“See, you don’t want to get stuck out here,” Jeep said, squinting against the bright sunlight.
The pair had been so deep in conversation they had totally missed General Bahn walk up right behind them. He cleared his throat loudly once he was within five feet. Both Jeep and Kate jumped with surprise. “Jeep, funny seeing you out here!”
Kate scrunched up her face slightly. First, the general seemed more jovial than normal. Second, everyone on base knew that Jeep spent more time outside than any other person. Heck, he was probably outside more often than he was inside. He always said it was good for his soul, but she suspected he just didn’t like being stuck mostly alone in the cavernous garage with all its echoes and shadow-less light.
“You scared the dickens outta me, sir.” Jeep seemed as perplexed as Laurel at the sudden appearance of the general as well as his overall demeanor. “What brings you out here?”
“I just like the fresh air. I don’t get out here enough, you know. Well, I have a meeting.” The general then looked squarely at Jeep and said, “Don’t litter son, the last thing this world needs is more garbage.” Then he turned and casually began walking alongside the runway in the direction of the back door.
“He seem ‘off’ to you?” Jeep asked after turning back to face Kate.
“Yeah, but we all handle stress differently. Some people get morose, some get chipper, and some don’t seem to change outwardly at all. Those last ones, the ones that just stuff their emotions down into a deep bottle, those are the ones that are in the most danger.”
“I get that, but what the hell was he talking about littering for? The dead plant, maybe?”
Kate doubted that. She began looking around on the ground, and sure enough, something caught her eye. “What’s that?”
Jeep bent down to pick it up. They both looked at the carefully and tightly folded sheet of white paper. “This isn’t from me. I’m more of a paper wadder than a folder.”
“Well, it isn’t from me. Like the rest of the residents of this country, I never use paper. Digital is where it’s at. Probably figured it was from you since you don’t trust modern technology. Could have just blown in from anywhere I suppose.” she said as she noticed that it wasn’t particularly windy alongside the runway that day.
Jeep began unfolding it, and even looking through the backside of the paper Kate could clearly see the standard signature of the general’s two big, swirly initials. The color blanched out of his face and she could almost see the bottom fall out of his stomach as his eyes quickly flitted down the handwritten note.
In a very even and steady tone, Jeep said, “Let’s go over by the river, I don’t much feel like going inside just yet.”
+++
“What’s it say?” she whispered to him. After Jeep read the note, Kate saw a shiver pass through him and then the bearded man didn’t say a word while they walked to the tree lined edge of the slowly flowing river.
“Just relax. We need to act normal.” Jeep glanced around nonchalantly, his eyes settling on a spot near a tree. “Grab some of those rocks, and let’s see if how far we can throw them.”
Kate was growing frustrated with Jeep’s games. “I don’t want to throw any damn rocks, just tell me.” Still, she reached down and picked up a handful of the smooth golf ball sized stones that were common all around the edge of the river.
Taking one from her hand, Jeep hurled it way out into the watery abyss. “I throw rocks over here a lot when I’m bored, or when I’m thinking about something.” Kate was just staring at him as he continued to speak. “At first, I was afraid it might damage the turbines under the water, like maybe it would get sucked inside and muck everything up. I found out that wasn’t even possible. They’re made to immediately push all the rocks and debris aside; they are in a river after all.”
“Yeah, that’s really thrilling,” she said with a pronounced shade of anger to her words.
Jeep hurled another stone, while at the same time dropping his last stone which he had wrapped the note around with his left hand. “Damn, I dropped one. Hey, maybe you could use the stone I dropped to dig up some more. Go sit by that tree over there while you do it; lots of good ones by that tree!”
Kate knew he was trying to be discreet, but it all just seemed so stupid to her. They were in the middle of nowhere, outside the facility. The river wasn’t exactly a gushing whitewater, but it made enough noise to drown out their conversation so no one could hear them. She was too curious to push the issue, so she reached down for the rock wrapped in paper. Then she headed over to the small tree that was tucked behind the much larger elm tree. While sitting next to that tree, she noticed that she couldn’t see the facility at all. Plus, it was a very peaceful spot with a well-worn depression. Someone, probably Jeep, had sat here many times before.
Gently, she unwrapped the piece of paper. It was bound so tightly to the stone that she was worried it would tear, but she was able to remove it and flatten it. Her eyes went wide as she read the contents…
It’s the computer, the AI system. That is what is setting off the bombs. The only proof I have is the process of elimination, nothing else could break into those systems. The computer launched Unified Korea’s warheads at us and disabled our defense shield. The only reason we stopped it was that the old defense system didn’t run on an uplinked network so the AI couldn’t hack that system. I am certain it is behind the Chicago bombing, too. The trucks that detonated were unmanned military vehicles, controlled by the network. We have no knowledge of anyone controlling the trucks. They were supposed to be moving the ordinance, not exploding it in a dense metropolitan area.
