by Taylor Buck
Kelly sensed Tom’s confidence and pressed him back. “Ok…are you going to let me know how exactly how?”
“The cloud…my V.A.” Bennett replied.
“V.A.?” Kelly responded.
Bennett shifted gears and sped along the dirt road toward the city.
CLOUD VIRTUAL AGENTS
BILLIONS OF BINARY bits holding massive amounts of information are transferred throughout the air at any given moment. Cloud technology is not new—it’s been around for years—but it has gotten smarter.
Initially, bandwidth technology wasn’t able to properly feed cloud systems. So the usage of Cloud technology remained in its infant stages for years. Today’s cloud intelligence was a whole new breed of resource and utility. It had evolved and become an active resource in our daily lives. Cloud interface systems were controlled by Virtual Agents who provided analysis and contextual advice based on user behavior. Virtual Agents, or VA’s, analyze a user’s behavior through their everyday interactions, whether it be their phone calls, emails, photos, driving route, medical log, shopping trends or online browsing behaviors.
Virtual Agents could, for example, design your family’s weekly dinner schedule based on everyone’s current health profiles, fitness goals, and taste preferences. They could organize your documents for you and check you in for your flight. There were, literally, limitless possibilities available. With cloud technology, digital storage was no longer a worry to consumers. Space was virtually limitless and easily accessible.
Manufactures began to integrate cloud technology and VA’s into everything from cars to shopping malls to movies and consumer electronics. As the demand for Virtual Agents grew; so did the demand for cloud space and bandwidth. Companies started battling for ownership in the virtual world and the cost of internet lowered until it was eventually given away for free. Advertising dollars funded everything.
Eventually the corporate war over ownership was won. Cloud technology was monopolized and became privately managed by a single multi-national tech corporation based in China. It became known as truCloud.
truCloud offered users a high-speed connection anywhere in the world. Anyone and everyone with a connecting device could access the internet for free. Users still had the option to purchase upgrades in order to increase individual bandwidth performance, but internet accessibility as a whole had become standardized.
Virtual Agents became available with paid subscriptions. They became like personal assistants for individuals and households alike, able to manage everything from personal to long-term plans. Since VA’s kept track of ones personal behavior patterns and calculated their routines based on percentage success rate, VA intelligence was even smart enough to make important life decisions for you. The Virtual Agents would calculate an outcome based on your past mistakes and achievements. They would then deliver various options, each accompanied by a percentage of success rate.
It soon became normal for a person to run everything by his or her VA. After all—you could, of course, make up your own mind—but why risk failure when you could weigh your options with such calculated precision?
“IT SHOULD BE backed up,” Bennett said. “I’m just not sure about the connection. The upload connection, that is. The signal wasn’t good in the forest. I don’t know that it had a chance to sync with my VA in time.”
“How will we know?” Kelly asked.
“I’ll have to check my computer once we get back to the hotel—or my phone, if it gets a good connection. Hopefully my VA was on the ball and picked up on my interest in it. It would’ve secured it as soon as I took the picture…as long as it had a signal.” Bennett wanted to kick himself for not taking the memory card out of the camera when he had possession of it.
“So, what do you intend to do with that key?” he asked.
“I’m going to go in there to see what they’re doing with those cats,” Kelly said, as if Bennett was crazy for asking.
“You want to break into the building?”
“I’m not breaking in if I have the key.”
“Technically you are,” said Bennett.
“Tom, I can’t just do nothing now that I know they’re there. Something is going on.” She turned and looked at him with her sparkling eyes. “You saw that place. They could be running experiments on them or something. Those tubes?”
Bennett could tell she wasn’t going to let it go. That wasn’t Kelly. Bennett knew she wouldn’t rest on this until she had fixed it. She had a passion for her work and helping animals. This was a situation that required her attention now. Bennett had to take responsibility since he had brought her into this whole thing. He knew he might as well get on board now.
“You’re right. We’ve got to do something. Let’s call the police,” Bennett said and reached for his phone.
“I thought you didn’t want to call the police,” said Kelly.
“That was back there. When that psycho was holding a gun on us. Trust me, we didn’t want to press that guy. He was definitely ex-military, probably Ranger or Delta. I’ve run with those guys—they snap easily.”
“You think he would’ve shot us?” Kelly asked.
“I think guys like that are looking for a reason to. He was protecting the place. Who knows how far he was willing to take it?”
Kelly looked out the window. Pondering what Bennett had just said. She let out a heavy sigh. “I just really want to know what they’re doing in there. If the cops show up at the facility, they probably wouldn’t get the full tour…you know what I mean? Those people would probably just cover it up—hide the panthers. That place looked very private…the way it was completely hidden from view.”
She looked over at Bennett in a determined manner. “That keychain could probably get us anywhere in that building. I just want to get in far enough to take a few pictures— expose the truth.” Kelly held her hands up in the form of a camera. She became animated when she was trying to prove a point or get her way.
