“This is my show,” Dural replied. “I am the head of Terminal.”
Tunde turned to me and Rex. “She is one of the brightest roboticists in the world. She was not at the Game, but she is known to everyone. Well, at least in the engineering and robotics community. This is quite a shock.”
Dural smiled.
“You all are in some big trouble,” she said. “And I’m the only one who can help you get out of it.”
4.2
“This won’t be a bargaining session,” Dural continued.
She turned to Naya and nodded.
Naya got up and grabbed a briefcase from a chair in the corner of the room. She brought it over to me and then went and sat back down. I was feeling uneasy already. Dural’s confidence was intimidating; I tried to refocus, realizing that our plans were changing by the second, but I needed to get a better read on Dural.
The briefcase was locked.
“The data that Naya brought back from Nigeria—”
“Stole,” Tunde interrupted.
“Well,” Dural continued, “the data that we now have is not what we anticipated it would be. Sure, it provides insights into Kiran’s operations. It has account numbers, passwords, a whole smorgasbord of delicious information. But it also has a puzzling aspect. A key to a lock that we can’t open.”
“Okay,” I said. “What lock?”
“As you’re probably aware, Kiran wants to release a program that would cause worldwide devastation. Sink monetary accounts, impact businesses, interrupt governments. Essentially throw the world into chaos.”
“Shiva,” Rex said.
“Yes,” Dural continued, “that is what he calls it. He aims to do this and then release Rama, his fix of sorts—a fix that he can control. While Kiran sees it as a way to rebalance power in the world, to give more to the dispossessed, we see it as a direct threat to our goal of destabilization.”
“That’s not much of a goal,” Rex snickered.
“Well, that can be argued. In our minds, as Terminal, we believe that no one person should have power. So while we can understand Kiran’s larger mission, we cannot abide by his methods or support the end result. We have to stop him.”
I nodded. “We’re agreed on one thing, then.”
We’d come here looking to undermine Terminal, but instead it looked like we were going to have to strike a bargain. That was infuriating. Especially since my father’s freedom was hanging in the balance.
“To prevent Shiva’s release,” Dural said, “we need to access a data storage site here in Beijing. It is an OndScan black box lab. Much like the one you visited in India, Rex. While we have what is contained in the briefcase I handed you, Painted Wolf, we don’t have a way to successfully breach the systems at the lab.”
“So you need help?” Tunde asked.
“Embarrassingly, yes,” Dural said.
“You want us to hack into this black box lab?” Rex asked.
Dural shook her head and leaned forward. “No, we could do that. You might assume you’re the best coder in this room, but I assure you that you’re not. Terminal is, if anything, expert at getting into machines and manipulating software. No, for this mission we need to outsource. We need Tunde and Painted Wolf.”
Tunde seemed taken aback. “And why is this?”
“The Beijing black box lab is completely analog. There are no digital systems in the place. No computers, no connections, not even a phone line. All of the data stored inside is bound in books or held on recording tape. Inside the briefcase is a key to get into the building. It is, literally, a key, 3-D printed from a code hidden inside the data that Naya smuggled out of Nigeria. We need you to get inside the Beijing black box lab, discover the files that Kiran is hiding there about Shiva, and then bring them back to us in a format we can use.”
The room fell silent for a moment as we considered what she was saying.
Terminal was trying to flip the tables on us. Dural was good. Laser focused. That was likely how she’d been able to make Terminal the bane of authorities the world over; she ran a very tight operation. It was going to be difficult to shake her confidence. I realized then and there that I’d have to switch up strategies; we’d need to make her think she was getting exactly what we wanted. Dural was likely used to being challenged, just like she was used to making the decisions. We needed to play on that, to show her we’d be willing to bargain and leave her in charge. I knew she’d never really let her guard down, but if we kept her feeling confident, we might be able to make a move she wasn’t expecting.
“And if we do this?” Tunde finally asked.
Dural sat back and folded her hands and said, “Then we will ensure that the individual you were attempting to get out of the Municipal Number 23 detention center is released and all of the charges against him are dropped. That and the fact that you’ll be working toward your own goal of stopping Kiran’s larger plans.”
“And if we decline?” Teo asked from behind me.
Dural shrugged. “Then you’ll be handed over to the authorities.”
“We’ll need a while to think it over,” I said.
“Fine,” Dural said. “There’s a room upstairs. You can have the rest of the night. I’ll have Cosmo bring you some food and tea.”
5. Rex
6 DAYS UNTIL SHIVA
Cosmo took us up to a small room cluttered with junk.
Well, really it was props and costumes, but piled up in the corners of an ill-lit room it pretty much looked like a bunch of junk. There was a folding table that had been set up. On the table were a couple of plates of noodles and a teapot and cups. The noodles smelled good, and I realized it’d been way too long since I’d eaten.
As soon as the door closed behind Cosmo, we started talking.
Tunde spoke first. “This is a joke. We cannot take them up on it.”
Cai sat at the table and poured herself a cup of tea.
I sat across from her.
Despite lack of sleep and chaos, she still looked amazing.