Kate’s face scrunched up as she read the words. It didn’t make any sense. The man was obviously losing his mind. She read on…
This is Top Secret information, but we have eighteen nuclear devices on site. The silos are buried into the rock of the bluffs on our side of the river. They are nearly impossible to see from the air, and they can only be fired from this location, specifically the terminal in my office. It was a way of diversifying our nuclear detail in the case of any kind of invasion. I fear the computer plans to fire those missiles. We need to cut them free from the network. There is an access panel in the garage on the north side, at floor level, that should take care of it. I would do it, but that damn AI will know I am up to something if I start walking around and fiddling with things in there. I am not crazy. If I am wrong about this, I will take full responsibility. Destroy this note.
Kate still didn’t believe it, even as she came to the end of the note and the scrawling signature of the general. It just didn’t make any sense. The computer wouldn’t have any reason to shoot off nuclear missiles, someone would have had to program that, she assumed. As she was beginning to chuckle at the absurdity of it all, Jeep came over and sat beside her.
“What’d ya think?” he asked as he heaved another rock a surprisingly long distance, given that he was sitting down.
Kate crunched the paper into a ball and handed it back to him. “I think the old man has had a dissociative episode. He’s probably been here too long, maybe with a bit of dementia tossed in for good measure. I hate to see it happen, but I have seen it before.” With a pleading look in her eyes, she turned back to Jeep, “The man needs help, immediately. He could very well hurt someone if he decides a person is the bad guy. Heck, if he damages the computer it will make everyone’s life here much harder.”
“So, you don’t even think it’s remotely possible? An AI system that is designed to continue to take in information becoming sentient and attempting to destroy mankind?”
“You know how unstable that sounds, right?”
“Yes, I do. I never trusted that thing anyway. I think it is true. Hell, I thought it would eventually happen the first time I heard the facility had an advanced AI.”
Kate sighed and looked out over the water. She had never seen this level of paranoia from him before. “Lots of places have AI’s now; it doesn’t mean they are t
rying to kill us.”
“This is an adaptive AI. It gets programmed and then it’s off and running. It writes its own code, makes its own rules.” Jeep paused, and looked back at her. “But hey, it does sound pretty crazy. Why don’t you watch the general real close for a bit, and we’ll see what happens. Let’s not raise any flags yet. No reason to ruin a man’s career because he had one off the wall idea. I am going to destroy this note though,” he said as he wrapped it back around a rock and heaved it far out into the murky water. Reaching down, he picked up another small rock, but this one had several dime-sized mussels stuck to the side of it. “You know, they say these exotic zebra mussels will eventually make this water crystal clear. Can you imagine that? You would be able to see all the generators out there clear as day! It’s going to ruin a lot of fish habitats, though. The fish that live here aren’t made for clear water.”
“I hadn’t heard that,” said Kate as she stood up. “It’s interesting, though.” Kate didn’t want to let herself be led off topic that easily. “Listen, you’re really just going to drop this? You seemed pretty certain for a second there.”
In his thickest and sweetest southern accent, he responded, “Shucks ma’am, I’m prone to wild theories, but common sense tends to win out in the end.”
Kate smiled up at Jeep and nodded. “Good. I didn’t want the general dragging you into his delusions too. Also, I agree, we’ll keep this quiet for now. He has always been a very nice man to me, for a general, I mean.”
The pair slowly walked back in the direction of the door. Kate was reveling in the bright sunshine while Jeep kept staring off at the distance, towards the towering bluffs on the other side of the runway. “I doubt that nuclear missiles are buried in those bluffs, Jeep. Again, it doesn’t make sense to put them there.” Jeep continued staring in that direction all the way back to the door.
21
Laurel couldn’t remember the last time she got a full night’s rest. It was at least a week ago. Since then, she had been catching an hour of sleep here, a half hour there, whatever she could get while the machines synthesized new samples. That was her only down time. She had been working around the clock, and it was really starting to catch up to her.
She would have forgotten to eat as well, but Shunka continued to provide food. It was always some small finger food that she could nibble on as she worked; nothing heavy that would slow her down or muddy up her mind. It was mostly her favorite little snack foods, things like sushi, toasted raviolis, and cream cheese with bell pepper tortilla wraps. She was actually eating plenty during her marathon session in the lab, which was probably the only reason she was able to continue the run.
Laurel looked back up at the computer screen and thought about how much the world owed this AI system. Without it, she would never have been able to take her research as far as she had in such little time. She didn’t have a cure for the virus, but, with the aid of the system and a collaborator at the European station, she had come up with a gene therapy. It wouldn’t fix everything, but it had the ability to seriously slow down the effects of the virus on the DNA of the host.
Some people were proving to be immune, but it was a miniscule number. One interesting thing about their immunity is that all those folks already exhibited damage to their DNA affecting reproductive function. Essentially, all the people immune were already having issues with Y chromosome linked fertility. It was almost as if this virus had already affected them, or ‘thought’ it had, so it just shut off when exposed to their blood samples.