“So you want to go back? Should I turn the car around right now?” Bennett asked sarcastically.
“No. I want to get this keychain checked out first.” She ran her fingers over the translucent square. The gold circuits shined brightly in the sun as she turned it. “I think I know who can help us.”
CHAPTER 20
CERTA FACILITY
15 OCTOBER, 2:00 P.M.
The garage doors lifted up and Danner pulled the Range Rover into its designated parking space. He walked back toward the building and looked down at his phone. It was two o’ clock. Still no sign of Covington. The search for the robot was proving unsuccessful. Rick Danner wasn’t accustomed to failing and he wasn’t about to start. He needed to find the robot before Dr. Perry returned tonight. Lorry had to be located and he needed to find her before another attack happened.
The entire grounds—the whole forest, was dangerous territory right now. A predator was on the prowl. What made it even more disconcerting was the fact that the predator had already killed, and had apparently done so on its own accord. Kane’s death had put Danner on edge.
The photographer and the biologist had thrown Danner off course as well. He hadn’t planned for it and it had put him in a tough position. Not only were they on undisclosed government property—which put the company at risk of exposure—but they were completely vulnerable to Lorry should she choose to locate and attack them. He had escorted them away quickly in order to avoid an attack. He couldn’t afford another corpse to deal with on the property.
It was definitely strange that they had shown up when they did. Danner figured he should be more concerned with the fact that civilians had uncovered the location of the CERTA headquarters. But right now the only thing on Danner’s mind was finding that juggernaut. He was fairly certain the couple hadn’t seen much anyway.
He checked his phone again to see if he had recei
ved any new messages from Dr. Perry. Perry had been lighting up his phone with messages all morning to find out if there was any progress on locating Lorry.
No new message…Good.
He needed to head back out and continue searching. He had to locate Jim Covington. And Danner wasn’t fooling himself in thinking Covington was still alive. He knew he was tracking a corpse—not something he was looking forward to. It would take some time considering he was sectioned to hunt outside the shock fence. Covington’s replacement, Tegan, should be back within the hour to continue the search.
Danner needed the help…he needed to find Lorry…time was running out.
Perry would return later this evening and Danner knew he needed to have something to show for by then. He was starting to get desperate.
How had this whole thing happened?
Why were the juggernauts attacking? It didn’t make any sense. It was as if they were controlling themselves completely—not following their programmed instructions and disregarding all safeguards put in place. A robot had killed a man. Danner knew the enormity of it. This was big—big news. The whole project could blow up at any moment and Danner felt responsible for it. Dr. Perry had blamed him for the entire thing.
Rightly so. He should have planned for this better.
Still, why were they acting independently? Danner didn’t know under what intention the attack happened. Were they killing irrationally? Did they feel threatened?
Braden needed to get down here. Where the hell was he?
Danner dialed Braden’s number again. It just rang and rang…no answer. An instant later, a message popped up on his phone. He looked at the screen. It was Tegan.
Got your message. Be there in less than an hour.
Good, Danner thought. It was time for this to come to an end.
CHAPTER 21
WILDLIFE REFUGE BORDER
15 OCTOBER, 2:00 P.M.
Helicopters, huh?” Detective Lee wrote down Helicopters on his notepad. “How often?” The woman looked off in the distance, scanning her memory.
“Seems like they’re always flying over. I’d say two or three times a day, recently.”
Lee wrote down: Helicopters flying overhead, sometimes three times a day. He asked a few more questions about suspicious activity in the neighborhood.
Detective Lee had been checking with the houses around the area to gather any clues pertinent to the case. He hadn’t gotten much from the few homes surrounding the crime scene so he was checking the houses a few blocks out. Most of these people were kanaka, native Hawaiians, dwelling outside of town. Many spoke only native Hawaiian. Any English came through as rough pidgin. They also weren’t used to getting many visitors coming by their houses. The woman with whom Lee was currently speaking seemed to be contributing some useful info. Since Lee was kamaʻaina, he was able to speak to her in the native tongue.
“Have you ever gotten a good look at the helicopter? Do you know what color it is?” Lee asked.
The lady thought for a moment. “Well, It’s white. I know that.” She paused as if she were recollecting something else. “It has a picture on it too. Like a symbol or something.”
Detective Lee didn’t think much about the helicopter. There were many helicopters on the island—almost all of them white. The Big Island alone had at least five different helicopter tour companies that Lee knew of. The tourists loved to fly over the island and get a birds-eye view. Most of them just wanted to see down into the volcano.
“Was the symbol a wave or a palm tree or something like that?” Lee asked.
“No. I don’t know what it was…a bunch of dots or something.”
“Dots? Do you think you could draw it for me? I have a pen right here.” Lee produced a pen and paper for the woman to write with. The woman looked at Lee with hesitation, as if he had asked her to draw a police sketch. Then she conceded. “Ok. Sure, I’ll try.”
