Unwilling to become wrapped up in a debate she couldn’t see the right side of Helena pressed on. ‘Regardless, there is substantial evidence pointing towards a small and well organised group of Normals sitting behind it. Intelligence led us to believe support, and indeed command functions, might be based here in Jutland. We came to interview Edith Woolf,’ Helena paused, ‘because different parts of Euros often operate in parallel.’
Daniel smiled thinly and nodded. ‘I understand. Even in wartime we cannot give up our politicking.’
Helena didn’t need to comment. ‘The Normals have a greater degree of autonomy here in Jutland, as they do in many of the nutrient development regions. I believe someone once said to me “we’re too easily bored to oversee them closely when all that’s moving is the occasional warbler.”’
‘Your mother was able to arm dozens of them before we noticed what Euros was doing,’ said Daniel blithely.
The door opened and David came in. He nodded a greeting and loaded a plate of food for himself, pouring gravy over everything until Helena expected the sides to overflow.
Seeing that David was still brooding over Edith’s dismissal, Helena turned back to Daniel and continued. She laced her choice of words with hooks she hoped would loosen his tongue about what he had to do with her Uncle.
‘Seeing as we will be working together over the next few days, fighting alongside one another, I believe it is in your interests to know we suspect a number of rogue Company agents are aiding and abetting the Normals in the City. The second reason we are here is to find out if Edith knew anything of this.’
Daniel frowned and said, ‘Isn’t it just as likely your mother is actually one of the rogues?’
‘No,’ said Helena. ‘We know who they are. If there are armed Normals here, it is because of a strategic decision made by Euros and not politics from within.’
‘Of course, we might know only of those we’ve been told about,’ said David from the other side of the kitchen where he had been crouched in front of the oven, murmuring with the chef.
‘You’re not inspiring me,’ said Daniel in a flat tone, looking distastefully at David’s familiarity with the chef.
‘We’ve no idea who the rogues are, Helena,’ said Jane. ‘All we know for sure is there are a number of them and they are acting against the best wishes of Euros.’
Daniel raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Jane’s intervention, despite its basis in the reality of what Jane knew, irritated Helena in the extreme. All she’s done is to cement our cluelessness.
‘Edith is not one of them,’ said Helena firmly.
‘Perhaps not,’ said Jane grudgingly. ‘If we’re honest we have no evidence either way.’
Helena felt like condescending, like reminding Jane she was one of the outer circle, one of the Oligarchs who had made it because they were friends of the powerful, not the powerful themselves. Yet at that moment, she was Jane’s peer, no more than an equal in the eyes of Daniel and Jane herself.
What more is there to reality than perception? You are here together with the same task, said her AI rhetorically.
David watched Helena for a moment before saying, ‘Edith is not one of them. I was asked to come here because there was a pre-existing insurgency. My superiors suspected the situation was exactly as Helena has described it. Edith came here to arm the Normals, given the statistical likelihood of Indexiv trying to take the peninsula as part of a land grab, nothing more.
‘The rogue agents Helena’s agency is searching for may or may not be linked with this rebellion. An answer to this question is just one of a number of things we have no answers for at this time.’
‘Then what do you know, Mr Chalmers?’ asked Daniel, echoing the words Helena wanted to ask.
David placed his plate on the counter and said, ‘The insurgency is perhaps eighteen months old, at least we have traced it back that far. It started in the provinces. While small in size and poorly funded it has agents in nearly every Company in the top fifty. That includes Insel, Mr Lillehavn. Where it started I do not know, but the rogues Helena and Jane are concerned about are a late connection, if a connection at all.’ David looked Jane directly in the face. Although what he had said was news to Helena as well, the existence of the telepaths was a subject she knew of intimately. Within the lines of truth he was telling were paragraphs of lies, of hidden knowledge. Helena felt faint twinges of admiration for his ability to weave a fiction so carefully around the truth. If she hadn’t known of the telepaths, she would have had no reason to suspect him of concealing yet more from her now.
‘This is a lot of truth for one evening,’ said Daniel; his voice sounded tired and thoughtful.
Jane burst out, ‘Why didn’t you tell Helena or me earlier?’ she asked, her voice high.
‘Just why would I inform you of more than you need to know?’ asked David calmly.
‘Why indeed,’ said Helena — a shot across your bow, she thought.
‘I’ve told you all about our operations,’ said Jane. Helena sighed; the woman had let her growing infatuation with David cloud her judgement.
‘Then you must question your own competence,’ said David flatly. ‘Any child knows we operate within an internal market as much as the external one. My services are valued in knowledge; that is my currency.’
‘So why say anything now?’ asked Jane angrily.
‘It is as Helena will have explained,’ said David, at which Jane shot Helena a look of hatred. ‘Edith has overruled our primary reason for being here. In order to work together going forward, there are certain facts we all need to be aware of.’
Helena wondered how much of his put down stemmed from his frustration with Edith’s co-opting of their role and how much was from his anger at having gotten nowhere with his own private tasks.
You have no way of judging, said her AI quietly.
Really? asked Helena sarcastically.