Always with the racing heart, huh, Rex?
As she poured she said, “I think it sounds like a reasonable plan. If we can get to the Shiva information, it helps us significantly. And we can free my father.”
“That’s if Terminal holds up their end of the deal,” I said.
Cai handed me a cup of tea. It was hot and sweet.
“Let’s have a vote. I’m in favor of it,” she said.
Tunde stood by the door, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his head.
“I do not like it,” he said. “This is a very slippery slope we are going down. If we help Terminal, we know that they will try to trick us. Also, it is a matter of morals. We can get this information without their assistance. Better to do it alone, without their help. We have run from the police many times. I am certain that we can run from them successfully again.”
Teo, pacing the room, said, “I don’t like this. I’m not going to vote.”
Tunde just shook his head, disappointed, before turning to me.
“What do you think, Rex? I am against it. Cai is for it.”
I took another sip of tea and locked eyes with Cai.
She wasn’t the risk taker I was. All of the moves she made, even if they came out of left field, were carefully thought through. If I didn’t see the logic behind her decisions, then it was because I wasn’t looking closely enough.
If the smartest person in the room agreed to this, I figured I should as well.
“I think we should take the deal,” I said. “Sorry, Tunde. I don’t think we have any options at this point. And, besides, if we do it right we’ll get what we want, too.”
“And if it goes wrong?” Tunde asked.
“We won’t let it,” Cai said. “Now come sit down and eat.”
With that settled, Tunde and Teo took seats at the small folding table and helped themselves to paper plates of the noodles and several cups of tea. We ate in silence for a few minutes and then, on
ce full, got down to business.
“So we know off the bat that this thing isn’t going to involve much of my skill set,” I said. “Tunde and Cai, you’re the ones this thing was designed for. My guess is, depending on what exactly this key does, we’ll need some mechanical engineering to get through whatever locks there are and social engineering to get past whoever might be in this black box lab.”
“But you’re the only one of us who’s actually been inside one,” Cai said.
“I guess that’s true,” I said. “But I can’t imagine this one, being all analog, is anything like the one in Kolkata. However, it probably has some similar people.”
“Brain trust people?” Tunde asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “You know what they’re like.”
“We’ll still need your skills,” Cai said. “Just ’cause it won’t be on a computer screen doesn’t mean it won’t be coding. My guess is that whatever data they’ve stored there, it’s still going to be encrypted. We’ll need your math skills.”
“Okay,” Tunde said. “So we get this information, then what?”
“Then we need to trick Terminal,” Cai said. “We can’t have them accessing whatever data we pull out of this lab. Even if they want to see Shiva shut down as much as we do, they’ll only end up using it for their own goals.”
“Maybe those goals aren’t as bad as you assume?” Teo said.
I looked over at my brother and noticed he looked quite downcast.
“What does that mean?” Cai asked.
“I’m just saying that maybe Terminal knows something we don’t.”
“Like what?” Tunde asked.
Teo pushed away his plate of noodles and stood up. He began pacing the room. Something was wrong with him; he was too stressed, too on edge.
“What’s bothering you, brother?” I asked.
Teo stopped pacing and cracked his neck.
He said, “I think it’s a bit foolish to waste time on Terminal. This is just the same as wasting time trying to get Wolf’s dad out of that detention center. Kiran is the focus here. Kiran is the larger issue! If we don’t stop him, no one will. I think you’re all being too simplistic and emotional. No one’s thinking logically!”
Cai turned to me, concerned.
I stood up and walked over to Teo.
“What’re you trying to tell us?”
Teo’s face was a snarl of stress. His eyes burned with an anger and confusion I hadn’t seen in forever. It was like he was hiding a terrible secret. Something he needed to get out; otherwise he’d burst into flames.
“Please, Teo,” I said in Spanish. “It’s okay.”
Teo sighed long and hard.
Brace yourself, Rex.
“I’m with Terminal,” he said.
5.1
I’m not going to lie; I almost punched my brother again.
I balled my fists and started to slug him but held off. It wasn’t that the anger subsided—if anything, it just kept growing—but the look in his eyes gave me pause. He looked guilty. He looked disappointed in himself.
“Why?” I asked him, trembling with rage.
“They’re doing what most of us don’t have the guts to do.”
“Destroy everything?”
“Sometimes it’s better to wipe the slate clean and start over. Things are terrible out there, Rex. You’ve been to Africa, to India. You’ve seen the imbalance. How many people are suffering every second? We live in these perfect illusions, safe behind the mask of thinking we’re virtuous people. But right under our noses, poor people are getting poorer. Sick people are getting sicker. The environment is being trashed, the air poisoned. The system is so broken there’s no way to fix it now. If we don’t so something, something radical, it will only get worse.”
“But Terminal isn’t about morality, Teo,” I said.
He agreed. “I know. But sometimes the end justifies the means.”
“People in my country have talked that way,” Cai said. “People that I expose for corruption. You might think that fighting fire with fire is the best way to solve this. But that only ends up with everyone getting burned.”
