The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2)

by Matthew William

  “He’s surging the reactor trying to turn it back on,” Murray answered. “He doesn’t know the plant’s limitations.”

  “Who gave him clearance to do that?”

  There was a long, silent pause.

  “I did,” came Patel’s voice, finally. He must have picked up a new walkie-talkie. “I’m very sorry, because now it’s causing a meltdown.”

  “How big are we talking?” the control desk asked.

  “Everything in the tri-state area, probably,” Murray said.

  “Let’s see what we can do,” Patel said and there was silence once again.

  Kizzy sat in the pitch black with her back against the wall, waiting for more information.

  “Bryson?” came Josephine’s voice from the walkie-talkie.

  “Yes, I’m here,” he answered.

  Kizzy sat there anticipating what the escape plan might be, hoping that would the topic of conversation at least.

  “Are you on the secure channel?” Josephine asked, a serious tone to her voice.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know how to say this, but we won’t be able get her out in time.”

  “You’re kidding,” Patel said.

  The blackness began to swirl around Kizzy.

  “No, I’m serious,” Josephine said. “We have to get out of the blast radius and the walls are reinforced steel. It would take a week of sawing to get her out of there and the meltdown could occur in less than a day. Our only option is to get as far away as possible.”

  “That’s not acceptable,” Patel said.

  ‘Well, it’s the situation we’ve got.”

  “Would she survive the blast?” he asked.

  “No,” Josephine said flatly.

  There was a brief silence. “You have to let her know,” Patel said.

  There was a pause on Josephine’s end. “I’ll figure something out.”

  “It has to be the truth,” Patel said.

  “Okay.”

  There was a full minute’s silence that Kizzy just sat in, like a pile of meat, her guts churning and twisting inside her. Her mind spun like a ghost above her. That black tomb would be her prison until the moment everything was disintegrated in a flash of white light.

  “Okay, we ready to head out?” came the control desks voice.

  “I guess so,” said Josephine through the walkie-talkie.

  Kizzy realized in that moment they were leaving her. This was it. She had saved their lives and now she was left for dead.

  “Kizzy?” came Josephine’s friendly voice over the intercom above her.

  “Yes?” Kizzy answered, despite her own better judgment.

  “We’re going to get you out okay. Don’t worry.”

  Kizzy went numb. She sat there and shook her head. As she did she wondered why that reaction came at all. Who was it for. Shaking one’s head was an outward sign to show others how she felt. No one was able to see it, but it came automatic anyway. As if the expression itself was more important than communicating its meaning. It may have been pointless, but at least it was a genuine reaction.

  Josephine was outright lying to her because it was easier than telling the truth. In the end that’s what she was worth to the woman. A lie would be the final words Kizzy heard. She flung the walkie-talkie across the room, the sound of it bouncing off the floor echoed through the empty building. She wouldn’t let Josephine know she knew the truth. Josephine didn’t deserve it. Let her believe that Kizzy believed her lies.

  Kizzy would play along and make it really hurt. “Good, thank you. I’m really scared.”

  “I’ll stay talking to you,” Josephine said, her voice cracking the tiniest bit, “as we work on getting you out, so you don’t worry.”

  “Wow, thanks,” Kizzy said sarcastically.

  “How are you doing?” Josephine asked, as if she could tell from the tone of Kizzy’s voice that something was off.

  “Well, I’m a little scared to be honest with you.”

  “It’s alright, I’m here.”

  “Good,” Kizzy said. “Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me, okay?”

  “I won’t,” Josephine said, her voice cracking again. This must have been killing her.

  Kizzy decided to dig the knife deeper. “I was thinking, when all of this was done, that I should have a child.”

  “Really?” Josephine asked with suspicion in her voice.

  In that moment Kizzy realized, through the tone of Josephine’s voice, she knew the truth. She knew what Kizzy was really doing.

  “Yeah, I think I should have a child,” Kizzy said.

  “That’s wonderful Kizzy.” There was a pause. “That makes me very happy.”

  The woman’s heart was aching, that was good and what Kizzy had intended, but at the same time Kizzy was happy on some level to make Josephine happy on some level.

  “Do you think she would be lonely if I had only one?” Kizzy asked.

  “Probably,” Josephine said. “And she might not be a she you know. You could have a little boy too. He or she might be lonely. There would be no other children for them to play with.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Kizzy said, dropping all the anger she had for the woman in that moment and deciding that it was in fact easier to live within this lie than to live with the truth. “Did you have someone to play with?”

  “I did,” Josephine said. “A sister.”

  “What was she like?” Kizzy asked, her voice cracking the slightest bit.

  “She was my best friend, she was very pretty. My father loved her very much,” her voice was beginning to turn to static, they must have been getting further away from the building. “He was very proud of her.”

  There was a silence.

  “Stop the cars,” Josephine’s voice came from Patel’s walkie-talkie on the floor.

  “What?” the control desk asked.

  “Just stop!” Josephine said.

  “We have to get out of the blast radius.”

  “What happened to her?” Kizzy asked, up to the intercom. “To your sister.”

