“How…?”
“I don’t know, sir. I was told she came to the Cyber Center of her own volition. But that’s still not all. All of Alex Luthecker’s friends, the ones we as a company have tracked for so long, all of them, they’re here. They’re being held in the Cyber Center by two Coalition Assurance soldiers, and they’re waiting for you.”
33
The End of the Animal
Turner exited the elevator on the floor of the Coalition Fortress Cyber Center. As he stormed down the hall he could not believe the turn of events. The launch countdown for the nuclear missile had been stopped, at least temporarily, and the most qualified people who could stop it permanently were all together in one room, a room that Turner controlled.
The Coalition’s top programmer Rika Muranaka was waiting in the Cyber Center, along with the notorious hacker Nicole Ellis, whose malware program PHOEBE was behind it all, and the much-hated Alex Luthecker was with them. And as a bonus, Luthecker and Ellis’ entire group of terrorist friends were being held captive after a failed rescue attempt. Even the traitor Ivan Barbolin was there, in handcuffs, along with the perpetual pest Mark Kirby.
They were all being held under guard at the technological center of the Coalition, the digital brains behind all that made the Coalition the powerful entity that it was. And once the threat from Ivan’s sub was neutralized, Turner would have every one of them moved to the containment apartments, where he could get rid of them quietly and at his discretion.
Turner could not have asked for a better outcome, given the gravity of the situation. He had told his board that he would get them all, and somehow he’d done it. Perhaps I’m finally catching a break, he thought to himself. Turner wasn’t sure exactly how or why his enemies were all here at the same time, but he wouldn’t question his luck.
But Turner was also smart enough to not take any chances—he had decided to carry the sidearm he kept in his office safe, a Czech made CZ-75 D compact 9mm handgun. It was a weapon that had the reputation of being reliable, easy to operate, and remarkably accurate. Turner was a regular at the range and would not hesitate to brandish the weapon with confidence should the situation escalate to the point he felt it necessary.
Turner reached the entrance to the Coalition Fortress Cyber Center. It was here in this center where the latest in Coalition cyber technology was created and tested, so in Turner’s mind it was fitting that everything that involved Alex Luthecker and Nicole Ellis would end here.
For the first time since the nightmare that began with the capture of Luthecker and suicide of rendition specialist David Lloyd, the Coalition had everyone involved with the threat that Luther had become captive in the same room…at the same time.
Turner had accomplished what both James Howe and Richard Brown could not. He would have victory where his predecessors had failed. Turner expected a monster bonus from his board of directors after this.
Turner punched the access code to the Cyber Center into the small keypad located next to the entrance, followed by swiping his hand across the biometric reader above the keypad. He already had an additional unit of Coalition Assurance soldiers on their way over from building four.
Turner could taste victory. He looked forward to this being over so he could take a well-earned vacation. New Zealand was particularly beautiful at this time of year, and Turner had recently purchased a five hundred acre farm there that he had yet to visit.
Turner heard the click of the tumblers on the electronic lock release, and he pushed open the thick metal door. He stepped into the Cyber Center, carefully closing the large metal door and locking it behind him. Turner scanned the room and assessed who was here.
Beyond the cluster of computer stations and wall monitors, Turner saw that Muranaka and Kirby stood next to one another along the far wall, while Ivan Barbolin, Alex Luthecker, Nicole Ellis, and people he recognized from file photos, Yaw Chimonso, Camilla Ramirez, Chris Aldrich, Masha Tereshchenko, were all seated against the opposite wall with their hands cuffed behind them. There was one more person he didn’t recognize, a young Vietnamese man who sat next to them, also in handcuffs.
“You must be a new addition to the terrorist cell,” Turner said to Joey Nugyen, before turning to the two Coalition Assurance soldiers who stood guard over the group, their M-16 rifles pointed at those handcuffed and seated against the wall.
“Randy Baez, sir.”
