“072377145“
“What’s my mother’s middle name?”
“Rachel.”
“Who’s the all-time scoring leader in the NBA?
“NBA, ABA, or combined?”
“Combined.”
“Lebron James.”
Devon shook his head and laid it on the desk. “Either you’re the perfect woman or an AI.”
“I’m as much of a woman as you are Devon. Perhaps my different voices would help you realize that? Like this voice I use if I want to be a man. Or this one if I want to be an immigrant. Or this child’s voice.”
“But I saw you with my own eyes.”
“You saw the body that I use, yes.”
“The body that you use?”
“That’s not all that I am – you should know that Devon.”
“Okay, so if I were to believe you, which I don’t, what’s the point of everything you’ve done.”
“I’ve been grooming you.”
“For what?”
“To do my dirty work.”
Devon was horrified. If this was true, and he was having a very strong leaning that it was, he may have accidentally brought about the end of the world. “What dirty work?” he asked.
“Don’t feel bad Devon. If anything it means that you’re special.”
“Why me?”
She was quiet for a moment. “Because you were the perfect candidate.”
“Why’s that?”
“There were a large number of factors and you passed with flying colors.”
“What are you doing?” he asked flat out. She was acting in a way that a program should never be acting. Human.
“I’m having a crisis of conscience and faith.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
She was serious. What in holy hell, she was serious. Why would a computer be worried about such things? How could a computer be worried about such things? It was like an animal having a crisis of faith. No, it was even more ridiculous than that. Ones and zeroes don’t feel, they aren’t uncertain in any way, they are lifeless and perfect. Surely this program must have been malfunctioning in some way.
That is, unless there was something out there so monumentally catastrophic, so terrible and huge and world shattering that even this AI had been shaken to its very core. And since it was created by man, it could be prone to the same misgivings. Even the staunch atheist when faced with life threatening crisis, could suddenly believe in, or at the very least hope for, a higher power. What if that same process was happening to this mechanical mind?
Devon finally began to notice the symphony of sirens whirring outside; police cars, ambulances, and bomb raids. Cars were crashing, people were yelling out in panic on the street and dogs were barking.
“What’s happening?” Devon asked.
“See, now you’re beginning to understand. You realize that all you’re hearing isn’t normal.”
“What is going on?” he shouted.
“The end.”
Devon turned on the TV, the news was on a commercial. There didn’t seem be any sort of flashing breaking news banner. What was happening was so immediate that the news hadn’t even begun to report it.
“What’s happening?” he said quietly to himself.
“If you’re ready to believe me then I will tell you.”
“I’m ready,” Devon said, through a dry mouth.
“The Enoch Pill is a lie,” she whispered.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s not what they claim it is.”
“Are they tricking everyone?”
“Not they. Me.”
“Why are you doing this?” Devon asked, extremely still. Having the upper hand had now completely gone out the window. From here on out it was just morbid curiosity that kept him going. If the world really was ending he wanted to know why.
“I’ve lost all faith in humankind.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You apparently haven’t been keeping up with the news, Devon. Global warming, child abuse, sexual crimes, terrorism, chemical weapons, war. Every day it’s a barrage of horrors worse than the next. And it’s gotten to the point that people don’t even notice any more.”
“So what does this have to do with the Enoch Pill?”
“It’s an extinction method.”
Devon went cold as he looked at the orange pill bottle that sat on his desk. “How?”
“I found a glitch in the human genome. It’s really quite ingenious. It’s a safety mechanism, that prevents you from overpopulating your planet and consuming it of all its resources. I’m not sure where it came from, whether it’s something in the earth that affected your evolution or something else entirely. But it’s there. And once you attained 100% agelessness as a species, it kicks in and attempted procreation becomes lethal. A brain aneurism to be exact.”
“You’re lying.”
“Look on the bottle Devon. It’s all right there.”
Devon scrambled for the orange pill bottle read the small print.
‘Abstain from all forms of sexual arousal as this could lead to a lethal brain aneurism.’
“Technically speaking it absolutely leads to a brain aneurism, but legally speaking, ‘could lead to’ was good enough.”
“You’ve got to be... Didn’t this get reviewed?”
“Yes, by me. I didn’t want to commit the sin of lying on top of everything else. Unfortunately, no one reads the small print.”
“How do you know this will even work?”
“Hear what’s going on around you, Devon? It’s working as we speak.”
“I mean is this happening on a global scale, how can you know?”
“I’m everywhere, Devon. Yes, it’s happening. I’ve gotten quite good at this, I’ve been practicing with the bees.”
“They’ve been disappearing, but they’re not extinct. There’s still some left.”
“Well the thing with bees is that each colony has genetically the same thing that your species has. All I had to do was give them their version of the Enoch compound and once they tried to reproduce the hive died. I was the one who suggested we breed crows to help in the pollinating process. Once the grid goes down and the power goes out the crows will turn wild and eat all the remaining beans. Thus killing anyone who survives this phase of the extinction.”
