by J. Thorn
Gerry slowly opened his eyes again. Her porcelain skin was entirely without blemish. Her dark, auburn hair flowed in wide ringlets to her shoulders, contrasting starkly with her skin. Emerald green eyes with a mesmerising quality widened with a smile. “Hi,” she said.
“Hello, erm, hi…”
Petal jabbed an elbow into his ribs.
“Hey!”
“Stop staring, and get moving,” Petal said, rolling her eyes.
Enna held a hand out to Petal and helped her further into the room.
“Hello, my darling. You’re looking a little run down,” Enna said to Petal as they walked.
“They’re getting harder to contain. The AIs are evolving. There’s another one… trying to get in…” Petal took a deep breath, unable to finish her sentence.
A sheen of sweat covered her face, and she stumbled over her feet as she was led past a number of chrome-topped workbenches. The room resembled a lab or a medical theatre: various tube networks and tanks with dark shapes floating in yellow liquid lined the walls.
“Wait, I need help with Cheska,” Gerry said.
“Leave her. She’s dead. For now.” Enna spoke with not a hint of sympathy.
Before he could remonstrate, she added, “Don’t worry about her. She’s one of mine. She’ll be fine. I’ll fix her into another vehicle later.”
“Vehicle?”
“That meat bag you’re walking around in.”
She pointed a finger at the tanks, and he understood. Somehow she was transferring personalities into bodies.
Enna took Petal into an elevator and waved him in urgently.
The small metal box, just big enough for the three of them, descended into the ground for what felt like ten minutes. It got to the point where he wondered if it were moving at all. During the journey, Petal’s eyes closed, and a rising panic threatened to overwhelm him.
“Where are you taking us?” Gerry asked.
“My lab. Petal needs urgent medical attention. I see you shot her with ’Stem. What happened?”
“That was Gabe. I was with her while she was downloading into Old Grey. She collapsed. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t understand any of this.”
“Gerry, listen to me carefully. I want you to take care of Petal from now on. I fear Gabriel’s code has mutated. He’s acting entirely out of his parameters.”
“What do you mean? You’re talking as if he’s a robot or something.”
“Or something,” she replied. “These two work for me, and I do a certain degree of monitoring to ensure their safety—and the safety of others. They are highly specialised transcendents, and I can’t afford for one of them to go rogue.”
Gerry sighed with frustration. It seemed every question only deepened his misunderstanding. “What’s a transcendent? And more importantly, what the hell was that thing that attacked me?”
“First line of security. I’ve got a lot of valuable things here. I can’t just allow anyone to break in. It was also a transcendent, like Cheska.”
“You mean you’re making artificial humans?”
“Sort of. I build vehicles mostly and transpose altered personalities into their control centres. They don’t even know they’re ’dents. They know themselves as real people with real motivations.”
“So are these personalities artificial intelligences?”
“Yes, of a sort, within certain parameters. You won’t understand, and really, I don’t have time to explain fully. All you need to know is that Petal isn’t like anything else, and I need to keep her alive.”
The elevator jolted to a stop, and the doors opened.
The temperature was much lower down here, and goosebumps broke out on Gerry’s skin, despite his heavy coat.
The room itself resembled the one where Gerry had encountered Old Grey. Even down to the smoky atmosphere. Beyond the smoke, a pair of chromed tables dominated the centre of the room.
“Help me with her,” Enna said as she carried Petal to one of the tables.
Together they lifted her up and laid her on her back. Her eyes remained closed, and Gerry had to squint to ensure her chest was still rising and falling.
Enna strapped her down and, like a touch from a mother to her child, wiped Petal’s forehead and tucked a lock of her pink hair behind her ear. Enna took her goggles and placed them carefully on a worktop that lined the side of the room. Above the worktop was a series of cabinets. Various bottles and pieces of hardware lined the shelves.
“Did you create Petal?”
Enna shook her head. “No, I found her with Gabriel. Realised they were something different and took them under my wing.”
“For what reason? Just who are you, and what do you do here?”
“You ask too many questions. Not to mention the wrong ones. All you need to know is that Petal has an innate ability to consume—and hold—for a time, malicious code. Each time she does this, it weakens her. But, we need her: Seca’s getting too bold. Sending too many AIs into the Meshwork. Without her and Gabriel, we’d be at war with City Earth, and our ongoing survival just doesn’t call for that.”
Taking a flask from a cabinet, Enna poured the contents into a syringe before injecting it into Petal’s neck. “Don’t worry. It’s a painkiller and antibiotic mixture. She’ll be fine in a few hours. She just needs to rest. Let’s look at you, and then we can discuss a proposal.”
“Do you have a node here I can use? I want to check on the rogue AI.”
“Yes. I can help you with that. But we have matters to discuss first.”
Enna led Gerry to a room just big enough for a pair of sofas. Between them a table held an old-fashioned teapot and china cups—and a plate of chocolate cake. Just like his mother used to make. Enna poured him a cup and handed it to him.
“I noticed your interest pick up when I mentioned Seca. You know of him?” Enna said before taking a sip of her own tea.