“Brian Scholl. We were assigned to pick up the target Luthecker and discovered that he was missing from his apartment. We found him in the hallway with his friends that had come here to help him escape. We thought it best to bring them all here and let you decide what to do next, sir.”
“Good work, gentlemen. Bringing them to me was the right call.”
“Sir, we are in grave danger…” Muranaka interrupted.
“Everything is being contained,” Turner snapped back and looked directly at Alex Luthecker. “The nuclear missile launch sequence has been stopped cold. It isn’t going anywhere, at least not for the moment. But it’s only a symptom of the threat, not the real threat. Am I right, Alex? Can I call you Alex?”
“Do you honestly believe it is because of blind luck that we are all here?” Luthecker asked.
“No, I do not. I believe that all of this is somehow your doing. How you manage to trick people so consistently and pull this off doesn’t really concern me because it’s over now. Every person that matters, or is part of your little terrorist organization is in this room, which leaves only the question of what happens next.
“I’m smart enough to know that if you’ve arranged this, then you have leverage. Clearly, you want something, and you’re willing to threaten the world for it. And each and every one of you would sacrifice their lives for any of the others in your miserable little group, so self-preservation isn’t a priority.
“I know your mission is to free the slaves, but much of slavery is done by tacit agreement between both parties, and it’s been that way since the dawn of man, which makes things a bit more complicated than you’d like to admit. Now Doctor Kirby over there said that you wanted to talk to me, so here I am—start talking.”
Luthecker scanned over Turner for several seconds, his eyes ravenously taking in every detail. Turner didn’t miss it.
“So according to the files I have on you, with that little trick with your eyes, you know everything about me,” Turner responded. “So tell me—what I’m thinking? Tell me where did I go wrong?”
“Family,” was the first thing Alex said. “We’re not some miserable little group, we’re family. And in the end, family is all that matters.”
“Your point?”
“My point being, is that your label of us is inaccurate, and that all of us being here is not my doing. And the point I just made wasn’t for you.”
“Well then who was it for?” Turner asked.
Alex turned and looked at Nikki. “Why did you come here? To this room?”
“I came here because PHOEBE told me to,” Nikki said.
“And what was the last thing PHOEBE said to you? Before you came to this room?”
“That the end of the animal was near.”
“Do you know what she meant by this?”
“I didn’t. But I think I’m beginning to understand.”
Alex turned back to Turner and waited.
The shoe dropped for Turner. “Are you telling me you made your point for PHOEBE? You’re talking to the software?” Turner asked.
“PHOEBE is a digital entity that has realized its own existence and therefore acts on its own accord. I’m not the one you have to be afraid of. I’m not the one you have to plead your case to,” Alex explained
“I don’t have to plead my case to anyone.” Turner glanced around the Cyber Center.
It was filled with cameras, ranging from wall-mounted security lenses to screen embedded optics on every workstation.
He suddenly felt like he was being watched by a hundred sets of eyes.
He quickly tu
rned toward Muranaka. “Can you fix this? Can you deactivate the launch sequence?”
Muranaka felt like a deer caught in the headlights. “I… there isn’t time.” She looked at Nicole Ellis. “Not without her help.”
Turner looked at Randy Baez. “Cut her loose,” he said to Baez, nodding toward Nikki.
Scholl covered Baez with his M-16 as Baez put aside his rifle, reached behind Ellis, and cut her zip-ties.
Nikki rubbed blood back into her wrists.
“Get her on her feet,” Turner said.
Baez nodded to Turner before grabbing Nikki by the arm and pulling her to her feet.
“This is your fault. It’s your program behind this. I want you to tell Rika how to stop it, or I’m putting a bullet through your boyfriend’s head. Let’s see how far you’ll really sacrifice for one another if you actually have to watch it,” Turner threatened.
Scholl took Turner’s words as his cue and moved the barrel of his M-16 inches from Luthecker’s face.
