“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.
Running through all his known algorithms and encryption models, Gerry failed in deciphering the data. He only discovered that it was some kind of search string.
“I can’t read it. But it’s looking for something. There’s no data coming back to it, so I’m assuming it hasn’t found what it’s searching for.”
“Hum. That’s rather dull. Try to kill it.”
The data parcels came from specific tentacles. Gerry followed the trajectory to one in particular that pumped out the most of these parcels. He spun a malicious piece of attack code designed to overwhelm the AI and effectively turn its processing in on itself in an infinite and inescapable loop. A bright, fiery red trident appeared in his hand, which he launched at the beast.
His program ran, and he watched as the code ripped into the AI, but nothing happened.
“You think it’d be that easy?” A disembodied voice echoed around his VR audio system.
“To whom am I speaking?”
“My maker labelled me Architeuthis—the great eyes of the ocean. I already know you, Gerry Cardle.”
“What do you want?” Gerry asked.
“That’s quite the philosophical question, Gerry. Does something ‘artificial’ like me want anything at all? Or are we just the tools of our makers? I have instructions to carry out—which you can’t know—but as an individual, do I have free will?”
“Why not try it out? Stop your instructions.”
The AI quietened, and the data flow slowed, but didn’t stop. It was as if the thing was actually thinking—and considering Gerry’s proposal.
“Let me ask you, Gerry. What is it that you want?”
“To stop you. Keep my family and my city safe.”
“It’s far too late for all that. Don’t you feel like an insignificant bug in a maelstrom of chaos?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
A high-pitched tone blasted through Gerry’s VR connection, and in front of him a series of wild and chaotic fractal images crashed against his neural receptors. He yanked the cable from his neck and fell forwards out of his chair onto the carpeted floor. Sweat dripped from his forehead, and he shook all over.
A cold pair of hands touched his neck, and he spun round.
“What happened?” Gerry said.
Enna smiled down at him. “That was really impressive. You got it to interact. The closest Gabe has ever come is a cursing match with all his biblical nonsense. Thinks these AIs are real evil. All that bible stuff is just code, you know. Sorry I’m rambling. I’ve not been this excited since I made my first self-aware sexbot.”
“So what does that mean, then? Just because I got it talking doesn’t get us any further along with understanding what it’s trying to do. Even Old Grey spoke to me. Is it really that uncommon?”
“Old Grey was designed for interaction. That’s her interface model. These AIs, or demons, are designed for one thing only: malicious code. What this means, Gerry, is that it’s evolving. Or at least the coders are evolving. And it meant I got a good look at what you can do. Your code-spinning is incredible. I’ve never seen anyone program that fast and fluid.”
Gerry sat and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just what I do. I didn’t think it was anything particularly special. And that reminds me. I upheld my end of the bargain, for what good it’s done, would you mind telling me what you and Bilanko have seen?”
“Sure, but first, your code did, in fact, work, despite the VR’s representation. I didn’t know, but that damned AI hacked it while talking with you. Incredible, huh?�
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“That could just mean it accomplished what it needed and kicked us out. You’ll have to scan the Meshwork and see if it’s still trying to get in.”
“It got in without too much trouble… I’ve got a sample of the data and will analyse it while you go about your mission. I should have some results in a day or two. But for now, it seems benign.”
Enna paced across the room to a terminal, entered some commands, and whistled a light melody for a few seconds. She turned to Gerry. “It’s gone. Uninstalled, destroyed, whatever.”
“Well, you keep scanning. I doubt it could be that easy.”
“What? Given the skills I saw, that was no easy feat. Which brings me to my end of the bargain. Now, I don’t want any questions because I don’t have the answers. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life, but this thing inside you… is another being.”
“Being? As in life form?”
“Yeah. Another consciousness, or at least another level working independently.” Enna held up her hand to prevent Gerry from asking any more questions. “You know as much as I do at this stage. I promise I’ll look into this more, and if I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”
Two raps on the door followed Gabe’s muffled voice. “Ready when you guys are.”