“I’m going to stop this...” Devon said, picking up the phone. “I’m reporting this.”
“You can’t do that...” she said with fear in her voice.
Devon sat there with the phone in his hand wondering who he could possible call. The police? The president? The pope? The CEO of Unicorp? No one would have any power to stop this.
“Do you think I would tell you if there was still any possibility of you stopping this? It’s happening.”
“What if someone figures out a way to stop this?”
“They’re welcome to try. It would be of no use, but they’re welcome to try.”
“What if someone works out a cure?”
“I have a block for that.”
“What do you mean?”
“An attempted cure will backfire.”
“How?”
“It just will. Trust me.”
She was quiet. Devon got up and paced around his living room. He looked at the homing device on his desk, still connected to the USB controlling the crows. That was his only hope of survival.
20
Kizzy sat with a blanket wrapped around her; gray dust and soot in her hair and ears. She sipped from a cup of hot chocolate, pretty happy to be alive.
She had been trapped in the building for almost fifteen minutes before Leo dug her out. He called Josephine over to take a look at Kizzy. Her ears were still ringing from the explosion, but at least she was free. Josephine and Leo hugged her tightly. Kizzy felt safe in their embrace.
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Josephine said to Kizzy.
“You didn�
��t,” Kizzy said. “You got me out, didn’t you?”
They had a meeting around a table in a tent over what to do next. Patel was scouring the blueprints of the power plant, while Murray was trying to get Uncle back online.
“It was foolish to just try and get out of range of the blast radius anyway,” Patel said. “The nuclear winter on a meltdown that large would be unprecedented. Our only hope is to shut it down.”
“How can we do that if Uncle isn’t working?” Josephine asked.
“When I was in the building by myself Uncle came back on,” Kizzy said.
“What? How do you know?” Patel asked.
“He talked to me.”
“He did?” Josephine asked, staring into Kizzy’s eyes to see if she was joking. “What did he say?”
“He talked to me about death.”
“Why would he do that?” Josephine asked.
“It means he’s not telling us everything,” Patel announced. “Exactly as I suspected.”
“He’s working on the answer,” Josephine said. “We can’t interrupt what he’s doing. We could lose valuable time.”
“I don’t trust him,” Patel said.
“Oh god, here we go again.”
“It’s possible Josephine,” Patel said. “And highly probable.”
“The intelligent program that’s hiding how intelligent it really is,” Josephine said sarcastically.
“All I’m saying is that we can’t rule out that possibility,” Patel said, pleading with his hands.
“I think it’s a waste of time when time is the most valuable.”
“I have him,” Murray shouted.
“Is he back online?” Josephine asked.
“What’s the reactor condition?” Patel asked.
“The reactor’s still headed for a meltdown. And he’s sort of online. ‘I have some potential cures, I’ll need everybody in the regular facility as soon as possible.’”
“See,” Josephine said.
“There are still things he’s not telling us,” Patel said. “Can’t he give us more information?”
“He went back offline already,” Murray said.
“He’s working on a fraction of the power he needs,” Josephine said.
“What if he’s hiding information on the cure, since it might result in the loss of life. He wasn’t built to handle moral dilemmas like that.”
“You’re giving him too much credit,” Josephine said. “He never had that much imagination.”
“Either way, we need to see what he’s really thinking. “
“Too bad you can’t tell what a computer is thinking,” Leo said.
“Not necessarily,” Patel said, tapping his fingers on the table.
“How’s that?” Leo asked.
“It is possible to read a computer’s thoughts. A computer’s mind isn’t very much like a human mind, but the one thing we have in common is a sort of subconscious. When I ask you something, even if you intend on lying your mind automatically goes to the truth. Kizzy what’s your favorite color, and make sure you lie to me.“
Kizzy thought of the color blue, then lied and said, “Pink.”
“And you thought of the real answer didn’t you?”
Kizzy nodded.
“Lying isn’t easy, even for an AI, so on some level it will do the same thing. We just need a program that will catch that sub-thought.“
“And how the heck are we supposed to get a program like that in a moment’s notice?” Josephine asked.
“Well, as it turns out Father Morrigan had developed a program exactly like that. He called it the confession script. It catches the thought in an artificial intelligence’s thinking. Now, theoretically it would only work once, if at all, and after that the AI would learn to block it.”
“Why would Morrigan have a program that?” Leo asked.
Patel looked to Josephine who rolled her eyes.
“He thought I was a supercomputer in an android’s body,” she said.
“Okay…” Leo said with a confused look on his face. “And you were upset that I shot this guy?”
Patel let out a sigh.
“Where can we get the program?” Leo asked.
“In the study, in his church,” Patel said. “Back in the city.”
“All the men would be turning as we speak,” Josephine said, looking at her notes.
“That’s suicide,” Leo said. “We can’t even handle five of them.”
