by David Archer
Joel laughed. “Oh, no, Dr. Hu, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not even going to allow anything to happen to you. You see, CerebroLink has done some incredible work in developing this chip, but I have quietly acquired controlling interest in other companies that have been working on these ideas. Three of them belong to me, now, and soon, they’ll be working on upgrades and improvements to the chip. If Fa Ling hadn’t doublecrossed me, they would have gotten the patent and the profits from its medical uses, but only I will ever have the full power the chip offers. I will need you to implant those upgrades as they become available, so I’m not going to let any harm befall you.” He laughed again. “Oh, no, Doctor, this is the beginning of a beautiful and life-long partnership.”
Daphne shook her head in disbelief. “How could you possibly acquire such companies? You must be talking about billions of dollars.”
Still chuckling, Joel nodded. “In the last three months, I’ve spent over eight and a half billion. That was easy, once I started downloading all the information I could find on hacking. That led me to exploring the dark web, and the more I learned, the more powerful I became. It only took me a few days to crack into the Federal Reserve. Did you know that most of the money in the world doesn’t even really exist? It’s nothing more than entries in the central banks. All I did was create a bank of my own and fund it with a hundred billion dollars that I created out of thin air in its Federal Reserve account.”
Daphne shrugged. “Then I guess you can do whatever you wish to. You have absolute power, but you have forgotten the most constant rule of humanity that has ever existed. Absolute power always corrupts, and it will corrupt you absolutely.”
*
Sam stared into Walter’s face as he slowly regained consciousness. The autistic man seemed bewildered at why Sam was hovering over him, and recoiled slightly. Sam backed away to avoid making him feel crowded in.
“Walter? Are you okay?” he asked.
“I have a headache,” Walter said. “Why does my head hurt?”
“Someone hit you,” Steve said. “They took Joel, and must have hit you so you wouldn’t see them.”
Walter stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. “No. Joel hit me. A red car pulled up and I looked at it, and then something hit me. Only Joel was standing close to me.”
Sam’s eyes went wide as a thousand things flashed through his mind. Joel had been the one who was able to track Daphne but no one else could see anything the drone was sending back to his headset. Joel had been the one to let it slip about Chang having the mythical missing chip. Joel had been the one to lead Sam along a path that led straight to Chang being the triad leader Yue Fei, and Sam suddenly remembered Joel stopping himself just before saying something that might have been important.
“Son of a bitch,” Sam said. “It was Joel the entire time! He’s been leading us around like a dog and pony show, and I never even saw it!”
“Good God, Sam,” Steve said. “And he knows everything about our investigation. How the hell are we gonna find him now?”
Sam stood and thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, “But I’ll guarantee you I’m going to. Let’s get Walter to a hospital to be checked out, and then get back to C-Link. Dr. Prentiss can answer a few questions for me.”
“I’ll take Walter,” Steve said. “He’s not gonna cooperate with any doctor if I’m not there, anyway. You go ahead and do whatever you think is necessary, and I’ll call you as soon as we’re done.”
“What about us?” Jade asked, pointing at herself and Darren. “Anything you want us to do right now?”
Sam shook his head. “I think we all need to get back to C-Link. Joel has some sort of master plan, and I want to try to get a line on what it is.”
“How about I tag along?” Albertson asked. “That way, I can be PD liaison if you need one.”
“Fine by me,” Sam said. He got into his rental car and pulled out, followed by the others as he pointed the car across the I-80 bridge toward San Francisco and CerebroLink Headquarters.
It was about a forty minute drive, but Sam’s mind was racing so fast that it seemed to take twice as long. When he pulled into the parking lot, he didn’t even bother trying to find a regular space. He simply put the car just outside the front door and got out, leaning on his cane as he hurried inside the building.
The security guard on the front desk looked up. “Mr. Prichard,” he said, “how did it…”
“Where is Prentiss?” Sam demanded. “I want to see him, now.”
The security guard stared at him. “He—he’s in his office. Should I tell him you’re coming?”
“He’ll know it in about three seconds,” Sam said as he stormed past. The door to Doctor Prentiss’ office was only a dozen steps down the hall, and Sam grabbed the knob and threw it open as he got there.
“Mr. Prichard?” Prentiss asked. “Can I ask what…”
“It isn’t Chang,” Sam said. “It’s Joel Streeter. He’s been running this whole operation the whole time, and I want you to tell me how it could be possible that you didn’t know that.”
Prentiss’ eyebrows shot upward. “Joel? Oh, you must be mistaken,” he said. “Joel Streeter is one of the most gentle, kindhearted people I’ve ever known. There is no way in the world he could be involved in something like this. Where are you getting your…”
“Joel led us on a wild goose chase,” Sam said, “and when we got to the end of the rainbow, he knocked out one of my people and disappeared with Doctor Hu. He’s got her, and I don’t have any idea where they’ve gone, but I can tell you this: wherever it is, he’s got an operating room all set up and ready to go. That stolen chip isn’t going to Chang’s head, it’s going into Joel’s.”
