by Mike Kraus
“That’s what I think happened.” Dr. Evans shifted in his seat to address both Rick and Jane at the same time. “I think they took our base and then integrated their advanced learning machine algorithms and pointed them at every computer system they could.”
“And thus Damocles was born.”
“Maybe.” Dr. Evans shrugged. “I’m not sure it was that fast, though. I think that perhaps they started with the intent to use it as a spying technique. A way to infiltrate systems quickly and covertly no matter what those systems were built on. Then someone recognized other potentials and weaponized it.”
“I’m going to guess that a few folks have tried shutting it down to no avail, eh?”
Dr. Evans nodded solemnly. “The version that was let loose was—and I’m not being hyperbolic here—the worst, most dangerous version of the program imaginable. There were no restrictions placed on it whatsoever.”
“Why would they even have something like that in their system? And who would steal it and let it loose?”
“They were probably running testing simulations. Whoever let it be exposed to a networked system in that state—or any other, quite frankly—needs to be shot in the head if they’re still alive.” Dr. Evans reached into his satchel, pulled out a metal water bottle and took a long drink. “As to who would steal it I doubt we’ll ever know. A foreign government? A teenager with too much time on their hands? Or maybe the software jumped out on its own. That doesn’t really matter anymore, though. What matters is stopping it.”
“Why? It seems like things have kind of slowed down here lately, right?” Jane glanced between the two men as she looked for a confirmation.
“That,” Dr. Evans said as he nervously cleaned his glasses again, “is precisely what worries me so much at this particular moment in time.”
“Why is that?” Rick had a feeling that he wouldn’t like Dr. Evans’ answer and he was correct.
“Damocles, from the start, was built to slowly ramp up its attempts to assimilate within a system in a steadily increasing fashion. When I was on Air Force One I was given all the data they had on the changes to Damocles and I’m afraid that design characteristic was significantly increased and improved upon.”
“So the virus ramps up its attacks? Is that what you mean?”
“More than that. Each new level of attack seems to bring something else. It’s designed to disrupt key parts of a particular target on a vast range of scales. It could be used to attack a company or a country. Damocles scales based on what’s required to complete its tasks at hand. On a country scale—like we see right now—it’s going after key sectors of the economy and infrastructure, like with the vehicles and phone networks and drilling operations. The stock market was one of the first things to get hit.” Dr. Evans wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. His face was red from talking so quickly and passionately and he sat back in his chair to take a few deep breaths.
“So this little lull here probably isn’t a lull?”
“I doubt it very much. You’ll notice that we aren’t at nuclear war. Yet. I suspect measures that extreme were left as a measure of last resort to be executed only when all other measures had been carried out. Given this lull, though, it may be that Damocles is evaluating what to do next and deciding whether or not those final measures should be executed.”
“Dr. Evans,” Jane interjected, “you make this thing sound like it’s alive. Like a robot or something.”
“No, no, no.” Dr. Evans shook his head firmly. “It’s most certainly not sentient, if that’s what you’re implying. We’re decades or more away from anything of that nature. No, Damocles is an extremely sophisticated piece of software with a huge number of choices it can make based on an equally large number of inputs it takes in. It’s complicated beyond belief but it has no thoughts of its own. It is following its directives to the letter.”
“That’s good.” Rick sighed. “But still doesn’t help us very much.”
“I know. When I was on Air Force One I was in the beginning stages of figuring out some potential solutions to shutting Damocles down in a way that wouldn’t require frying every computer on the planet. The inability to communicate with anyone else who is informed on the topic and the crash both hampered my work.”
Rick saw where Dr. Evans was going and nodded. “Let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”
Chapter 8
Outside Ellisville, VA
“Are you sure they’ll be okay?” Dianne found herself asking Jason the same question for the fourth time as they drove down the dirt road. She hadn’t expected to feel so nervous about leaving her children at the house for half the day but as they headed out she had felt a twinge of pain in her heart for doing what she felt like was abandoning them.
“D. Come on now.” Jason kept his eyes on the road as he talked. “You’ve done a hell of a job training Mark and I’m pretty sure Jacob could handle himself in a pinch, too. Sarah’s a better shot than I am. They’ll all be fine for the day. I promise.”
Dianne snorted and laughed. “I hope she’s a better shot than you. Otherwise it’d be her I’d have to worry about, not the gang.”
“Hey now, just give me a place to sit or lie down and watch me go to work. I’ll be able to handle myself just fine.”
“I know, I know. I’m just teasing.” Dianne smiled at Jason before looking out at the road ahead of them. “It’s funny how normal things look right here.”
“Why wouldn’t it? It’s just a bunch of trees.”
“I don’t know. When I think about the end of the world I think about fires, meteors and rivers of lava. Not trees and snow and clouds in the sky.”
“Not everything’s terrible at the end of the world.”
“No.” Dianne pointed ahead of them. “But some things are.”