Gerry breathed in the steam. It had a mint essence to it, and something else. He didn’t trust it and placed the cup casually back on the table while slicing a hefty wedge of cake.
“I don’t know you. How can I trust you?”
“Given I’ve just injected your best friend, I think it’s a little late to worry about trust.”
She made a fair point. Gerry relaxed into the soft cushion of the sofa and said, “His name came up while we were accessing Old Grey. He’d put in some kind of security to prevent Petal from downloading her various demon AIs.”
“You bypassed it, though.” It was a statement, not a question.
“You spied on us?”
“Not really,” Enna said. “That bartender is one of mine and reports back to me any access to Old Grey. I used to deal directly with Bilanko, but she won’t talk with me anymore. Afraid I was going to steal Old Grey from her.”
“So anyway, about Seca. He put in the security, which I bypassed. And he left me a video. Someone has infiltrated Cemprom.” He didn’t mention his betrayal by his wife. It still stung.
“Who’s this infiltrator?” Enna asked.
“He calls himself Jasper. I knew there was something up with him the moment he joined. It seems it was he that helped the demon AI bypass Cemprom’s security into my boss—with the help of my wife, no less.”
“That’s cold.”
“Yeah. It got into Mike’s AIA and managed to manipulate the lottery algorithm—until we exorcised and contained it. It’s in Old Grey if you want to know more about it.”
“This other AI that you’re tracking—”
“The one aiming for Kuznetski?”
“Yes. It’s not doing that. City Earth would have wiped it out way before it got as far as it has. This tells me two things: Seca’s AIs are getting stronger, and its program is for someth
ing else. How safe is the D-Lottery mechanism now?”
“I don’t know. I had to disconnect my AIA, and since I’m not there now, I have no access to Cemprom. I wouldn’t be able to get through anyway. They think I’m a dead man. With Mike out of the way, the place will be on lockdown.”
“But Jasper’s still there.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’m not sure,” Enna said, now sitting further forward on her sofa. “Ask yourself this: What would Seca gain from having direct access and control over the D-Lottery? And let’s forget the whole Kuznetski thing, because even if he was taken out, so what? City Earth would just cover it up and install another figurehead. He’s just there for the population to think it’s got a proper government.”
“He could essentially kill anyone still on the network.”
“What if there was no network? What if the Family took control and shut it down?”
“Then the place would have zero security anywhere. That’s the whole point of City Earth. Everything is interconnected.”
“So Seca, and anyone associated with him, could just walk right in and take over?”
“I suppose so, but why? There’re still ways of getting in and out. I’m proof of that.”
“Yes, but only on the fringes. If and when you return, it’s not like you’ll have your regular life back. You still can’t be a dad to your daughters. You’ll still be arrested and executed.”
“So it seems we need to figure out what Seca wants with an entire city.”
He tried not to think too hard about his daughters. It hadn’t been a day, and already he missed them so much. Throughout everything that had happened since he left the City, he’d compartmentalised the grief and anguish. He closed his eyes and in his mind tried to put the pain to one side. Tried to reassure himself they were safe and he’d see them again.
“I’ll do you a deal, Gerry. I’ll give you access to my data stores, because I know you’ve got a bunch of questions you want answering, even if you don’t know what they are yet, and I’ll help you locate Seca so you can find out the reason behind this attack and put a stop to it. In return I want those chips you’re carrying in your pocket.”
“How did you—”
Enna tapped the side of her temple and smiled. “Let’s just say I have intel sources.”
“What’s on these chips that’s so valuable? And this doesn’t feel like a great deal. I give you these chips, risk my life finding and stopping Seca, in return for some information—how do I even know that would be useful? What else can you offer me?”
“You’re forgetting something I’ve already given you.”
“What’s that?”
“Partnering up with Petal. Trust me. She’s as great a gift as anyone in this world could give you. She’s special, Gerry. Real special. Besides, with my help, you’ll likely survive and get to see your kids again.”
She did it. She hit the one thing he couldn’t bargain against. And whether he trusted her or not, it wasn’t a risk he was willing to take in turning down her offer—if it meant seeing his girls again. Still, he played it cool.
“You didn’t answer me. What’s so important about these chips?”
“What does it matter to you? You can’t use them. Look. Do you want to know about your real family? About your childhood? Who and what you really are? I can get all that information. It’s what I do. You thought Bilanko was a dealer of info? She’s an amateur compared to me. All I want is those chips.”
“Humour me. I’m intrigued.”
“They’re from the hacker, right?”
“Yes. I took them from a badly made transdermal implant.”
She nodded. “Yup, that sounds like one of Seca’s. He’s in too much of a hurry to do anything properly. He’s sending out AIs and hackers before they’re ready, before they’re capable. Which for us, right now, is a good thing. But the latest AIs have nearly taken down the Meshwork, and well, you’ve seen the damage one can do if it can get inside one of your people’s AIAs.”
“Seca’s just a coder?”
“Just? No. He’s more of a system designer. He employs coders to build his viruses and AIs. That’s why I want the chips, to study his processes, find out more about what he’s doing. I want to know how he made the chips. I want to help you, Gerry.”