Prentiss stared at him for a long moment. “I can’t believe this,” he said. “I’m telling you, you have to be mistaken.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, will you wake up? Don’t feel bad, Prentiss, you’re not the only one he fooled. He managed to keep me thinking he was on my team for days, but when I look back now, I can see a few little mistakes that he made. It was like he set up a lot of little situations so that he would have the perfect cues to come out with a new clue. It was like he was just an excited kid with a new toy, and he was showing off for me, but now that I can see it all in hindsight, I can tell that he was waiting for each opportunity to throw me a bone. If you’ll remember, he was the one who suddenly figured out that Chang must have a chip of his own, and he based it all on the legendary third chip. He says you admitted that there had been one, but that Williamson had claimed it was destroyed in an accident. Is there any truth to that?”
“There was a third chip in the fourth generation,” Prentiss said, “and it was destroyed in an accident. Where did you get the idea that Chang had it?”
“According to Joel, you confirmed that the chip was actually missing. Joel pointed out that some of the predictions Chang was making would only be possible with the gen-4 chip, so the logical conclusion was that Chang definitely had it. That’s how we figured out that Chang was the inside man, but for some strange reason, we always overlooked the fact that Joel was the right size and weight, himself. Then there is the fact that he claimed to know that my people might be walking into a trap, but never bothered to warn us because he said the odds indicated we would prevail. I could go on and on, I’ve got a whole list of things that back this up, but the main one is the fact that he knocked Walter Rawlins in the head while he was making his escape. That’s pretty solid evidence to me, now wouldn’t you think so?”
Prentiss’ mouth was opening and closing, but no words were coming out. He managed to get it to close and stay that way for a few seconds, then forced himself to look Sam in the eye.
“If you are correct,” he began, “and I am not saying I’m ready to accept that as fact, then we have a very serious problem. Joel has helped us develop a lot of the new technology that the gen-5 chip will incorporate, by using his own chip a
nd some other, special equipment to let it emulate what the 5 could do. You’ve been speculating that Chang wanted to use the chip to take over the world? If Joel has actually gone over to the dark side, he would be trying to gain absolute control for what he considers altruistic reasons. I don’t know if you are much of a student of history, Mr. Prichard, but the most terrible tyrants have always been those who thought they were leading their people into some kind of paradise.”
The rest of the team had caught up by then, and were standing around Sam in Prentiss’ office. “Wait, what?” Jade asked. “Are you saying Joel would try to take over the world because he thinks it would be a good thing to do for everybody?”
“I realize this sounds kind of crazy,” Prentiss said, “but you’d have to know Joel, and I've known him for quite some time. He is the type of person who wants to save everyone, who wants to make the world a safe place for everybody and be sure that children are always happy and healthy. Unfortunately, he is also a pragmatist. He once wrote a paper on the benefit to society of genetic manipulation to eliminate certain genes that allow a proclivity for a specific and deadly form of melanoma, skin cancer. Now, that may sound benevolent in general, but the genes in question are the ones that produce blue eyes. Eliminating blue eyes from the gene pool would be impossible, unless you resort to mass extermination of people with blue eyes, roughly 8 percent of the world’s population.”
“That’s insane,” Sam said, “and it wouldn’t even work. Maybe only eight percent of the population has blue eyes, but the gene for blue eyes is probably found in more like forty percent of people. It would keep coming up, no matter how many people you killed off.”
“Of course, of course,” Prentiss said. “I was only using this to illustrate the kind of thinking you would be dealing with. The benevolent tyrant, no matter how much he may believe he loves his people, is destined to destroy them.”
“Then how do we stop him?” Sam asked. “Even if he gets the chip, he’s going to need a lot of other equipment, isn’t he?”
Prentiss started to nod, and then his eyes went wide again. He suddenly got to his feet. “Come with me, right now,” he said. He walked past all of them into the hall and went straight to the elevator. Only six could be in the elevator at a time, so the others had to wait as Prentiss, Sam, and his investigators rode up to the BCI lab.
Prentiss led them down the hallway and used a key card to enter a secure room. He hurried to a bank of computers along the outer wall, and began looking at the ID numbers on each one. When he came to a specific machine, he turned to the technician working in the room.
“Randy, come here,” he said. “Isn’t this the relay unit for the gen-5 prototype chip?”
The technician, Randy, looked closely at it for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. “That’s it, number five thirty-two.”
“What’s the procedure for verification? How can you be certain that particular unit is attuned to that particular chip?”
Randy looked at him as if he’d lost his mind for a few seconds, then went to his desk and entered some numbers into a keypad. A large monitor over his desk displayed the numbers BCI532, and he began typing on the keyboard in front of him.
“I’ve got the checksum for each algorithm in the relay units,” he said. “The checksum for BCI11658-5, the prototype chip, is 59899785465. All I got to do is run the checksum program on that unit, and…”
A string of numbers displayed on the monitor, but they were nowhere close to the numbers Randy had just rattled off.
29755689383
“But—but that’s impossible,” Randy said. “How could anything change the checksum?”
“Randy, I want that unit torn down and inspected,” Prentiss said. “I suspect you will find that its component serial numbers are not going to match your records.”
