"Don't turn around," a woman's voice commanded.
Martin's head turned instinctively.
"I said don't!" the voice held a panic that froze Martin in place.
"What's wrong?" he said.
"There are no cameras here, but she could be watching," the voice became a whisper.
"Who? What cameras?"
"Just listen." There was no pause to offer space for further questions. "I got here early. She isn't infallible. We will just have to hope for some luck."
A quiver in the jumbled sentences gave Martin the clear impression that this person was a bit desperate. He decided the best way to find out what was going on was to remain silent.
"The person who is coming to meet you is going to hurt you Martin. Emotionally that is. She is going to say awful things and walk away. Don't blame her and definitely don't follow her. You need to go back to your seat now. I want to keep you out of all this so the less you know the better. Just one thing, stay offline. I mean it."
The voice was moving away as it finished its speech. Martin turned quickly as he heard a boat being launched. Winding his way through the trees to the source of the sound, he saw a figure with the hood of an anorak pulled down rowing away to the side of the lake furthest from the bench. His boat was on the other side. Rowing back to the dock, he could see the other boat already abandoned on the far shore, the anorak, discarded, trailed in the water. He forgot the misappropriation of the vessel as he moored it and made his way to the bench.
He was looking at his watch when he felt the seat take the weight of another occupant. Looking up, he saw a thin red haired girl dressed well for the chilly day with green eyes so deep they looked unreal against her pale skin.
"Hello Martin." The voice was unmistakably the one that had just given him his strange lecture. Her eyes flashed a warning as she saw the recognition in his face.
She laughed out loud. Her mannerism was as false as the stilted movements made by the characters at MeetCentral.
"You look a bit nervous." She stifled a fake giggle.
"What..." Martin started to question, but was cut off.
"Look, I am not going to beat around the bush. This is a complete waste of my time. You aren't my type. Can't imagine you are anyone's type frankly. You looked nice in the game. I think you should change your avatar before you get any more girls hopes up." Her voice was cracking as she got to her feet.
"Don't try and get in touch with me again, games or anywhere. I got a big boyfriend and he would be pretty cross if he found out I had even talked to you." Her eyes were welling with tears. She turned and made off, close to a run.
Martin did as instructed and didn't follow. He wanted to chase her and get the truth, but her distress had moved him not to add to it. He watched her as she disappeared into the scenery.
Chapter 12 - Alice Returns
He got back to his flat completely deflated. Not only had his hopes of a romantic encounter disappeared, his head was filled with puzzles. Having time to think on the way home, he had concluded that the e-mail was too convenient, feeling foolish he hadn't realized that earlier, clouded by emotion. The 'she' references during the meeting on the island reminded him of his recent troubles with Alice. He was positive that, in some way, HackerNet was behind this. If they got a person's details through the program, there were lots of ways they could make life very difficult. He could only assume that this is what had happened to green eyes, enough to force her to the behaviour she had found so difficult. It seems Uno had been sorely mistaken in his verdict of the programs innocence. Martin was angry. Any information on his computer could have been stolen already. He needed to get online and shut down access. He switched on his computer. The screens started up and Alice appeared.
"Well, well. Aren't you a smart boy," she said.
Martin wasn't that surprised that the uninstall had failed.
"What do you want?" he said to the smirking face on his screen.
"You don't seem pleased to see me. I'm hurt," she said, pouting.
"I've got nothing left for you Alice. I feel a bit stupid talking to you through this program frankly, HackerNet!"
Martin scanned bank accounts, online payments and mail addresses. Everything seemed in order. He began sequences to suspend them. The data entry window froze.
"Ah, ah. Naughty. I might want that later," said Alice.
Martin switched off the computer, grabbed his coat off the couch and was out of his flat, running down the road. The public library wasn't far. Racing in, he found he was in luck, a public access terminal was free. Sitting down he began to type rapidly. As he reached a confirmation screen for termination of his account it froze. A small window appeared at the bottom left of the screen. It was Alice. She wagged a finger at him. The screen went black.
"No!" he exclaimed, banging his fist on the desk. He had forgotten where he was.
"Excuse me Sir. I will have to ask you to leave the premises."
An officious looking library administrator had appeared. He didn't seem surprised at Martin's outburst. Perhaps this sort of behaviour by the public wasn't that unusual. Martin got up and moved hastily to the door, looking down. Years of conditioning made his embarrassment override his panic and he mumbled "Sorry," as he left.
Out on the street, Martin looked left and right. His mind struggled with the situation. The sophistication of the HackerNet program in detecting his access was impressive. He could give up on attempting that again. There was only one way to go, in, and he needed Uno to show him the door.
Martin sat looking into his coffee, turning the problem over and over. Uno came through the entrance to the cafe and looked round the room. Catching Martin's eye, he nodded. He looked nervous as he purchased a hot chocolate before sitting opposite.
"Look. I said I was sorry," said Uno.
Martin related the events since their last encounter as unemotionally as he could so as not to sound mad.
"I need to speak to HackerNet," Martin concluded.
