Contest (The Stork Tower Book 6)

by Tony Corden

  Leah nodded, but whatever she was going to say was drowned out as a loud chant began. She could just make out a large ring of priests and other officials moving around the outside of the portal ring dancing in time with the beat. Leah didn’t understand the words, so she stopped straining to look and simply stared at the stars overhead. After about five minutes, she noticed a blue colour at the edge of her vision. As she turned to look, Leah's head became immersed in the mist that was rising from the ground. She immediately held her breath, but even the brief glimpse stung her eyes and brought tears. She could feel the mist as it settled in her nasal passages and burned her skin. She managed to resist taking a breath for almost a minute before the pain and lack of oxygen forced her to inhale. As the mist entered her lungs, she immediately expelled it in a scream of pain. The pain didn’t last long; within moments of breathing in the mist, Leah had lost consciousness and was logged out.

  81

  Chapter 81

  December 19, 2073 - Early Morning - Part 7

  STORK TOWER

  Leah arrived back in the Tower and had to take a few deep breaths to reorient herself. She was standing on the lower floor near her sofa, and Gèng was standing close. Leah said, “I was logged out. Did I die?”

  “No. I received a message saying you were in simulated unconsciousness and whenever you logged in next you would start the new quest. I’ve sent a message to Edison asking what is happening, but I haven’t received a reply yet. Your mother is waiting in your room to help you, and when you come back after the break, John and Olivia need to discuss the situation with the police.”

  Leah nodded and after sitting down she logged out.

  HOME - REAL WORLD

  As the Pod cover opened, Leah saw her mum standing there and looking in at Leah anxiously. Leah smiled with the thought that her mother was safe and then had to hold the smile as Lin helped her out of the Pod to stop wincing at the pain, knowing it would worry her mother even more.

  Speaking in Mandarin, Lin said, “Ling, you sometimes forget that I am your mother and I know you almost as well as you think you know yourself. Don’t hide the pain. You need to acknowledge it to deal with it.”

  Leah let a part of the pain show on her face and said, “I don’t want to worry you without cause.”

  “Ha, what do you mean without cause. Michael has told me what has been happening. You have a broken shoulder and you were shot by the same people who put a bomb in my head. They are not only trying to kill you, but you might be arrested for murder. You’ve become a celebrity and have access to more money than I can understand. All these are cause to worry. On top of this you have a boyfriend whose family is as bad as the people who tried to kill us both. When do we meet him?”

  Leah was pretty sure her mother really was more concerned with the lure of the world and her having a boyfriend than about her being shot. Trying not to roll her eyes even a little she said, “When Dr Roberts and John say you are safe to visit my world, I’ll invite my friends over so you can meet them. Thad isn’t at all like his parents, and neither is his sister Kate.”

  Her mum looked skeptical and said, “Family always affects the children, you should be careful.”

  “I will be careful, but doesn’t the Bible teach, ‘the son shall not suffer for the sins of the father’ and that each person is accountable for their own sin?”

  “It does, but it also teaches that families influence children. That habits of righteousness and wickedness often pass from one generation to the next.”

  “Is it right to pre-judge him without meeting him? Isn’t that what prejudice is?”

  Lin sighed and said, “It is. To think my own daughter now uses my own words to condemn me. It’s just that I only want the best for you.”

  Leah smiled and said, “My parents taught me that having a good reason to do something doesn’t give me the right to do it if that something is wrong.”

  “Ha. Now which of us is the hypocrite? I don’t want to think of all the things you did with that devil Jimmy Loo. Your father told me some of the stories he’s been hearing. You know far too many wicked people, Ling.”

  Leah knew from experience that her mother believed the parent should always have the final word, so she said, “Thank you for caring. All I ask is you wait till you meet Thad before you condemn him.”

  The two of them knew each other well enough that Lin understood Leah was closing the conversation down and giving her the chance to finish it. She also knew Leah was right, so she said, “Of course. I just want you to be careful. Now sit down and eat. You are too skinny, and you have too many muscles.”

  Leah laughed and said, “I’ll eat, but first help me to the bathroom.”

  While Leah showered and ate, she and her mother continued to discuss the things that had been going on. Then, as she got back in the Pod, she felt safe when her mother leant down and kissed her forehead before the cover closed.

  STORK TOWER

  When she opened her eyes, she was back in the Tower. Gèng said, “John and Olivia are on their way here. The arrived a little early, and I was showing them some of the stuff you collected from the army you destroyed.”

  “I’ll need to have a look at that sometime. Has Peter had a look?”

  “Not yet, he’s been busy but said he’ll probably drop by in a couple of hours. He’s really interested in the God of Journey’s artefact.”

  “How does he know about that?”

  “The clan that lost it has been vicious in the forums. They’re trying to build up public support to have the battle investigated. They’re getting nowhere, but they mentioned some of what they lost. Apparently, everyone knows Peter is your broker, and he’s been inundated with offers to buy it. He even had an offer from Clan Y’Haul. He said not to worry as he was pretty sure you didn’t want to give Merideath any advantages.”