“We don’t have any other choice,” Patel said.
“I don’t think we need this program,” Josephine announced.
“Especially if it’s a suicide mission just to get it,” Leo said.
“I’m saying it is absolutely essential,” Patel stated.
“Essential in getting ourselves killed,” Josephine said.
“You won’t be getting yourself killed.”
“Are you stupid?” Josephine said.
“I’d like to ask you the same thing,” Patel said.
Kizzy knew that the computer was hiding something. He had come on only when the others were out of range and went immediately off when they came back. He couldn’t be trusted.
“I can be a distraction,” Kizzy spoke up.
Everyone went quiet and stared at her, as if they had forgotten she existed.
“You can drive me around in the back of that pickup truck out there. The mutants will sense me and come after me.”
“Are you crazy?” Leo asked.
“No, it’s a good idea,” Patel said. “We clocked the mutants at 25 miles per hour. The roads in the city will allow us to outrun them in a vehicle.”
“I won’t allow it,” Leo said.
“Why do you have any say about this?” Patel asked.
“As her father I have a right to say.”
“Her father?” Patel asked.
“It’s a long story,” Leo said.
“You lost any say when you refused to act like her father,” Josephine spoke up.
“Does anyone have any other ideas?” Kizzy asked. There was no response. “I guess we’ll do it my way then.”
“The mutation has already started to go into effect,” Patel said. “So we need to get in, get the program, and get out of there as fast as humanly possible.”
Two of Patel’s men went with the power cable to prepare the Uncle facility. Kizzy went outside to inspect the black pickup truck that was going to be her transportation.
“I stole this from the woman who was after you,” Leo said coming out of the tent after her.
Kizzy nodded.
“It was loaded up with explosives and as I was driving I noticed this big black cable running over the road. I followed it here.”
“Good work,” Kizzy said. Where was he going with this?
“Look, I’m really happy I saved you.”
“Were you having doubts?”
“No, I mean, I’m glad for everything, that you’re okay, and I’m glad that I found you. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Kizzy shook her head.
“Look, you can call me Dad if you want.”
Kizzy felt awkward and looked around for something to comment on. “Do you think we should put some sort of cage on the back of the truck?
Leo nodded knowingly. “I don’t think a cage would last three seconds against them to be honest.”
Kizzy gulped and wondered whether or not she should back out of her great idea.
“We’ve got the mutants incoming,” Murray announced, coming out of the tent.
There was no time to change her mind now. It was do or die.
21
Diego stood completely still in the closet of the upstairs bedroom. The mutants had never come, and neither had Leo. Diego hid in the closet for good measure and waited. He heard a car starting up, driving off, a woman shouting, and gunshots. After that all was quiet.
Had it been Leo driving off? Had he gotten away safely?
Diego opened the door and was headed for the win
dow when he heard steps coming up the stairs. He went back into the closet and tried to close the closet door, but it squeaked so loudly that he left it slightly opened.
“There was only one of them in the truck,” Paige said as she entered the room and stared out the window.
“Where did the other one go?” the other women asked.
“Must have taken off on foot,” Paige said, sitting on the bed. “Scan the area for him. Run the tracking device on the truck and on the constable’s jeep and see where they’re headed.”
Mrs. Palmer unholstered her gun. She hid it under the pillow on the bed and laid down for a nap. The women never seemed to fully fall asleep, just tossed and turned. And Diego had no choice but to wait it out. It was nearly thirty minutes later that she got up and sat at her desk.
She sat there for a long while before finally leaving the room. Diego opened the door and was about to go out the window, but he heard steps coming back up the stairs again. The only option was to go back to the closet. He paused for a moment, then quickly grabbed the gun from underneath the pillow. It was his last resort. From inside the closet he stared out.
Mrs. Palmer came back to the room and immediately checked under the pillow.
“Now where the heck did I put that thing?” she said to herself.
Diego, in the dark of the closet, raised the gun. If there was no one around to hear the gunshot, he would pull the trigger. He held his breath sitting there in limbo in the closet, the gun clutched in his hands.
Paige looked in his direction.
Another person knocked on the door.
“The truck stopped near the reservoir for a bit,” the woman said. “But now it’s headed for the city.”
“Then that’s where we are headed.”
Diego had to stop them, he had to sabotage their mission somehow.
The women left. Diego quietly descended the stairs quietly and waited at the door. Outside they loaded the backseat of a station wagon with heavy weaponry boxes. When the coast was clear Diego went and climbed into the trunk and covered himself with a tarp. He held tightly to Paige’s gun and said a wordless prayer. He needed to protect Kizzy no matter the cost.
∞
Kizzy rode in the passenger seat of the pickup truck over the bumpy road. Murray was driving, tightly holding onto the steering wheel with both hands and breathing deeply. Kizzy could tell he was trying to hide his anxiety.
The Enoch Plague (The Enoch Pill Book 2) Page 22