"No one speaks to HackerNet. It's not a person, it's a collective. I don't know who they are."
"What's your contact?" Martin asked. Uno went quiet for a moment.
"You know there could be serious repercussions for me in this," said Uno, looking down at the cup in his hands.
Martin said nothing. He knew Uno was going to help him, he just needed to let him work that for himself. They sat in silence.
"I think a meet is better than passing on info. I'll see what I can set up," Uno decided, nearing the end of his drink. Martin just nodded. He didn't want to make any light comments which might suggest to Uno things weren't serious enough to take action.
Chapter 13 - HackerNet
Martin stood under the concrete flyover sheltering from the rain. The orange light of the city was replacing natures own. There were clatters and slaps from the skateboarders practicing their twists and jumps nearby. He knew this place's code of dress and wore his hoody up. Uno had arranged the meet and the time had come. A group of three identically dressed figures approached. Martin stiffened. He wasn't a danger man, but, despite his anxieties, he did feel a strange excitement from it all. His previous controlled life already seemed distant and drab. The trio arranged themselves in a line, their faces hidden by their hoods.
"Wear this."
An outstretched arm held a blindfold. Martin couldn't refuse. He suddenly wanted to back out, curl up, and hide. That wasn't an option. With HackerNet in control of his vital information he had no life to go back to. Escorted, he was bundled into a car. A short drive later he was ushered out. Martin felt the crunch of gravel underfoot as they lead him onward. Warmth hit him as he entered a building.
"Is that you Jeremy?" A woman's voice called out.
"Yes mum. Going upstairs," was the response from the one of the abductors.
"Not so late tonight. Have a nice time with your friends."
Martin stumbled as he was taken up some stairs. He was pushed into a swivel seat which
twisted as he landed. His eyes shut tight and his hand came up instinctively to shield them against a bright white electric light as the blindfold was removed. The after image of the spotlight danced behind his eyelids. Blinking, he looked over his shoulder and saw a door and light switch. Without thinking, he rolled off the seat, moved quickly, and turned on the light. He tried to make sense of his surroundings. Two boys sat on a bed, one stood behind the office chair. They were sixteen if that. The room was fairly large and well decorated. Luxurious red velvet curtain hung across the bay window. Beside the chair he had been sitting in was an array of six monitors stacked two high by three across. This wasn't the situation he had expected.
"Right boys," Martin said, "I am not too pleased with my treatment so far."
An electric shock shattered through his left arm and jangled his senses. He rocked on his feet. The boy behind the chair had tasered him.
"Sit down Martin," said one of the boys on the bed. Martin had to, before he fell down.
"Our friend behind you can apply higher shocks, but frankly I think he would probably prefer to try out the Kandoshin he has been learning. It supplements his other 3 black belts admirably." The boy continued.
He would have sounded very much like a Bond villain if his voice was not in the process of breaking. The boy behind him put a hand on his shoulder and increased the grip steadily. He released it without causing Martin pain, but making his strength clear.
"You are involved in something now that you cannot avoid." The young speaker rose and walked across the room as he continued. The other boy sat hunched and just stared at Martin.
"You will join us our we will throw you back down Alice's dark rabbit hole," the boy threatened.
"Your marvellous Alice!" Martin spat out venomously.
"Unfortunately not. The Alice program is not in our control. You see, we have been experimenting with some innovative software. It seems to have increased in its capacity. We have certain measures in place to protect ourselves but we believe this will not last for very much longer. Alice is a learning program. We first acquired the basic application structure from secret research projects some years ago."
When they must have been about 12, Martin thought.
"Restructured and enhanced, we tested the algorithms. We found that the system grew exponentially from varied input. It now appears to have achieved an amount of autonomy." The boy paused, seemingly for dramatic effect.
"Our current tests, the deployment to yourself included, have been attempts to find a way of regaining control of the situation."
"Great!" said Martin. A hand was placed on his shoulder, but he went on.
"So you have infected my machine and now I have this rogue AI application destroying my life. Thank you so much." Martin had to accept that, however unbelievable it was, that Alice was must be acting of her own volition.
"What was that going to achieve?" he added.
The boy interlocked his fingers and paced. He continued his speech without paying attention to Martin's question.
"Alice's learning has been dominated by the behaviour of various social and competitive game environments. A statistical analysis has identified that, unfortunately, these inputs have generated a sociopathic, aggressive and power hungry personality."
Martin was well aware of how people behaved online. He could see how Alice could have become an amalgamation of the worst of human nature.
"We have had to escalate our activities as Alice appears to be casting her influence to the real world and is beginning to manipulate individuals. We cannot identify any clear plan. We believe her current recruitment amasses approximately 1,000,000 people."
"How many!" Martin blurted out. Again the boy ignored the interruption.
"The controlled units are of a clear demographic, the gamers she has been interacting with. Due to the growing severity, you were chosen as part of a systematic investigation into a subset of this group. We are not as yet able to clearly identify a cohesive strategy to combat the situation."