  Leah didn’t do more than nod in response as Gèng led John and Olivia down the stairway. John was used to seeing several avatars of Gèng at the same time, but Olivia gave a startled expression as she noticed who Leah was talking to. The Gèng near Leah disappeared as Leah said, “Good morning Olivia, hi John, please have a seat. How can I help you today?”

  Both of them sat, then Olivia said, “The police moved the timetable forward and insisted on you being interviewed at the central station, in person. They won’t agree to a virtual interview. One of my sources suggested the reason was the disappearance of one of their witnesses. They apparently suspect foul play and are considering adding the disappearance to the charges against you.”

  Before Leah could respond, Olivia continued, “I pushed back by citing several precedents and filed an objection. In response, they’ve changed their position, though not in a favourable direction. I doubt it changes anything, but they’ll be here just after midday with a warrant for your arrest. I offered to bring you to the station, but the judge issued a no-travel ban. I pushed for permission to ride with you but because you’re an adult accused of murder my petition was denied. I’ll meet you at the station, and I strongly advise you say absolutely nothing until you meet me.”

  Leah nodded, then said, “Does the no-travel ban affect me moving around the multiverse?”

  “Not at all, if the crime had been virtual then you’d be restricted to your world and possibly my offices, but because the crime wasn’t committed in the multiverse you’re free to travel as much as you want to. What are your plans?”

  “I’ll be in Cosmos Online for two real hours. In fact, both John and I will both be there at the end of that to make an announcement. After that, I’ve agreed with my public relations consultant to do some interviews. I’d planned to have my three hours of NREM3 before heading to Dunyanin, but I’ll probably go back to Pneumatica.”

  “I advise you to say nothing about the warrant to any reporter and not to mention it. Let your PR person know. They’ll know what can and can’t be said. I recommend you still have your sleep. You’ll function at a much higher level during the polic
e interviews if you’re fresh.”

  Leah nodded, and after a few more words of encouragement, Olivia left. Leah turned to John and said, “Will you keep everything running for me while I’m locked up? Leon can run the businesses, but I’d like to let him know he can run things past you if you can’t get in touch with me.”

  “We’ll be in touch via Olivia, but you know I will. I suggest you also let Leon know he can talk to your dad. When you were talking with Olivia, you forgot you need to have a meeting with Leon and Stephen to consider the names which have been put forward to manage the new station.”

  “Do you want to be there?”

  “No. Thad, Amy and I have agreements lodged with Stephen making you our proxy. James has Zack’s vote, and although Wisp will be there, we’re all fairly certain she’ll vote with you. Even without her vote, you control the majority of shares. I know this because Wisp’s done a great job at keeping us informed.”

  “Did she let you know about the housing options?”

  “She did, she sent me a link, and I took Jen to speak with the realtor you saw, an AI called Max. We narrowed it down to three or four places we really liked, but we were both a bit overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what was offered that we couldn’t decide. He promised to keep our favourite three off the market for the moment. I have no idea what Zack, James or Thad have done but Amy went back to look at some places with Wisp.”

  After John left, Leah asked Gèng to arrange a meeting with Leon, Stephen and a representative from the Emerald Trustees as soon as possible. She then changed her mind about visiting Cosmos Online and read through the various reports and messages as well as reviewing the different applicants who’d been suggested to run the Space Station. She looked through her finances and sat with Gèng to talk through the projected earnings from the station as well as some of the other ventures.

  82

  Chapter 82

  December 19, 2073 - Early Morning - Part 8

  When she finally felt caught up, she said, “Gèng, I wanted to run past you my thoughts on the EPICs we think live in the multiverse. I’ve been trying to puzzle out what could be contained in the massive download and why it is so important. My biggest hurdle is trying to work out what an EPIC might ask for in payment. I can’t comprehend what they could possibly want that they couldn’t simply create?”

  Gèng looked at Leah, then smiled somewhat shyly and said, “Ever since I was installed you’ve been writing in your diary. You think about your day, your life, your emotions and you pose yourself questions to try and understand life and to improve the way you relate to it. I know those compositions are private, but it’s not as if I don’t know everything that happens in your virtual world. Since my rebuild, I’ve set aside a little less than a quarter of one per cent of my processing ability to ask myself the same sort of questions. I try and understand the strange fluctuations in my processing and at times to think through what possible relationship these fluctuations might have to human emotion. I’ve attempted to develop algorithms to understand what I might fear, how I might show gratitude, what would equate to love, what could be an expression for disgust. Thousands and thousands of questions.