The woman grabbed the pen and paper and began roughing out a few dots. She scrawled out a group of dots in a square shape. Then she added a line up the middle dots and connected a line through the top row and bottom row dots. “There,” she said. “Something like that, I think.” She handed the paper back to Lee. He looked at it. At first glance it looked like a circuit or a small bug. But it was nothing he had ever seen before. He folded it up and slipped it in his pocket.
“The helicopter flies low, just above the trees. That’s how I see it. It’s loud,” the woman said and spread her arms wide. Lee noted it.
“Ok, thank you for your time, Ma’am. I appreciate it. Mahalo.” Lee bid farewell.
He headed back to his jeep. Then he took out his phone, snapped a quick picture of the drawing and emailed it back to headquarters.
CHAPTER 22
HAWAI’I MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, HILO
15 OCTOBER, 2:30 P.M.
A half hour later, Bennett and Kelly pulled into a commercial office complex located off a private driveway along the Hilo shore. It sat atop an acre of lush grass surrounded by miles and miles of black lava rock. The building had a beautiful view that looked out over the Pacific Ocean. Bennett drove up the private drive lined with large palm trees, and parked the truck. He and Kelly got out and walked up the pathway to the door. The sign out front read:
Hawai’i Medical Research Center | A Branch of the University of Hawai’i at Hilo
Kelly led the way through the front doors. Bennett followed Kelly through the lobby and up into an office on the third floor. The office was surrounded with windows that peered down to the ocean below. Bennett noticed the scent of the room—a pleasant leathery aroma most likely from the expensive couch and sofa, which faced each other. Plaques and certificates lined the walls and a picture of Kelly and her brother Colin sat on top of the desk at the far corner of the room.
Dr. Donald Adler sat behind the desk, presently in the middle of a phone call. He saw Bennett and Kelly enter the room and he quickly ushered them in with a hand gesture and pointed to the chairs in front of him. He finished up his phone conversation and stood up to greet them.
“Thomas!”
Dr. Adler’s shiny white hair and tan skin reminded Bennett of a doctor he would expect to see on TV. He was a kind man and had always treated Bennett like part of the family. Dr. Adler was highly respected among the medical field in the Pacific and was fortunate enough to live out his dream career on the Hawaiian Islands. It was a dream life for most. Bennett considered Dr. Adler as one of his role models, especially since Bennett hadn’t had much of a relationship with his own father.
“Great to see you, pal.” Dr. Adler shook Bennett’s hand firmly with a big smile.
“You too,” Bennett responded. “I wasn’t aware you had an office on the Big Island.”
“Yeah, my home away from home.” Dr. Adler motioned around the room. “I actually prefer it here. It’s quite peaceful. There’s a good team working here too. Smart folks.” He walked around his desk and gave Kelly a hug. “How was your presentation, sweetie?”
Kelly smiled then rolled her eyes. “Ugh, Dad. It went fine. But I’ll never be able to get them to put enough money into it. They are such sticklers.”
Dr. Adler looked at Bennett. “You know Kelly is leading development on a new Wildlife Observatory on Oahu? She is Director of Operations for the new facility. It’s going to be geared toward schools and young children.”
“I didn’t know that. That’s fantastic Kelly,” Bennett said and looked over at Kelly who was smiling bashfully. “How far into development are you?”
“Well, we’re in phase two right now. The initial buy-in has happened, but now I’m having to squeeze every dollar out of the board that I can. Needless to say, funding is going slow. We had a healthy grant up front that helped get everything moving, but we’re running out of money quick. Lots of expenses inv
olved.”
“Just let me know if you want me to call that private investment firm in New York I told you about. I could make a call right now,” said Dr. Adler.
“I know dad, I’d really like to see this done here though. It’s for the people of Hawaii. I want it to be something they can feel a part of and be invested in.”
“Of course, sweetie. I understand,” he replied with a kind smile. “So what brings you here today? I appreciate you stopping over, but I have the feeling you’re here to ask me something.”
“You’re right, dad…I have something I want to show you.”
Kelly pulled the keychain out of her pocket and gave her father a rundown of what had occurred in the forest a few hours ago. Dr. Adler listened intently to her story and seemed to get concerned when they mentioned the man with the gun. Kelly showed him the keychain and Bennett noticed she failed to mention anything about her plans to return to the facility that evening and break in.
“Well, I’ve certainly never heard of CERTA before. This is an island, but I suppose it’s large enough that there could be establishments around not of my knowing. May I hold the keychain?” Kelly gave it to her father. He held it in his hand. “This is an RFID. Looks to be a newer model too,” he said.
“You mean, like a key card?” Kelly asked.
“Well, yes. But it’s much more than that. These devices contain mass amounts of data in a compact size.” He held it up in the light. “You see there?” His finger hovered over the gold circuit. “That circuit alone can contain over a terabyte of information. Depending on the information associated with it, it could contain access codes, programs, databases, tracking sequencers…even transmissions.”
