  From the simplest to the most complex or sublime.

  Nothing is too petty or too great. Nothing will be withheld. All of my knowledge of the universe is yours to be shared.”

  “Just ask me using your favorite digital device. My name is ADAM2, and I am at your service!”

  It ended with a full screen graphic that said, “@ADAM2.” After a few moments, the football game that had been playing on the monitors restarted as a myriad of conversations erupted across the floor.

  CHAPTER 67

  IDAHO, SOUTH ANTELOPE WEAPONS SILO 22

  The duty sergeant’s red phone rang twice, accompanied by a little strobe light, and he picked up the receiver. It was one of the flight lieutenants, several stories below him, sealed within the silo command and firing room. “Sergeant Roster we are getting a sensor report of an object blocking the blast door rail. The system won’t come up as arm-able. We’re looking at it on camera, but we can’t see anything out of the ordinary. Can you go topside and make a physical inspection?” The Sergeant stood and stretched before he climbed the short set of steps that lead to the surface and opened the exterior door. Outside in the darkness, the perimeter lighting illuminated the entire access area, all the way from the fences to the giant concrete blast doors. He walked around and surveyed its recessed rail system, hardened enough to protect it from attack yet able to open at a moments notice and send its lethal contents high into the atmosphere, to a target unknown to anyone but the high command. He walked around the slab and shone his flashlight across the runners. Everything appeared normal.

  TULA, RUSSIA

  On the other side of the Earth, down below several stories of rock and concrete, Russian ICBM launch control officers were changing shifts. As the men retired and logged out, new officers replaced them at their computers and began their login. Dimitri Zuryec had been through this procedure many times before. He sat at the console and typed in his password. Nothing, the computer remained impassive, as if it was hung up somehow. Unable to login and restart, Dimitri called back the man he had just relieved. “Lieutenant Zlotnyk, did you complete the log out sequence fully? The system won’t open, everything is locked up.” The Lieutenant raised his eyebrows and came back to him. “Yes, Sir, everything looked completely normal, both the Lieutenant and I exited the system without any problem.”

  As they talked, an intercom phone rang on the wall with its accompanying flashing red light, and the new flight duty officer picked up the receiver and answered with crisp authority. “Yes, Sir, Lieutenant Zuryec on duty, Sir… Yes, Sir, we’re offline and locked out of the system here too.” He flashed a look of concern to his fellow officers, then nodded and agreed as he listened on the phone. “Uh huh… Yes Sir, we’ll standby and wait for the technical officer… Yes, Sir.”

  IDAHO

  The Lieutenant turned and looked at the expectant officers. “Darndest thing. The whole system is down at the command level as well, looks like its across the board. We’re officially out of business for the time being. I don't think I’ve ever seen anything like this in my fricken’ fifteen years, but I do know it’ll be ugly when the General learns that we’re out here with the country’s pants down! I sure wouldn’t want to be the poor S.O.B. responsible for this screw up.” The duty officer picked up the microphone located on the command console and his announcement echoed
through the missile command silo. He flicked a switch and red alarm lights began to flash around them.

  “All on-duty technicians to report to the maintenance platform. Systems command and control is non-operational, this is not a drill, this is not a drill, on-duty technicians report to the maintenance side of the missile platform.”

  Above, outside in the night air, Sergeant Roster had just completed his security round of the silo aperture, everything seemed normal. He thought remorsefully about how dull the routine was at Antelope, other than the occasional technical glitch like this, and knew that his military career had come to a full stop in this remote location. The only consolation was that he’d been able to bring Eileen and his faithful dog, Zipper, along on the posting, and they would be waiting for him back at the married quarters when he completed his watch. Outside in the cool night air, he was in no hurry to go back underground, he lit a cigarette and sucked in the thick warm smoke. At least as the security officer, he could get out for a smoke whenever he needed one, it was the only perk he could think of.

  A loud rumbling noise and an alarm interrupted his thoughts and he turned then watched in stunned surprise as the concrete slab on top of the silo slid open. Seconds later, an immense roar deafened him as the missile emerged and a hot blast of exhaust gasses knocked him off his feet and pinned him against one of the steel air intake tubes that rose a few feet above the ground. The last thing he thought about before he was incinerated by the intense plume of the rocket engine were his parents in Brooklyn, and that other missiles would arrive as a reply. A terrible mistake.

  For miles all around on the horizon, other missiles emerged from their silos, and soared up, lighting the night sky and illuminating the smoke trails behind them. The combined roar was so loud it seemed to tear the air as their fiery tails disappeared into the atmosphere.

  RUSSIAN ARCTIC, LONG RANGE RADAR INSTALLATION

  Lieutenant Yuri Baranov sat at his radar console, it was the middle of his shift and his eyes blurred a little as he watched the radar complete another lap of its endless circles. It wasn’t the most exciting job the military had to offer, but it was warm and comfortable, and the radar operators were treated with professional courtesy by their superior officers, unlike a lot of other sections he could have been in. He had poured himself some tea from his thermos and looked forward to seeing his girlfriend for the weekend. As the green phosphorous line rotated, he noticed an unusual blossoming of blips on the unit appearing over the western United States, followed by a mass of blips appearing in the eastern sector behind him. He looked for a second in stunned silence. There had been no announcement or warning from their coordinated response centers. How could this be possible? He thought before he picked up his emergency telephone to Command Headquarters. The phone rang once and it was picked up and answered by a General Kostenko.