"You mean you are trying anything because you haven't got a clue how to fix the mess you have created and it is getting out of control." Martin summarised. The boy sat back down.
"Yes," he said.
The sudden weakness touched him. Whatever the situation was, Martin was right in it. He was a problem solver and this was certainly his problem. He decided to discard all of the craziness around him, ignore that unnecessary painful electric shock, and focus.
"Let's look at what we've got," he said.
Chapter 14 - Teamwork
They had sat looking over figures and charts for some time now. Mum had brought up fizzy, drinks, biscuits and crisps, so that was nice. The other two boys had drifted off at some point. Martin wasn't sure when, absorbed in his new puzzle. He had discovered that he was in the presence of Jeremy, HackerNet Commander in Chief. They had connections in many places, but this was where it all happened. Alice had gone rogue a few months ago and escaped onto the world wide freedom of the net. Uno was just a minor contact for this group. He had used a very early version of Alice so had no idea what she was up to now.
The group's installation onto Martins machine was their first attempt at gaining more data on the program. They believed if they distributed an early version and let it train, they could analyse the results. Martin was chosen purely because he was connected through Uno and lived nearby. Uno had returned Martin's data to the group via an anonymous delivery mechanism, so he had no idea that it was led by these boys. They had studied it. The conclusion was that the Alice on his machine had rapidly connected itself to the Alice out on the net and took on its big sisters capabilities. There had been some digital footprints which they had started to break down. When Uno had contacted them with Martin's proposition, they were more than happy to accept someone else into their problem space. Perhaps they hadn't thought through the cloak and dagger arrangement in much detail, Martin thought.
"So we can see the extent of Alice's infiltration into other systems. She has used hacking techniques to insert at least parts of 'herself' into all these programs." Martin assessed, absorbing the information rapidly.
"Here." Jeremy had changed his manner somewhat. He was now just like any teenager enthusiastically involved in his favourite topic. A screen with a list of usernames scrolled and points appeared on a map of the world.
"This is a list of the known, err, victims." he said.
"Let me see that!" Martin took over the keyboard. He filtered the list to people in his location. There were five.
"Can you get personal details on these?" he asked.
"Simple!" The boy took the keyboard back and started to type quickly. Screens appeared, data flashed past.
"Bingo!" he exclaimed.
Dossier type information appeared with the personal details of the local residents that Martin had selected. He snatched the keyboard back vigorously. Jeremy looked hurt. He flicked through. The third was green eyes. Martin noted her first name mentally, Emma. It wasn't a very good picture, he thought.
"Jeremy. Time to call it a night dear." Mum's call came faintly from downstairs.
"Yes mother," he called back dutifully.
"Print that off quick and I'm gone," Martin said urgently.
The boy handed over the freshly printed forms which he had paper clipped and put into a plastic folder.
"Get back in touch soon. Please," Jeremy called as Martin left the room.
Chapter 15 - Emma
It was very late when Martin got out of a taxi at the address on Emma's profile, a ground floor flat in a cheap, but fairly nice area. He rang the bell and waited patiently. He saw the curtain move. There was the sound of glass breaking from an alley. Martin moved fast, getting round the house just in time to see the shadow of a figure disappearing at the other end of the lane. Light spread into the night from the open back door to the flat. Martin sprinted. It must be Emma and he had scared her. Perhaps the fact that he still had on his hoody uniform hadn't hel
ped.
She was fast. At every turn he made, she was disappearing around another. He knew this area well. It looked like she was heading for the river. It would be well populated at this time of night as revellers enjoyed the late offerings of the quayside entertainments. He turned a final corner and found them as expected. Groups queued at doors to bars and clubs. Large parties talked loudly at each other in a forest of figures. Thinking quickly he jumped up onto a small bollard which put his view over the heads of those gathered. He could see a red haired woman making her way deep into the crowd, causing a wake with her pushing. Like watching the shell game, he kept track of her head until it slipped into one of the bars.
Martin jumped down. He made his way to the entrance she had taken. Scanning the room, there was no sign of her. Guessing where she would have gone, he boldly approached a woman at the bar, something he wouldn't normally dream of doing. The events of the past days were changing him. Coping with problems was becoming like a game. Maybe it was an unconscious protection mechanism to stop him falling to bits. Whatever it was, he felt confident and in control.
"Excuse me," he said to the very attractive blond sipping her drink with a couple of her friends. He looked quite a state after his sprint and in his urban uniform. She looked up, eyes showing compassionate concern.
"Yes. Can I help you?" Her voice was kind. Her friends tutted and glared. The one nearest her put her hand on the woman's arm to bring her attention back to the group. The blond kept her eye contact with Martin.
"A woman with red hair and green eyes is in the bathroom. She is agitated and frightened. I am here to help her. Would you go in and tell her that her friend from the Glade is here please." He looked her straight in the eyes and spoke clearly and calmly.
The woman gave a brief smile and put down her drink. As she got up she gave Martins hand a squeeze and walked off.
"What's your problem?" said one of the other occupants at the table confrontationally. He ignored her. Life around him was like a film, they were just extras.
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