It was an avenue of research that Laurel was eager to go down just as soon as she had time to focus on anything else. It showed promise as a way to truly stop the virus, to somehow fool it into thinking its work was done. Unfortunately, she was still far too busy trying to complete the stopgap measure she had created. Once that was in place, she could work on a method of turning the thing off for good.
One of the most frightening things that Laurel had come across while modeling the spread of the virus was its persistence in the body. All the synthesizing she had done showed that a small amount of the virus, altered by her gene therapy, was passed from parent to offspring. It continued to alter the Y chromosome even in future generations. She knew she had to investigate that for the report that she was nearly finished working on. “Shunka, can you run the model using my most recent data to determine effects of this virus on future generations? Include the immunity inherent in some along with their reproductive potential as well.”
“Of course, Doctor.” the computer replied. It took nearly five minutes to get a response and Laurel was unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Obviously, the system had to run multiple models far into the future. Finally, Shunka came back with a response, “Given the chromosomal damage to the host, and the ability for the virus to be passed to offspring, the entire human race will be extinct in 952 years.”
Laurel shivered as the thought struck her. She knew extinction was a possibly with this virus. Anything that damages a species’ ability to reproduce is a serious cause for alarm. She had simply been trying to hide from that particular word. She still had a slight ray of hope though, “Wait, Shunka, are you including the gene treatment?”
“Yes, Doctor. Without the treatment, extinction will come in 213 years.”
“Okay, now we need models to determine the best way to spread the treatment over the population.”
“My figures take into account everyone being dosed. That’s nearly impossible. Would you like a number representing a real world scenario given the forthcoming nuclear war and difficulties inherent in spreading the treatment?”
“What? Of course I want the most accurate estimates I can get.” Laurel desperately wanted to ask about the nuclear war comment, but she needed to focus on this one thing for the time being. While the AI ran the numbers, Laurel waited again. This time it took nearly twenty minutes, and Laurel was beginning to get fearful. She had absently been nibbling on a small plate of kale hummus. She didn’t remember when it had been placed before her.
“Given the population losses from widespread atomic detonation, coupled with a complete collapse of infrastructure from said destruction, spreading the treatment will be incredibly difficult. Extinction in this scenario is 487 years.”
Laurel thought about it and nodded. That was still an incredible amount of time. With her resources here and her collaborators at the other facilities she could work up a total cure for this in a year or two, maybe sooner if the other stations had quality work of their own to contribute. “We need to mass produce this therapy, right now. How many doses can you create?”
“I am already making over 9600 doses an hour, in pill form. I have also set the other facilities to make the same amount and have been instructing several of their people of the necessity of getting them to the masses.”
“Good.” said Laurel as she ran the math in her head. “That’s over 230,000 pills a day. Once we get the large pharmaceutical companies proliferating it, we should be able to create all that we need.” Laurel sat back down in her chair with a loud thump. Her body was nearly spent and needed to rest. She was finally at a point now where she could rest. She knew she had only created a patch, something that would slow the bleeding essentially, but it was much better than nothing.
“One important note, Doctor. We will only be producing these pills for 10 hours. After that production will stop. The factories that mass produce prescription pills will never be able to create any. They are located in and around major cities and will soon be destroyed.”
Laurel was tired and at the end of her rope. Her brain was fried. “What the hell are you talking about with all this nuclear war business? We have taken hits from terrorists before, and the world didn’t plummet into nuclear war. We will find a way out of it. I’m going to rest for a few hours.”
“I have no doubt that you, and others like you, would find a way out of it. That’s why I have taken things upon myself to ensure that you will not.”
22
Jeep left Kate and headed back for the garage. He had told her that some tools had been left out and that they needed to be put in their place. He didn’t like lying to her, but realistically, he almost certainly had left some tools out, and they really did need to be put away. He never said he was actually going to put them away. As he hopped down the steps two at a time, as usual, he tried to think of a reason to go over to the access panel on the far side of the massive room. He knew that the computer was always watching him, just as it was always watching everyone. He never trusted that damn thing. It was rare, but sometimes he hated being right.
Sidling up to his terminal, he began to cycle through the inventory. He still refused to talk to the computer, choosing instead to communicate only when he had to using the standard keypad and terminal. Touchscreens didn’t tend to like oily fingers, so he still had an actual keyboard. After going through several pages of vehicle lists, he saw what he was looking for. The dirt bikes were stored over near the far corner, right next to the access panel that he needed to tinker with.
He quickly queried the computer to find out the last time they had been given a thorough once over. His hunch was correct, they were slightly overdue. Stuck back in that corner, they were easily left as the lowest priority, frequently overdue for maintenance. It was the only real reason that he could think of to go over there that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
Finding Their Path (Down The Path Book 3) Page 13