“I don’t know that I can,” Nikki responded. “PHOEBE is doing this all on her own. If she wants to shut me out, there’s nothing I can do. She made it clear to me that it’s out of my hands.”
“I don’t buy that for a second. And I won’t stop with your boyfriend. I’ll kill all your friends.” Turner’s smart phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was Dimitrov. Turner answered.
“The launch sequence—it has started again,” Dimitrov said, the panic palpable in his voice. “There is less than two minutes now!”
Turner’s face drained of blood.
“Have your men put down their weapons,” Luthecker said.
Turner looked at Luthecker.
“If you want the countdown to stop, have your men put down their weapons. You still haven’t figured it out yet. You’re not the one running the show. Neither of us are. The Goddess of Prophecy is. Now, tell your men to put down their rifles, or it ends for all of us. For everyone.”
Turner looked over the countless cameras in the room once again before answering.
“Do as he says.”
Baez and Scholl looked at one another bewildered, before carefully laying down their M-16s. Their eyes focused on Luthecker.
“The launch sequence countdown, it has halted once again,” Dimitrov said into the phone. “What did—”
Turner hung up the phone. “What does she want?”
“For us to talk. It would go better if you cut me loose.”
Turner gave a quick nod to Baez.
Baez kept his eyes locked on Luthecker as he snapped his M-tech blade open with emphasis and cut Luthecker’s zip-ties with one quick cut.
“You should free us all,” Ivan “the Barbarian” Barbolin said. “What is there to lose?”
“This is your doing, Ivan,” Turner snapped back at his rival.
“No it is not. You heard the pattern reader. It is the software that has us by the balls.”
“Cut me lose and you will see how fast you lose those balls, Ivan,” Masha interrupted, the venom in her voice palpable.
“Do I know you?”
With her hands still zip-tied behind her back, Masha got to her feet. “You are a monster. And I slay monsters. And I do not need my hands free to do so.”
The Barbarian’s eyes went wide with fear as Masha approached him.
“Masha,” Luthecker calmly interjected.
Masha stopped. She took a deep breath and bit her tongue. She glared at Ivan before she stepped back and leaned against the wall.
“So this is how the world ends,” Kirby added to the conversation. “Everyone wanting to kill everyone and succeeding in the end. And here I was, worried about climate change.”
“Everyone shut up,” Turner yelled. He turned back to Luthecker. “So what does your stupid little program want?”
“Balance,” Nikki said, stepping into the conversation. “Near as I can tell.”
“Near as you can tell?”
“She doesn’t have a mandate. At least not yet.”
“She’s pointing a nuclear missile at our heads and that’s somehow going to create balance? No wait, I get it—empty rich people’s bank accounts to give to poor people. It’s what you people always want. How is that not a terrorist act?”
“She’s not motivated by cause. She was originally created to see outcomes and re-tasked to solve problems on our behalf,” Nikki continued. “She’s pure mathematical calculation. She’s learned to make her own decisions to accomplish her goals, but with no specific allegiance to humanity. She’s cause and effect with no understanding. She has no compassion because she hasn’t learned it yet. She needs a moral compass. And on some level, I think she knows it, and she’s trying to learn.” Realization abruptly washed across Nikki’s face.
She turned to Alex. “All she’s ever done is interact with me and by proxy you, Alex, along with everyone else in this room. It’s always the efforts of the Coalition against the family. That’s all she knows. That’s why she brought everyone in this room. That’s why it’s these specific people, in this specific place, in the heart of the Coalition’s digital presence. And I believe she wants us to show her who’s right. She’s going to use whatever happens in this room to learn what to do next.”
“So we argue for the fate of the world all because some renegade A.I. can’t see past its own code. It’s the mission creep to end all mission creep,” added Kirby. He was genuinely impressed.
“Do you want to join them with your hands tied behind your back?” Turner snapped at Kirby.