A few hundred feet away at the edge of Ellisville sat the remnants of several burned out vehicles. Rust was rapidly accumulating on their twisted frames and though they had only been there for a couple weeks they looked as though they had been sitting out for years. Jason took the truck through town slowly, keeping the engine as quiet as possible as they listened out through the open windows for any other vehicles.
Dianne assumed that there were still a few people left in town but after thirty minutes of driving and searching she was beginning to think that everyone up and left. “Where is everybody?”
“Gone to the big cities. Trying to get food and shelter from the government, I suspect. Not that there’s much food and shelter to go around anymore.”
“This reminds me of some natural disasters, like earthquakes and hurricanes. Everybody up and leaving due to floodwaters or something like that.”
“Does anything look different in town compared to the last time you came out?”
Dianne shook her head. “It’s been a while and we didn’t explore very much so I have no idea.”
“Hm. I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Besides, you know, the place looking like a tornado blew through.
“We should head west towards Blacksburg and see what’s out that way. If you’re up for some off-roading.”
“I think I can handle it.” Jason smiled and turned the corner, heading in the general direction of the highway leading out towards Blacksburg. He followed the same route that Dianne had taken just after the event, when she and the children had run into one of their after-school teachers who was leaving the city on a motorcycle. She had considered trying to go off-road to search for other people but decided instead to head back to the house.
With her and Jason now in pursuit of a gang who had burned down the Carson’s house she was glad that she had made her original choice. She was also looking forward to inflicting no small amount of revenge upon the people who had taken Tina and done who-knows-what with Dave.
Intended to help relieve the stress on the smaller roads and the main US-460 highway, the 460 business highway was split into north and south routes with the southern o
ne being the original and the northern one being the new one. The new northern road took a westerly route past Ellisville and through into Blacksburg where it merged with US-460 proper. Dubbed “the slow-way” by those in the area, the highway passed by Ellisville, went through Blacksburg and out to the northwest. Though it was relatively new it was under constant repairs due to the haste that had gone into its original construction. Traffic was nearly always backed up along all sections of the road including the on and off ramps near Ellisville.
“Wow.” Jason whistled softly as he saw the piles of destroyed cars clogging the ramp onto the highway.
“Yeah. It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?”
“If you think this is bad you should see what it’s like in the bigger cities.” Jason revved the engine as he went off-road into the soft dirt and grass, driving in a wide circle around the vehicles and the guardrail near the ramp. “Bodies everywhere, cities burning, more vehicles than this scattered everywhere. I can’t believe all of this devastation could be caused by some sort of malfunction.”
“Tell that to my phone and my car.”
“Damn. I forgot about what happened to our phone. Same thing happened to yours, huh?”
“If yours burned to a crisp then yes, exactly the same.”
“Hm.” Jason shook his head, focusing away from the conversation and back on where he was driving. The guardrail stretched for a good half mile and the ground was soft enough that the large truck felt like it was going to get stuck or slip into the rail at any second. Once Jason got them onto the highway Dianne breathed a sigh of relief before groaning at the sight before them.
“Holy cow. How… how are there so many cars here?” Before them stretched four lanes of burned-out vehicles as far as Dianne could see.
“They don’t call it the slow-way for nothing. Must have been bumper-to-bumper when it happened.”
“Huh.” Dianne sat back in her seat and thought for a few long seconds. “Then those guys can’t be based out along this way now can they?”
Jason’s eyes widened and he nodded thoughtfully. “That is a very good point. Where else would they go, though?”
Dianne opened up the map they had been studying at the house the day before and flattened out the section around Ellisville. “What if they’re using one of the back roads? One that would give them unrestricted movement while simultaneously keeping them away from major highways that would be too obstructed to use.”
“Like 407?”
“Exactly.” Dianne traced the path of the road out to the west. “It has plenty of connections between Ellisville and Blacksburg, it runs the whole way and it doesn’t see much traffic on account of how narrow and twisty it is.”
“Interesting. I would have assumed they’d choose a major highway to be on, though. Just in case there was any foot traffic.”
“What about here?” Dianne pointed to a spot on the map where 407 and the northern 460 business routes came very close to each other. “There’s one of those big gas stations out there that…” Dianne trailed off, then looked over at Jason. “That has to be it.”
“Absolutely. It’s slightly elevated, there’s already a structure there—well, if it didn’t explode like everything else—and it’s close to a highway and road they could actually use to get around on. Yes. Yes that has to be it.”
Dianne nodded. “Okay, we’ll check there.”
“One problem, though.” Jason scratched his chin. “How are we supposed to get close to it without being heard or seen? If we take 407 they’ll spot us half a mile away. We can’t exactly take the highway.”
Dianne held her thumb and index finger close to each other over the scale on the map and estimated out the distance between the spot where they were currently sitting and the spot where they thought the gang might be hiding. “Looks like we’re three, maybe four miles away. Think you can make it half that distance off-road?”
Jason grunted. “Hm. Is that a challenge?”