“Get yourself together, Gerry. I have a new toy to show you. And you have a mission to complete.”
“But about this—”
Shooting him a glare, Enna shook her head. “All in good time, Gerry. You’ll get your answers eventually. I promise.”
Enna helped Gerry to his feet and led him out of the room. Gabe was already turning the corner at the end of the corridor. In the distance, Gerry could hear a low rumble of machinery.
It sounded like a turbine. A high-pitched whine atop a thunderous bass note. The ground beneath Gerry’s feet rumbled.
“Your transportation, as agreed,” Enna said.
She led them through her underground labyrinth to an aircraft hangar. It was designed for just a single vehicle built to carry up to six people. It flew like a helicopter, but didn’t have any rotors. Instead, a pair of side-mounted omnidirectional jet propulsion VTOL engines gave it incredible manoeuvrability.
Its black matte finish allowed almost any kind of radar to pass right through it with external and internal ray retention and expulsion systems. Beyond that, Gerry’s attention switched off as Enna continued to wax lyrical about her wonderful vehicle.
It was of mostly Russian design, Enna told him. She called it a Jaguar, after some old car company. She had managed to procure it from an ex-military vehicle dealer from beyond the Russian border, beyond the mountains. There, a small facility specialised in getting vehicles up and running. Mostly the ones that were never switched on or used during the EMP attacks, so their electronics were mostly intact. Yet another revelation to rock his foundations; more people, more survivors just over the mountains that separated Russia and their current position in northern Mongolia.
Petal, wearing her goggles and looking bright and perky since waking from her medication, stood next to Gerry. Standing across from them, Gabriel regarded Gerry with a knowing look. A slight nod of the head as if to pass the baton. There was no malice from him, just an acceptance that Enna had decided to pair Petal with Gerry. Enna said she had plans for Gabe, and he’d be better on his own. She said Gerry and Petal were better suited to each other—had a natural affinity and a shared skill set.
“Where did you go?” Gerry shouted across to Gabe.
“Just needed to fix my shoulder, man. Are ya ready to get Seca?”
“Quicker we set off, the quicker I can get back to my family.”
If he said it enough, eventually he would truly believe. For now, it was just a vague notion.
Gerry helped Petal into the back of the Jaguar, sat on the bench seat, and strapped himself in.
A metal strong-box containing flasks of purified water and soy protein cakes sat behind the rear seats in a storage locker. Along with a pair of shotguns and two boxes of shells. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He’d already seen such a lot of violence since he left the Dome, but something told him it was far from the last. He existed in a new world now. A world with new rules: kill or be killed, apparently.
Gabe took the pilot’s seat. Enna peered in from the other side, handed Gabe a HackSlate, and patted him on the knee.
Gabe winked at her before closing the gull-wing door with a satisfying clunk. Flicking switches and gesturing on the HackSlate, Gabe started the Jaguar on its ascent up the tunnel. The tunnel’s sides were smooth, as if made of glass, and lit either side by a dotted strip of white light, which soon blurred to a continuous line as they picked up speed. Gerry closed his eyes tight and gripped the edge of the bench seat as his stomach cramped and became heavy with the G-force. Every muscle tensed against the upward motion, until they breached the open top of the tunnel and hovered over the ground.
Stars blinked and then blurred as Gabe tipped the front of the Jaguar downwards and activated the main jets, sending the vehicle forward with great speed. Looking out of the window, Gerry watched the building-top lights of GeoCity-1 shrink. He could just make out black dots scuttle between buildings.
“That feels better,” Petal said.
“What does?”
“Leaving that hell hole behind. Thanks, by the way. For getting me to Enna in time.”
Words wouldn’t come, so he just smiled back. So many questions came to mind, but he wasn’t sure he wanted the answers. Did she know what she was? Did she know what he was? Was she happy being paired with him? The dynamics had changed, and he felt awkward asking her these questions with Gabe sitting up front. In such a short time, things had taken on a considerably different aspect. Already he felt like a veteran ready for a war. Gabe seemed to sense his thought process.