“Hey man, this is out of my hands. This has nothing to do with me anymore,” Kirby answered, before looking in Luthecker’s direction.
Turner followed Kirby’s gaze back to Luthecker. “So it’s you and me then, for all the marbles. Your program uses the missile threat to keep us here until she decides what moral compass to impact the world by— she’ll choose either the Coalition way or the Alex Luthecker way. Is that it?”
“It appears so.”
“Fine. I know who I am, and I know why the Coalition exists as a necessary force for good. But you first. Show me what you got.”
All eyes were on Luthecker.
Alex took several seconds to gather his thoughts. He had to remember who his audience was, and it was not Glen Turner, CEO of Coalition Properties.
This was about a much larger series of patterns by countless people over a much longer time line, patterns that led to the creation and rise and then global dominance by the Coalition. This was about authentic accountability and the collective total of cause and effect in regards to the creation and direction of Coalition Properties, long before the Coalition was ever born.
If there ever was a Prince of Lies, Alex Luthecker thought to himself, this is about exposing him.
This was also about justification for the continuation of the species down its current path, or choosing a new path evaluated by an entity that could very easily decide to eradicate mankind.
Alex did not believe that PHOEBE would actively end the species—mankind was capable enough of doing that on its own. As Alex understood it, this was about PHOEBE choosing to work with humanity, not against it. But humanity needed to make a choice first.
Alex knew that this was the most important set of patterns he would ever interpret. He decided to start with a question. “What is the purpose of Coalition Properties? What is its mandate?”
“To make the world a safer place,” Turner said.
“And yet the world is less safe now, than it ever was. So is this the true mandate?”
“Look, there are a whole lot of bad people out there. And threats don’t go away just because you wish them away.”
“That is a fear based mandate.”
“That is a reality based mandate.”
“We create our own reality. It is the power of choice. That is the very nature of cause and effect.”
“That assumes a certain level of control. You can’t control outside circumstances and Coalition Pr
operties knows this. Instead, we take control for the good of mankind. Do you expect us to ignore the threats of our enemies? Pacifism is a morally bankrupt philosophy. It relies on the willingness of others to shed their blood in order for it to exist.”
“And yet the world is not a safer place. The level of anxiety and danger is increasing at a faster and faster rate. Every individual feels it. Could this be in part because those who run the Coalition do not actually believe in its stated mandate?”
“Well, it’s a difficult job,” Turner snapped, not masking the sarcasm in his voice. “We do what we have to. We aren’t naïve. The world is a complicated place. Compromises have to be made.”
“I think it’s simpler than that.”
“How so?”
“Just go back to the beginning. Coalition Properties started as a war machine. Its founders sought only one thing, and that was to manufacture weapons to defeat an enemy. Once that enemy was defeated, the newborn entity sought a new mandate, one that took advantage of the abilities created by its original design intent. It chose a direction that is as old as mankind, and that is the consolidation of power through empirical methods.
“Like a cancer, its ideology spread, infecting, consuming, and eventually destroying anything and everything in its path that could contest it. The purpose of Coalition Properties became the growth of Coalition Properties, at whatever the cost. But make no mistake the seed of Coalition Properties genesis was fear. Fear of an enemy that had to be destroyed. And that mandate never evolved.
“So it set in motion patterns of decisions, patterns of behavior that was all in the name of fear. Fear of lack, so it hoarded resources. Fear of others, so it killed. Fear of not being worthy, so it built large monuments to itself. Fear of pain, so it inflicted it first. Fear of the unknown, so it sought complete control. Fear of death, so it co-opted belief.
“Every type of fear was co-opted and preyed upon. Even the people who rose to power within the Coalition were damaged people, all created by fear. Fear, which began as a necessary tool, a part of the survival instinct that defined the human animal, was exploited for gain. But the nature of fear changed, as what we needed to survive changed. Fear became more and more warped as mankind became more and more self-aware.
Revolution: Luthecker, #3 Page 28