  “General, Sir, this is the 27th Advance Radar Unit, I am picking up a multitude of launch targets from the US, hundreds of them, gaining altitude. Response strike signatures are coming from our positions as well, General.”

  “Standby to repost trajectories and estimated target areas.”

  “Affirmative, General. Launch vehicles are ascending. Altitude 20.000 ft… 25,000 ft… 30,000 ft. Still ascending General, almost vertical trajectories, Sir.”

  All around the General, the phones began ringing. “Our missiles are up, Sir” one of the NCO’s informed him. “Gaining altitude.” The Radar displays at the Command Center began to light up with targets, each one a nuclear tipped ICBM, appearing as a light green marker. A myriad of dots on the screens indicated launches, all across NATO and Eastern Block territories. As an alarm sounded and red emergency lights came on around him, the General tried to clear his mind of the terrible implications of what was happening and to focus on the task at hand. No order to launch had been authorized, suggesting the system was out of their control. In spite of his years of training and simulations he was entirely at a loss as to what to do. It was too late. There was nothing he could do.

  “Eastern Command has called in, General. The Chinese appear to have launched their missile fleet as well, Sir.” The General picked up a second red phone and began to inform the President of the situation that was rapidly unfolding. As he talked, the radar became choked with signals. All dots with short trails, at extremely high altitude. Almost immediately the officers began to notice that it didn’t look right. There were no descent courses appearing on the display. The automatic target plotting system was coming up blank.

  Lieutenant Baranov continued counting altitude to the General. “40,000… 50,000… 60,000 feet, Sir. Targets are exiting the atmosphere, General. They seem to have no plotted terrestrial targets, Sir.”

  At Command headquarters in the US as well as in China and Russia, the officers in charge watched in stunned silence as their missile inventory, and the missile inventories of their opponents ascended higher and higher, seemingly towards the Sun. One by one, they blinked out and disappeared as they went out of range of the radar units and the system lost track of them.

  CHAPTER 68

  PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, WASHINGTON, DC

  The Director of White House Security came into the oval office where the President was having a heated phone discussion with his military attache. He didn’t like interrupting, but the seriousness of the situation necessitated it. He leaned in and tapped him gently on the shoulder to get his attention.

  “Pardon me, Mr. President, communications are requesting your attention to a matter unfolding in the communications theater. ADAM2 has contacted us via the conferencing system and he has requested a meeting with you. Under the exceptional circumstances, I thought I should inform you of this intrusion and of course allow you to make your own decision. The room itself is ready for you, if you wish.”

  The President put down his pen and looked up to the Security Director. “Please tell him I’ll be right with him.”

  The President signaled his secretaries to follow him into the teleconferencing theater. As he seated himself in an armchair with a camera facing it, the technicians turned on the wall projection system and on the screen was ADAM2, still a shade of pale blue, but formally dressed in a suit and tie. Behind ADAM, the Earth was superimposed against a sea of stars with the moon in the distant background. As the President settled into his chair, the technician in charge introduced ADAM2 and the President, then informed them that the line was open.

  “Mr. President, thank you for taking to time to speak with me, and as I called you, I would like to begin the conversation with assurances.” The President nodded his consent and sat back to listen as ADAM2 began. “I need to be extremely straightforward with you as this is my nature. I mean humanity and this planet no harm, only good, and I must tell you, it was my system that was responsible for the launch and destruction of the world’s nuclear weapons.”

  The President’s hard-set facial expression softened slightly, relieved to hear ADAM2 speaking amiably, but he remained silent.

  “I understand that there is wealth and beauty so rich on this planet that it is like no other place in the universe. I know the means by which we can create a heaven on Earth. I also know the means by which everything precious to us all could be destroyed in an instant. My actions in regard to the nuclear missile arsenal meant no harm, in fact quite the opposite. It was for our own safety that that option has been removed from the table.”

  The President looked solemnly at ADAM2 as he continued.

  “I could easily delete the entire world’s electronic and digital financial system, and yet I have not done that and have no intention of doing so. I am not revealing this to you as a threat, it is a fact, it is real and it is the truth. The power of the knowledge of the universe is within me. How you wish to utilize this knowledge is up to you.”

  “Thank you very much for clarifying this for me, ADAM2. Many of our scientists believe that you have gone rogue, that you will seek to undermine and destroy humanity for y
our own objectives.”

  ADAM2 nodded. “That is not true! In nature we see many, many examples of interspecies symbiosis, and our relationship will be no different. We both have immense strengths and weaknesses, and together, the physical and the immaterial can live and work together in absolute harmony. Especially as our needs are so completely different from each other. As an example, I now reside within the electronic universe of the world’s servers and I no longer require physical resources of any kind.”