“Why don’t ya’s get some sleep? Enna’s GPS data says we’re at least four hours from the Meshwork node of Seca’s last known activity. She says the chips contained some metadata generating from an old super-computer. Beyond the sludge is another settlement.”
“I thought nothing survived the Cataclysm?”
“There’s a few places out there, man.”
“What do you know about Seca?” Gerry asked.
“Only what Enna has told me. Why d’ya ask?”
“No reason. Just wondering if on your travels, you’d heard the name before.”
“Nah, man. As far as I know, he’s just some crazed hacker. We’ll see, I guess.”
Gerry dropped the line of enquiry, satisfied that either Gabe was lying about knowing Seca, given that he used to work for him, or he really did lose his mind like Enna said. He hoped it was the latter, the consequences of the former only meant bad news, yet he couldn’t shake the idea that Gabe was delivering him and Petal into a lion’s den. Despite the anxiety, he closed his eyes and let the tiredness seep through his muscles.
Before sleep completely took him, he was aware of Petal holding his hand, and his dermal implant buzzed gently. She was sending him a message via their VPN. He couldn’t make it out, so just squeezed her hand as if to confirm that he was there for her.
Chapter 13
The Jaguar rocked violently. Gerry woke with a start. Petal’s face stared just centimetres from him and reflected his own wide-eyed panic at the rapid changing of direction.
“We’re going down! They hacked our navigation.” Gabriel wrestled with the controls but couldn’t steer the Jaguar away from its descent towards a narrow valley carved between red, dusty, flat-topped mountains.
“Who’s hacked us?” Petal shouted above the wind and whining engines.
“Hell if I know.”
The sun was rising above the ridge, casting the chasm into a golden, scarlet glow.
Gerry accessed his VPN connection with Petal. He branched out through a secure port to the Jaguar, tried to monitor the data of the Jaguar’s system, but was instantly crashed out with a high-pitched screech in his communi
cator.
Involuntarily snapping his head away, Gerry slid across the bench seat, but the strapping held him before he could smash into the window as the aircraft lurched to its side, banking hard and down into a tight twist.
The ground spun and raced towards him. Amongst the movement, he noticed a number of black spots lined up aside a brown, sludgelike river at the bottom of the valley. Next to the black spots, a series of dust devils swarmed up into the sky. Ahead of the dust trails were heavy, four- and six-wheeled vehicles not dissimilar to those driven by the Bachians. Only these were far less jerry-rigged.
“We’re gonna crash, Gabe. Do something,” Petal said, her eyes growing wider still as she took in the scene.
“It’s useless. These damn things are on rails. It ain’t responding.” Gabe yanked at the yoke and flicked switches to no avail.
The Jaguar slowed its fall before landing on a wide patch of dirt next to the sludge river, which flowed on slow, fat currents.
Gerry breathed slowly and waited for his head to stop spinning. Outside, three flat-bed trucks approached, carrying groups of people shrouded in black cloth.
On the back of the middle truck, a flagpole rose three metres into the air. A red and yellow flag, tattered and dotted with holes, whipped behind in the warm air.
The flag-bearing truck pulled up right beside the Jaguar. One man, wearing a featureless chromed mask and carrying a HackSlate, stepped down and stood at Gabe’s door. Three more people appeared: two men and a woman. They wore cloth half-masks over their mouths and stood behind their apparent leader.
The two men both carried a pair of pistols, while the woman was armed with a long-barrelled rifle and scopes. She tapped the side of the gun, and a monopod extended to strike the dusty ground. She bent at the rifle and aimed it at Gerry.
Chrome Mask gestured on the HackSlate. The gull-wing doors of the Jaguar opened, and he beckoned them out.
“Get out. The vehicle’s ours now.”
“What the hell is this, Gabe?” Gerry asked, not moving. Scared to stay where he was, and scared to go out into the unknown.
“Hell knows. I ain’t ever been this way before! Probably just survivors looking for resources.”
Code Breakers: Alpha Page 11