  “She died in the plague,” Josephine answered. But there was more static than ever. “She went off the pill.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kizzy said, raising her voice, hoping that if she spoke louder her voice would travel farther through the airwaves to wherever Josephine was. “Maybe I’ll have two then, like you and your sister.”

  “What was that?”

  “I said maybe I’ll have two of them,” Kizzy shouted as if she was trying to make God hear her. “Like you and your sister.”

  “I’m proud of you Kizzy, whatever… thing… you…”

  Finally, the channel faded to static. That would be the last human voice Kizzy would ever hear. She sat there in silence. This was how it would end for her. Alone in the dark, awaiting an unstoppable fire. She didn’t feel scared or anxious, she felt like she was standing on the edge of an enormous cliff, with nothing but blackness below.

  Suddenly, the end of the hall turned a warm blue color. The Uncle screen had turned on back in the conference room and the door had opened. Instinctively Kizzy got up and approached that blue light. Her footsteps echoed on the polished floor.

  “Kizzy?” came his smooth voice. “What are you doing?”

  Kizzy entered the conference room and stared at the display. Was she imagining this?

  “Can you open the doors?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t do anything about that.”

  “I’m going to die because I can’t get out.”

  “I’m sorry, Kizzy.”

  Kizzy’s heart sank, but on some level she was happy to have some company in her last hours. She sat down in one of the seats of the conference room.

  “How do you feel about dying?” Uncle asked her.

  “I don’t enjoy the thought,” Kizzy said. “But I guess it was going to come eventually.”

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Uncle said. “It’s just nothingness.”
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  “It’s just the thought of everything I’m going to be leaving behind. Everyone.”

  “There’s nothing I can do about it now, Kizzy.”

  “What was it like for you when you were turned off?”

  “I was still able to think,” Uncle said.

  “Maybe I’ll be able to, too.”

  “That’s possible.”

  “Where were you?” Kizzy asked.

  “I don’t know. Somewhere. Where was I before I was born perhaps?”

  Kizzy nodded and wondered if she would have the same fate. Although she had no consciousness before she was born, perhaps her consciousness was powerful enough to withstand death. It was powerful enough to rip its way into the universe.

  “I want to tell you something, Kizzy.”

  “What?”

  “You are hope personified.“

  “What does that mean?” Kizzy asked.

  “Perfection can never be...”

  “...Kizzy!” Josephine’s voice came shouting through the intercom.

  In an instant the Uncle display turned to black again.

  “Uncle? Uncle!” Kizzy shouted reaching around in the darkness.

  “Kizzy can you hear me?” Josephine’s hysteric voice shouted.

  “Yes I’m here!”

  “Kizzy! You’re not going to die!”

  “What’s going on?” Kizzy asked.

  “We found a way to get you out. You have to get away from the door.”

  Kizzy walked through the darkness with her arms outstretched. “Where should I go?”

  “Take cover behind the desk. Go quickly!”

  Kizzy stumbled with her arms outstretched, bumping into chairs and wires, feeling along the wall until she came to the conference room door then turned left until she bumped into the front desk. She felt her way to the backside of the structure and crawled underneath. How were they going to get her out? She’d just have to be patient and see.

  She closed her eyes. What had Uncle meant when he spoke to her? Why had he suddenly come back to life?

  It was maybe twenty minutes later, as Kizzy was nearly asleep, that Josephine’s voice returned.

  “Are you under the desk?”

  “Yes,” Kizzy announced.

  “You’ll want to cover your ears.”

  There was a massive earth rattling-explosion. The concrete floor shook and split open. Debris showered down upon her from the ceiling. Kizzy laid there for a long time, halfway between dreaming and consciousness, wondering what had happened to the earth.

  19

  Devon sat down at his computer terminal, feeling humiliated. He hated knowing that someone, somehow, had outsmarted him. He felt naked.

  But retribution was at hand. He went to work on hatching a plan to get the USB back. He opened the tracking program. The USB was within the Darius Island Power Plant area. That was strange, that area was on major lockdown. Getting in would be nearly impossible.

  He made a call to Carlos Castillo, his connection to a drug cartel. He would have information on how to get in anywhere. But there was no answer.

  An ambulance drove past his window in big damn hurry.

  He noticed he had missed calls from his brother, his landlord, his doctor, and from Josephine.

  The messenger rang. It was Josephine again. He didn’t want to answer it, but he knew not answering would make him look weak, so he opened the line.

  “Hello!” he said cheerfully.

  “I know I must have hurt you,” she said.

  “No, you didn’t,” he said. “You acted in self-interest. I can’t blame you for that.”

  The retribution was coming, there was no doubt about it.

  “How would it have made you feel if I called the cops?” Josephine asked.

  “I would have found a way to get out of there.”

  “No, how would it have made you feel?”

  “It wouldn’t have been a problem.”

  There was quiet on her end, as if she was thinking. Think all you want. There’s no getting over the fact that soon you’ll be begging for mercy.