He turned around to face Sam and the others. “Each chip has a corresponding relay unit, a computer server that is connected to the Internet and is dedicated to communications with that chip. In order to make sure those communications are secure, the chip has a hardcoded identification string that is encrypted at the highest possible level, and it is only known to its relay server. When the chip sends a command to the computer, that identifier must be attached. If it is not, the computer will completely disregard that command and nothing will happen. The checksum Randy refers to is a system we use to verify that a particular server has the algorithm for its partnered chip. Normally, we only need to verify that one time, but the program remains on the unit so it can be verified again. That can be useful if, for instance, a processor or motherboard goes bad in the server. The program will have to reinsert the algorithm and the checksum will be needed to verify its accuracy.”
“The point of which,” Sam said, interrupting him, “seems to be that Joel has somehow got his hands on the server he’s going to need once he’s got the chip. Am I right?”
“That does appear to be the case,” Prentiss said. “I’m certain I know what the result will be, but, Randy, I want you to check server number BCI419.”
Randy entered the numbers on his keypad, then began typing once again. “It should be 44577451458,” Randy said.
The new string of numbers displayed: 52224796652
“As I suspected,” Prentiss said, “he has also managed to remove the server that is paired with his current gen-4 chip.” He turned back to Randy. “I don’t expect that any of these others would be of any value to him, but I want you to run the checksum on every relay unit. If he’s taken any other servers, I want to know it.”
“Prentiss,” Sam said, “with all the security you got in this building, how in the world could he walk out with two of your relay computers?”
Prentiss turned and looked at him. “Mr. Prichard,” he said, “that chip that he has in his head right now, combined with its relay server, would conceivably be capable of manipulating every bit of security equipment we have. With a little work, which Joel could easily learn to do with his abilities, he could even send a video feed to the monitors at the security desk, so that they think they are seeing everything just the way it’s supposed to be while he’s pushing a cart full of equipment out through the loading dock.”
“And he can do all of that just by thinking about it?” Sam asked.
Prentiss looked around the room for a moment, then turned back to look Sam in the eye.
“All of that,” he said solemnly, “and so very, very much more.”
“Doctor Prentiss?” Randy said. “Sir, you might want to see this. As you said, I ran the checksum on all of them. There’s another one that doesn’t add up right.”
Prentiss turned and looked at him. “Another one? But none of the others should be of any value to him, they won’t work with his.”
“Sir, that’s true,” Randy said, “and the one that’s been switched out is one that we hadn’t even planned on using just yet. It’s BCI-S569.”
“Five sixty-nine? Which one is that?”
“Sir, that’s for the BCI561120 slave chip,” Randy said.
37
Sam and his team were gathered in the cafeteria, and he was explaining to all of them what Prentiss had shown them.
“What it means,” he said, “is that Joel has these servers hidden somewhere, someplace where it will be undoubtedly almost impossible for us to find them. At the moment, he should still be limited to the generation 4 chip and its relay, but as we already know, even that gives him an incredible amount of power. Once the surgery is complete, however, he will have many more capabilities, some of which Doctor Prentiss admits even he doesn’t know the limits of.”
“And this guy wants to rule the world, right?” Darren asked. “Well, sooner or later, he’s gonna have to show himself. There’s got to be some way to shut him down. What about EMF? Would an electromagnetic field mess up that chip?”
“From what I understand,” Sam said, “it probably could. Unfortunately, that won’t necessarily eliminate the threat that he pos
es. It’s also relatively easy to protect the chip from an EMF pulse; remember all the jokes about people who wear tinfoil hats? As simple as that sounds, it would probably do the job. As for the server itself, it’s undoubtedly hidden away in a Faraday cage that will keep it safe from any attempt to damage it that way.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Pat asked. “You’re basically talking about one man having all the power of every government in the world. If he’s able to access and control every connected computer, it’s not going to be long before he knows exactly which missiles are aimed where. If he gets really ticked off at us, all he’s got to do is launch one of China’s nukes that’s targeting the bay area. Poof! We are out of his hair that easily.”
“But that could start World War Three,” Becky said. “If he launches a nuke at anyone, the rest of the world might launch all of theirs, and we all get wiped out.”
“Actually,” Prentiss said, “that is one area where he would actually keep such a result from happening. With that chip, he would be able within hours to gain access to every launch control system in the entire world, so that no one would be able to retaliate against him.”
Jade shook her head. “This is so crazy,” she said, “like something out of a science fiction movie. I can’t believe we’re actually trying to stop The Matrix from becoming reality, but that’s about what it sounds like. The only difference is that instead of computers controlling the world, it’s one guy who can control all the computers.”
“I have no intention of letting this happen,” Sam said. He sighed. “And now I’m going to take steps to get some help.”
He took out his cell phone and found the speed dial icon for Harry Winslow. He tapped it and put the phone to his ear.
“Sam, boy,” Harry said as he answered. “What’s the situation?”
“Absolutely your worst possible nightmare,” Sam said. “Have you been kept up-to-date on the CerebroLink case?”
“Now, Sam,” Harry said with a mocking scold in his voice, “I’m retired, remember? Why would I know anything?”