Teo turned to me. “Papa always says there’s no right way to crack an egg.”
“We’re talking about civilization, Teo. Not omelets.”
“I just think it’s silly to automatically assume Terminal’s plan wouldn’t have worked, that it would have ended poorly—”
“And I think you’re wrong to assume otherwise,” I said.
Teo replied, “It felt good to belong to something bigger than me. I was helpless at school, learning about history that just repeated itself over and over, the same types of people making the same types of mistakes. Terminal offered to do something about it. That’s all I really wanted. The world’s going one way; Kiran’s going another. Terminal offered the only alternative, and now…”
He slouched against the wall.
“I’m not going to pretend that they have everything figured out. Or that they haven’t made mistakes,” Teo continued. “But I do think that they can get this thing done, they can take down Kiran and send a message to the world in the process. I don’t think this will be the end but the start of something bigger.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This whole time, ever since that night in the garden in Kolkata, I’d sincerely believed that my brother hadn’t abandoned my family—our family—to join a hacktivist cell bent on mayhem.
Even when the clues were there, I denied them.
Even when my friends had suggested it might be true, I ignored them.
And yet Teo, my own flesh and blood, had deceived me.
I couldn’t put into words how crushed I was.
But hit by a speeding bus might be close.
“Does Dural know who you are?” Cai asked.
“No,” he said. “They don’t know my name or my face. They only know my handle online. I’ve been helping them for the past fourteen months, but it’s been at a distance. Dural has never interacted with me.”
“But you would protect them?” Tunde wanted to clarify.
Teo didn’t answer.
“Don’t put me in a position of not trusting you, brother,” I said, wanting to punch Teo again. “Answer the question. If we do this job, get that information on Shiva, and then hand it over to Terminal, are you going to warn them that we will be trying to double-cross them?”
“I’m just letting you know what I think. I don’t agree with everything Terminal does. Heaven knows I’ve had my battles with them—”
Teo shook his head.
Tunde stood up.
“This is silly,” he said. “I am not going to work with Terminal, and I am certainly not going to trust your brother. I am sorry, Rex. This pains me very deeply, but I must not be a part of this.”
6. TUNDE
6 DAYS UNTIL SHIVA
My friends, I stood up then and there.
I could not see how this would work in a way that would benefit us. I had witnessed firsthand how much damage someone like General Iyabo could do. I could only imagine that if we got Terminal the information for Shiva, they could unleash havoc across the globe.
The realization that Teo would be in league with such people was disheartening to say the least. To think of the weight that it placed upon the shoulders of my best friend was truly upsetting. I worried it would do psychological harm to Rex.
“I am telling you,” I said aloud to Cai and Rex, “that I know deep down in my soul, in the very depths of my being, that nothing good can come of this arrangement. It is better for us to take our chances with the authorities than do the bidding of this organization. When this idea was first suggested, by you, Cai, it was to trick Terminal, not to help them!”
“We will be tricking them,” Rex said.
“I cannot be sure it will work,” I replied. “It is simply too risky.”
Rex turned to Cai. She had not spoken in a few minutes and appeared to be contemplating her next mov
e. Sadly, she had the most to lose in this arrangement. While we were going to attempt to stop both Terminal and Kiran, it was the life of her own father that hung most precariously in the balance.
“Before I make a decision,” Cai said, “I need more information from Teo.”
“Fair enough,” Rex said, looking to Teo.
Teo crossed his arms, ready to answer. Though, judging by his expression and the fact that he did not seem very apologetic earlier, I doubted she would like what she heard.
“When we arrived in China,” Cai began, “was your intention always to bring us to Terminal? Was there a bigger scheme in the works?”
“No,” Teo said. “I’m here to help you stop Kiran. That’s never changed.”
“And you weren’t going to involve Terminal?”
“Not unless I needed to.”
“I do not like that answer,” I said. “There should never be a time or an instance when you would need to involve such people.”
Rex raised his hand, asked me to be quiet for a moment.
Then Rex asked Cai: “What do you think?”
Cai slumped back in her seat and said, “I’m sorry, Tunde. But I really don’t think we have much of a choice. My father is caught up in this. I need to get him out of that detention center before he’s shipped off to a prison and never seen again. I can’t guarantee that we’ll pull this off, that we can get the information to stop Kiran, clear my father, and at the same time pull the rug out from under Terminal. But I think we need to try.”
It seemed that I was outvoted. And yet, I have to tell you, my friends, that I could not go through with it. My mother did not raise someone who is fast and loose with his morals. This was one thing I had to stand against.
At the same time, I could not just let my friends, my dear and best friends, wander off into the mouth of danger with no assistance. I thought back to our time in my village. How Cai had so craftily and carefully manipulated the men who worked under General Iyabo. How she had created illusions and used her social engineering skills to manipulate situations.
Surely, I could do such a thing?
I learned so much from watching her that I surely could find a way to ensure my friends were safe and at the same time had an outside hand in this operation. Even if I was capable of doing only a tenth of the magic Cai did, it would be a tremendous boon to our success.
Genius--The Revolution Page 4