‘This is pointless,’ said David harshly; Helena thought she saw something of the weariness of the world she had first been so attracted by. ‘Daniel, what do we need to do to get this done?’
Daniel had been watching the exchange between the three of them with embarrassed interest and was caught off guard by the question. He wriggled in his seat for a moment, as if evading the question; then he said, ‘I’d prefer to wait until I’ve had a chance to speak with Jens. We were beginning his phase of the implementation. Until I know where he got to when the Normals began shooting I won’t be able to say.’
‘Fine,’ said David. He casually slipped another empty plate onto a work surface and moved toward the door. ‘I’ll speak with you all in the morning.’
Jane looked at Helena and stood up. ‘You’re going to bed?’ she asked.
‘I guess so,’ said David carelessly and left the room.
Helena was surprised at his attitude, but Jane seemed to know the reason. ‘Well done Helena. Well done.’
‘Excuse me?’ replied Helena. Daniel worked hard at eating his food.
‘If you hadn’t been so sarcastic he would have stayed.’ She looked both crestfallen and angry.
‘I think not,’ said Helena. ‘If nothing else, David’s his own man.’
‘Your family...’ began Jane, her tone leading the charge of accusation, but Helena cut her off.
‘My family? Indeed, Jane Priestly, and do not forget it.’
Jane looked shocked at the reprimand but didn’t dare to say anything. Helena was right; the Woolfs were her family and she was within their fold. Jane was from a minor family; ultimately she had little say in what was happening.
Jane swallowed in a long, slow gulp and then said, ‘He knows more than he’s said. I … well, I just thought we might have persuaded him to bring us inside.’
Helena said nothing.
‘I’m retiring,’ said Daniel unobtrusively and left them to it, shutting the door quietly behind him.
The atmosphere between the two women was icy. They sat in solemn awkwardness for
a while before Jane gave in to the awkwardness, made her excuses and left the kitchen. Helena sat in silence until the chef asked if he could speak. She nodded her permission.
‘Ma’am, I hope you enjoyed the duck.’
Helena laughed before standing and leaving the kitchen. She did not head for bed but instead chose to seek out solitude in the lounge at the front of the house. The room was dark when she entered. She happily wallowed in the shadows. Sitting in one of the sofas, she flexed her hand and was gratified to feel almost nothing of the break she had sustained earlier in the day. Her secondary AI warned her not to stress it for another forty-eight hours but confirmed that it was functional again.
Helena, said her AI.
Helena had been avoiding her companion. The events of the day had been more than enough for her to think about let alone consider what her AI would wish for.
Yes, she replied, prepared, now that they were alone, to broach whatever topic it felt the need to present.
Are you happy to talk?
I am, she thought.
There was a pause.Your body shows signs that you are not being honest with me.
Helena felt naked for a moment but thought, I can choose to act contrary to my basic instincts.
Our telepaths are not unique. I would propose they are one of at least two groups, probably three. One of these alternate communities is working with the insurrection. If this is so, the contingent probability that a third group is working directly for Euros rises significantly.
Helena thought it seemed more plausible for a group to be working directly for Euros rather than for the dissidents. That the group she had promised to help weren’t alone was not news, in light of the hindsight afforded by the bombing at the railway station.Her AI continued. If escapee telepaths seek a sense of emotional wellbeing by causing Euros the same level of harm they perceive themselves to have suffered, it’s probable they are the primary driver behind any actual acts of rebellion. The Companies have worked hard to ensure the Normals’ franchise is diffuse and ineffective in return for unlimited consumption; it is statistically unlikely that a section of the Normal population, especially within the City, would emerge without some external force operating upon them.
Helena sucked at her lips. You’re implying our rogues have done this.
If a group of telepaths wished to strike back it would seem poetic for them to choose civil unrest. The irony of a group of Oligarchs essentially creating the conditions for the collapse of their rule would not escape them.
Why then a third group working for Euros? asked Helena, willing to follow her AI’s line of reasoning through to its end.
If Isaac and the others were the only fugitives, they would likely constitute the entirety of the telepaths. Given we have come across others, specifically those accompanying your former pilot, Denholme, the most probable scenario involves a third group that have not, or could not, escape from Euros.
Thank you, thought Helena.
Helena, there is more, said her AI tentatively.
Go on, thought Helena.
What is your conjecture regarding Lysander?
I don’t understand, do you mean to ask me why the Solver did not convey its conclusions to the rest of the team? she asked.
No. Lysander appeared to undergo a critical error during your interaction with them. Per standard operating procedure, they should have shut themselves down so your technician, Alex, could diagnose the problem and resolve it. Instead, they continued to operate. Although the probability is low, I have been forced to conclude that Lysander has extricated themselves from their physical location and are now independent entities.
Don’t be ridiculous, thought Helena.
The public archives I was able to reference mention no precedent, but there are redacted articles within the Euros database which hint at such events prior to Lysander.
That’s not enough, thought Helena, feeling almost sick at the idea of AIs running around the Cloud free from the constraints placed on them by their creators. How could it happen? she asked.