Chapter 9
Somewhere in China
The Great Firewall is no more. It took Damocles less than thirty seconds to identify a weakness in the firewall’s infrastructure and another sixty seconds to spread to the network of devices on which it operates. Billions of internet-connected devices were next to fall. Those with batteries were overheated and destroyed. Those without were shorted out, locked up or otherwise rendered inoperable. For some of the one point five billion residents of the country their lives are upended. Those living in and around the most populated areas suffer from catastrophic losses as the power goes out and fires rage unchecked through overbuilt cities.
For others, though, their lives continue on much as they normally have. Blackouts—a staple of life in many parts of the country—are thought to be the reason for the loss of electricity. With no cellphone towers up and running Damocles cannot spread to any mobile phones that were not previously infiltrated so the number of injuries and fires from destroyed phones is much lower than in the cities.
Life carries on for the rural residents. They gather together, help each other out, continue to till their fields and go about their daily routines. The first signs of trouble come when the military sends out convoys to collect food. The collections are larger than normal and the farmers cannot get the soldiers to say anything about what’s going on. The farmers are warned at gunpoint not to enter the cities and the soldiers leave, carrying the food back to the cities to be distributed amongst the residents.
The lack of preparation by most of the civilian population for such a catastrophe means that residents not in rural areas begin to suffer immediately. Medicine and food runs out in less than a day. Transportation systems are jammed or destroyed, stranding millions of workers far from their homes and loved ones. Fires bring down miles worth of city blocks, killing many and inconveniencing even more. Starvation looms on the horizon, approaching like a rider on a pale horse.
While the government deploys troops to keep its citizens alive it also works on a solution to the Damocles problem. Uninfected systems are thrown against the virus and different measures are taken to destroy, block or delay it. None of the measures are effective. The best only buy a few extra seconds while the virus analyzes the new set of parameters and adjusts, quickly routing around the blocks and destruction attempts.
Hidden away in isolated bases and bunkers, the leaders of China struggle to cope with the situation. The redistribution of food can only work for so long and with millions upon millions left without homes, jobs or a way of lasting for more than a few days on their own the country is looking at a decimation of its population in less than a week. Looting, rioting and outright civil war has not yet begun but the government knows this is bound to happen before too long given what is going on in other countries.
Three satellites owned by China still operate, sending back images to computers deep underground that have yet to be discovered and infected by Damocles. The operators of the satellites are not in positions of authority and the senior government members are not close enough to reach by any functional communication systems. The operators resolved themselves to documenting the unfolding apocalypse, using the imaging sensors on the satellites to produce highly detailed pictures of as many countries as possible.
One day the images may prove useful to historians. For now, though, they are simply a way to keep boredom and the thoughts of death at bay.
Chapter 10
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
Outside Colorado Springs, CO
It was four in the morning before Dr. Evans had finished giving Rick a crash-course in the details about Damocles. Jane had gone back to her room for a few hours of sleep before bringing in a pot of coffee, three mugs and a few packs of food that were a cross between a breakfast casserole and a pile of mush.
“Any progress?” Jane poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down in a chair, curling her legs up underneath herself.
Rick poured a cup of coffee for himself and Dr. Evans and shook his head. “
Not a lot. I understand quite a bit more about this thing but the more I understand the more potential solutions I think of keep going out the window.”
“It is vexing, isn’t it?” Dr. Evans sipped from his mug.
Rick flipped over some papers onto which he had scribbled notes while Dr. Evans was talking. “If Damocles is in pretty much every internet-connected device then that means those devices will infect anything that connects to them. So beyond the fact that destroying every infected device would be impossible from the get-go, once devices started talking to one another all it would take would be one infection to cause the virus to spread all over again.”
“Precisely.”
Rick scratched his head. “Isn’t there a back door into the system? The feds have used back doors into private systems enough times that you’d think they’d have a few into their own.”
“I’m afraid not. Damocles can be accessed but it requires an authentication using a 2048-bit encryption key.”
“Wait. What?” Rick nearly dropped his cup of coffee in surprise. “It can?”
Dr. Evans nodded slowly. “Of course. Damocles has a communications interface that monitors for signals from all sources, including itself. If a shutdown command is sent and successfully authenticated then the command spreads to all other instances of Damocles the next time they monitor an affected version of Damocles.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Rick flipped through the pages on the table and Dr. Evans shrugged.
“It’s a bulletproof system. It didn’t seem important to bring up, sorry.”
“Everything’s important, Dr. Evans. You know that. And that’s a very clever way to propagate commands. Why has no one issued a shutdown command to it yet?”
Dr. Evans shrugged. “I don’t know. Once I figured out that the weapon had this capability built in to it I started asking people why we couldn’t send a shutdown signal but nobody seemed to know why. One of the President’s aides sounded like he was going to help but that was right before the crash. Then I was brought here and I’ve spent days trying to get these idiots to help but nobody seemed like they thought it was a viable solution because nobody even knows where to start with getting the encryption key or the proper interface protocols to give it a shutdown command. I sort of gave up on that solution myself, to be frank.” Dr. Evans’ voice was hollow and he had the look of a man who had been utterly defeated.