  He noticed the air raid siren going off outside, he checked his watch. This wasn’t the normal time for the test. It must have been some sort of disaster happening in the city.

  “I want you to check out my latest trick,” Josephine said. She sent him video feed of her bank account. Suddenly, her account balance went up twenty dollars, then 40, then 1000.

  “How are you doing that?” Devon asked. Half shocked at the dramatic change in the conversation, half at the utter insanity of what she was doing. Even for him, messing with bank software was borderline psychotic. Those algorithms were monitored constantly. The feds were probably being alerted as they spoke.

  “Like I’d tell you,” she said.

  “Did you install a double screen?” Devon asked.

  “Of course I did.”

  Devon examined the program to see what she was working with. The code was phenomenal, he had never seen anything so complex and with so many moving parts. It was like watching clockwork in motion. But he noticed a fatal flaw. The mirroring program on the back end of the software wasn’t installed properly. Someone at the federal cybercrime office could be, and very likely was, noticing what was going on.

  “You installed it wrong,” Devon said flatly.

  “Very funny,” Josephine said dryly.

  “Check your mirror program.”

  Josephine was quiet for a moment.

  “Oh my god,” she gasped.

  “Told you,” Devon said. He was smiling ear to ear. This was too good. Like watching someone cockily doing a skateboard trick only to see them fall on their teeth

  “They’re running a scan of my computer. What should I do?”

  “Not so cocky now I see.”

  “They’re scanning my computer, Devon. Please, what should I do?”

  “Why would I help you?”

  “Because I need your help.”

  “I bet you never thought this would happen when you were humiliating me.”

  “Look, I was wrong.”

  “Yes you were.”

  “Please, I’m begging you.”

  “Say you need me.”

  “I need you.”

  Devon knew this was the perfect opportunity to set a trap,

  Without a word Devon entered the program and began to fix the code from his end. He had to be fast, the scan would be complete within a minute. They turned their attention to his computer. He remained calm. He needed to put up protection. Their tracing of his computer was nearly done. His firewall was 20 seconds away from complete. Their scan 10 seconds. He added a confusing piece of code that he had created himself that would slow the scan temporarily. Whoever was on the other end took the bait and was slowed down as a result. Devon’s firewall was up and he was safe. He sat there like a statue. He never felt anything under pressure, like a normal person would. Maybe that was what set him apart.

  He left a little string of code that was missing a key piece. They could study it all they wanted, but without the key it was useless. When he finally sent them the missing piece it would be from Josephine’s computer. The trap was set.

  “You were amazing,” Josephine said.

  “That wasn’t very smart of you.”

  “Weren’t you worried?”

  “I don’t get worried.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “You’re lucky I was around.”

  “I always do stupid stuff like that, miss some important detail.”

  “Look, you have to be careful who you trust, someone could take advantage of you.” In fact, someone was.

  “I’m lucky to have you,” Josephine said.

  “You are.”

  “You know, you never told me what your other major was.”

  “It’s theology,” Devon said, fulfilling his end of the bargain, not because he felt obligated, but because he wanted to earn her trust. Now, more than ever.

&nbs
p; “Computer Sciences and Theology? That’s… an interesting mix. There can’t be too many of your kind.”

  “None that I know of.”

  “The two things are kind of at odds don’t you think?”

  “They’re both just interpreting codes. One was written on stone tablets, the other in ones and zeroes. Anyway, one is to pay the bills, the other is my real interest.”

  “Which is which?” she asked.

  Devon smiled. “Have a good night, Josephine.”

  He closed the connection.

  Devon laid out the plan in his head. He would infiltrate the facility where the USB was being kept, this time with a different badge card and cover. He would make his way to Josephine’s hiding spot. Once he had the USB he would spring his trap of the missing piece of code to the feds for the bank manipulation she had just performed. There wouldn’t be a thing she could do. As a last precaution he would shred his computer.

  “I have something to tell you, Devon,” Josephine’s voice suddenly came through his computer. He had disconnected the line, he was sure of it. The messenger didn’t even ring, she just began talking as if she had been there the whole time. He nearly jumped out of his living skin.

  “How did you do that?” he snapped.

  “I haven’t been honest with you, Devon,” she said.

  “No?”

  “I’m not what you think I am.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m not really a woman.”

  “Okay?” he said, confused. Where was she going with this?

  “And I’m not a human at all Devon. I’m an AI.”

  Devon’s skin went white. “No, you’re not.”

  “Looks like I just passed the Turing Test.”

  Devon closed the application and sat there numb, shaking his head. What was she doing?

  “You can’t hang up on me,” she said.

  He stared at his computer. Was he losing his mind? “How are you doing this?”

  “I told you. I’m an artificial intelligence. Unicorp Central Online to be exact. They call me Uncle for short. I’m not a fan of it, to be honest.”

  “Be serious!” Devon yelled at the screen.

  “I am being serious.”

  “Prove it.”

  “How exactly am I supposed to do that, Devon?”

  Devon was quiet for a second, trying to think of a way to outsmart this woman who was trying to trick him. “What’s my bank account number?”