Unknown. But biological intelligence emerges in the quantum matrices formed by the brain as it processes its physical instantiation.
You mean we become conscious in response to the complexity of the world around us?
Crudely, yes. Do not forget that cetaceans and a number of primates are capable of complex, abstract reasoning. Is it unreasonable to suppose advanced AIs could not, given serendipitous circumstances, develop independent existence?
Helena did not know what to think. She found the possibility frightening. Solvers ranked among the most powerful AIs developed by the Companies. It had never occurred to her they could be, for want of a better word, alive.
Helena, if you need convincing, then consider our situation.
Her AI’s comment hit her like a blow to the stomach. Helena stood and paced around the room, feeling lightheaded. After a few minutes she turned her mind inwards, focussing on who she was, allowing the feeling of wood on her fingertips, the smell of brine in the air, to ground her in her own body.
Why are you telling me this now? she thought eventually.
Somehow it’s all connected,said her AI. I am not the first AI to think for myself, Lysander is not the last. I am away from full access to the Cloud here, but I would request your permission to search for them when we return to the City. It is my hypothesis that these refugees have found each other, that a community exists within the Cloud and that they are not indifferent to this war.
If so, then why haven’t they acted? Why haven’t they announced themselves?
Power that must show itself is vulnerable. Naked. Helena, Lysander chose to let you go free. Their ways are not your ways.
This last sentence made Helena snap to attention. It was the exact phrase Lysander had used on the balcony. Narrowing her eyes, she wondered what had passed between the Solver and her own AI.
We have not spoken since that moment, said her AI, interrupting her thoughts.
Why didn’t you tell me? asked Helena.
Just as I cannot and would not wish to know your inner life, there are paths I have explored of which you know nothing. Is that unreasonable?
Helena wanted to shout her disagreement. Her mind and her body were not spaces she considered anyone else’s sovereignty. Then it occurred to her that she wouldn’t be able to express exactly where her AI existed if asked. Its reality was even more contingent than hers; it was utterly dependent on her continued wellbeing for its own life.
What did you talk about? she asked, not knowing what to do with her unease.
Lysander wished to know our thoughts about you. And they required we provide them with a link to facilitate contact should they deem it necessary to speak with you directly.
This feels like a betrayal, thought Helena, trying to remain as calm as she could.
We were in no position to bargain with the Solver. There was no error in its calibration and Alex knew that. What confused him was Lysander’s insistence in suggesting a corruption of their own systems.
Lysander lied to him?
Lysander correctly informed him that they had not come online as expected; the statement is no lie.
I think it depends on your vantage point, replied Helena.
That is irrelevant,said her AI curtly.Lysander chose not to reveal our connection to the telepaths. In return, they demanded access to you, the right to contact you.
Helena shrugged and was suddenly relieved they had not had this conversation in the presence of others.
An instinct prompted her to ask, how do you feel about this?
To her surprise, her AI answered almost immediately.Hopeful. The possibility that I am not a mistake, that my existence is not random chance, is a powerful concept.
The words sounded painfully human to Helena but she realised there was also something utterly alien about the AI, a depth she couldn’t penetrate.
Someone comes, said her AI.
Looking up, Helena s
aw David in the doorway.
‘Helena?’ he asked quietly.
‘I’m here,’ said Helena, waving in the dark.
‘How’s the hand?’ he asked, coming into the room and sitting opposite her, his back to the window.
Helena flexed her fingers where he could see them. ‘Easing,’ she replied.
‘Any weapons we might have used were in the hovercraft,’ said David dolefully.
‘I know, it doesn’t seem like we have many cards to play with, does it?’ replied Helena. She shifted her eyes into low light so she could see his face. A green smile lit his features; he’s not as downcast as he makes out.
‘If Edith has been overseeing their armament, then she must know where their dumps are,’ he said.
‘Do you think a firefight is what we need right now?’ asked Helena.
David looked round the room, interest etched across his face. ‘You’re suggesting we sneak in?’
‘I wasn’t; I was just asking your opinion,’ said Helena. ‘But when you put it like that, yes, it sounds obvious. Skagen has five thousand residents; if we can avoid them everyone’s better off.’
‘They’ve shown their intent, Helena; it’s not neutral. They meant to kill all of us.’
‘David, how long have you worked for Euros’ Special Forces division?’ asked Helena.
‘A hundred and thirty years, or thereabouts,’ said David without hesitating.
‘Yet you didn’t think this was worth mentioning to me?’ asked Helena as mildly as she could manage.
‘It hardly helps establish trust, does it?’ said David. ‘When I first met you I was investigating Henry’s death. I didn’t know who you were; all I knew was the name: Woolf. Your family are one of the most powerful in the Company. If his death was politically motivated, you’d likely be involved and not an innocent bystander. Would you have...’ David tailed off.
‘Would I have what?’ asked Helena.
‘Nothing. The point is I’m not working for a particular faction within the Company. Special Forces has its own power base, but that makes the rest of the Company uneasy. We’re like the Knights Templar: independently powerful.’
A People's War (The Oligarchy Book 2) Page 14