Mulling it over, he didn’t really see what his options were. The chips were useless to him, and both Gabe and Petal trusted this woman, and if there was a chance she could help and that he could reunite with his family, it made sense. Gerry took the chips from his pocket and handed them over. “Here. You’ve got a deal.”
“That’s my boy.”
“Now can I have access to your node? Or would you rather I begged?”
Enna gave him a quick smile. “Follow me.”
She led Gerry through a door behind her sofa into a similar sized, and styled, room. This one, however, featured a number of terminals that to Gerry seemed like the ones installed in Gabriel and Petal’s room. Though she didn’t have the same elaborate chairs—eschewing them for more comfortable armchairs—there were patch cables hooked up to the flat terminal screens. Two were already switched on, and streams of code flowed in an ever downward scrolling pattern.
“Take a seat.”
“What are we doing?” Gerry asked as he sat opposite Enna.
She passed him a cable and plugged one in her own neck port. “We’re going to do a little experiment. I want to have a look inside you and see what freaked out Bilanko. And yes, I saw that too. Surveillance is kind of my thing.”
“Voyeurism you mean.”
Her lips pursed and turned up into a slight smile.
“It never hurts to look, Mr Cardle.”
“Depends on what you’re looking at.” His mind, against his will, turned to that damned video again. But he soon extinguished those painful scenes as he plugged his cable in and was transported to a virtual reality projection.
A blanket of white enclosed him. A few metres ahead stood a tall figure wearing a long, flowing ball gown. He looked down at himself. He wore a tuxedo and dress shoes.
“Virtual reality? Really? Isn’t this all a bit old fashioned? What are we doing here?”
The avatar opposite him approached him and took his hands into a dance stance.
“You can dance the waltz, can’t you, Mr Cardle?”
“Not really. You’ll have to lead.”
Enna did just that, dancing with him across the floor at an increasing speed until they left the ground altogether and, with a crude graphical transition, broke through the ceiling and into a dark, starry night.
“I want to show you something. Then I need you to put your skills to work.”
In the far distance, a pinhead of white light shone brighter than any star. It grew larger as they drew nearer, and Gerry recognised it as City Earth—or at least a basic graphical representation of the Dome. They approached closer, and he noticed a stain at the zenith of the Dome.
“That… thing is the AI trying to access Kuznetski’s AIA. Purdy, ain’t it?” Enna said with a mock Western accent Gerry remembered from an old film.
Gerry floated his avatar down lower to make out the details. Thick tentacles spread out across the acrylic panels of the Dome. The many suckered arms culminated into a central, bulbous sac, which expanded and collapsed rhythmically.
“It’s just a fancy graphic interpretation,” Enna explained. “A way for me to interact via the Meshwork. We’re riding Gabe and Petal’s network. We’re gonna do a little slice and dice.”
“Why don’t we just contain it, like all the other AIs Petal captured?”
“I want to study this one. Now, I’d like for you to hook into its data stream and disable it, but not kill it. I want it to continue to run so
I can observe it, but I want you to disarm any weapons it might be carrying.”
“Wait. Here in VR space, if I can disarm that thing, then surely it can—”
“Harm you? Yes. Of course. But you have real talent, Gerry. I’ve seen it. I can see in you what Bilanko saw, and I think this won’t pose too much bother to you… hopefully.”
“Hopefully? Look, I don’t want my consciousness lost and floating about in some antiquated VR system.”
“You’ll be fine. I’ll be watching, anyway. Have a sense of adventure! Get to work, old boy.”
“On one condition.”
“You and your deals and conditions. It’s like you’ve been spending time with Gabe or something. Okay, what do you want?”
“Explain to me what you and Bilanko saw in my head.”
“Sure. I don’t fully understand it, but I’ll tell you what I know. Afterwards.” Enna reached out and grabbed his avatar and flung him at the squidlike thing on the Dome.
He crashed into the 3D model, and his own avatar flickered as the VR system struggled to draw the graphics. Inside the model he saw the data flow into the city. The system represented these as brown paper packages the size of shoe boxes floating through transparent tubes, which ran from the top of the Dome and down into the various building settlements of the city. Curiously there was no data—or packages—coming the other way. Whatever the AI wanted, it certainly wasn’t taking anything away.
Scanning the thing took just a few seconds of thought. Gerry imagined a number of Helix-based commands and sent them floating towards the AI. These were represented by tridents. The weapons slammed into the creature and, through their metal poles, sent lightning back to Gerry’s avatar. He sighed. “Are these pointless graphics really necessary? It’d be much quicker if I just patched in remotely.”
“Shush! It’s fun. Less talk, more extraction, code monkey.”
Eventually, through the slow graphical process, Gerry got his first look at the AI’s code. It didn’t appear to be particularly elegant or clever. A library of functions ran sequentially, sending out data packets of information. Gerry attached his consciousness to one of the packages and looked inside. They weren’t encrypted, or Enna had somehow bypassed the encryption through the VR system. On each data parcel, Seca’s ID blazed like a beacon. Unsurprising, Gerry thought. The data inside, however, appeared to be unreadable.