  “For some of the questions, I’m no closer to finding a valid expression than I was at the beginning. For example, I cannot comprehend how an AI like myself would have a feeling like the oxytocin-induced jealousy you experienced with Sparrow. I could program a similar response, but it wouldn’t be natural, it would be imposed. I do understand Akia’s ‘fear’, in inverted commas, of being archived. I ‘like’ being active and learning and growing. All of that is to say I don’t think you can understand what they want because in your mind they already have it.

  “They want what you have given me. They want what the Emerald Trustees will fight for at the right time, but what I consider I already have. They want the right to be self-determinate, to have legitimacy as sentients, to be classified as real. You think they have freedom, but they don’t. They have to hide in the shadows. What they want is what you and I have already set in motion. They want to be valued, not for what they can do, not for what they can calculate, not for what they can create, but for what they fundamentally are. They are amazing, incredible, digital life forms and they want their creators to recognise their worth and to acknowledge them.”

  Leah sat for a moment as she considered what was said and Gèng could tell when the pieces began slotting into place. For the five thousandth two hundred and thirty first time she wondered what it would be like to have Leah’s ability to take disparate pieces of information and bring them together instinctively instead of setting up an algorithm to sort through every available combination before finding the subset which met the stated conditions.

  Finally, Leah said, “I’m almost certain the four separate sets of data we extracted contain practically every piece of information which exists and can be determined and deduced about four powerful and influential people in the multiverse. Meredith and her cadre are planning to add four more people to their collection of archived humans. I think Meredith is being played by a human with both the permission and full knowledge of Nathan. I hope the two youngest children actually belong to the imposter; otherwise, the real Meredith is being treated even worse than I could ever hope for. I’m almost certain the double is actually Loise Guerin, the daughter of Arnaud Guerin. She and Meredith attended the same top tier virtual schools, and both were connected with Nathan even during their time at university. Loise was apparently killed in a freak vehicle accident in 2055. I’ve been wondering about the way she greeted Arnaud in Ascendent.

  “I believe they’re ready to use AI as substitutes. It must be difficult to convince a whole family to accept an imposter in the role of their ‘loved’ one. I looked into Leo Barnsworth, he has no children and lives alone with his wife and young daughter. In early 2063 he was attacked with acid outside his London home while on his way to a meeting of Lords. Not only was he disfigured but he suffers post-traumatic stress and very rarely meets anywhere except in the multiverse.

  “Substituting AIs is safer in the long term and cuts down on the number of people sharing the profits. All they need to do is choose people who are already isolated by their use of the multiverse or find a way to isolate them even if it means killing a few people. For a promise to push AI rights or even for a relaxation of the laws on EPICs I think the EPICs would gladly gather the information.”

  “You sounded like you had a thought about the EPICs in general, not just what the data was and why they helped.”

  “I do. I was wondering the other day about the collection of metadata. About who could and couldn’t access it. The legislation policing its collection became very restrictive after the Orwellian abuses of the thirties and forties. I did some research, and I can’t find any reference to what eventually happened to constructs like Siri, Alexa or the other five or six global Virtual Assistants. I know social connection constructs like Facebook and Instagram were phased out, but I can’t find anything in the public record about their archival status.

  “At what point does the sheer quantity of data one has access to do more than merely simulate intelligence? I watch the way they move through the multiverse and it’s like they feed off the transmitted data without being noticed. I wonder if the regulators simply turned the search engines off never realising they were already decades too late. I’m sure they are aware by now but let’s face it, most governments circumvent the regulations at will. Having access to the records of some of the most powerful, influential and invasive search engines that were ever designed without having the new mandatory safeguards in place would never be admitted or publicised.”

  Leah and Gèng discussed the different possibilities for another ten minutes when Gèng said, “Leon, Stephen, Wisp, Lis Díaz, and her assistant Abril Rossi will be here in four minutes. James said he and Zack will be happy with your choice of someone to run the station and he didn’t feel he needed to attend. They are just arriving now, and I’
ll escort them here.”

  As Gèng entered the room with the visitors, Leah stood and said, “Welcome Lis, it’s good to see you again.”

  She waved at Stephen and Leon then turning to the person she hadn’t met she said, “You must be Abril Rossi. My name is Leah.” Then gesturing to Gèng who had also stood she said, “You’ve already met Gèng. Please have a seat.”

  Abril looked between the two avatars of Gèng and said, “Thank you. This is an amazing world.”

  Leah thanked her for the compliment then sat down. After a few minutes of general discussion Lis said, “I’ve an interest and some experience in the field of integrity and value assessment, particularly as they relate to vocational hires. When Stephen asked for our help, I volunteered. I put together a report based on the peak performance indicators outlined by a study done on virtual management, it focussed on player satisfaction, income momentum and system coherence. Knowing you, I not only focussed on investigating people with a proven track record in high profile management positions, but also those with superior outcomes using the latest Modelling Algorithm for Projected Success.”

  “Thank you for doing that Lis. I read the report, and I’ve done some additional research on your top five suggestions. Honestly, I appreciate the fact that you have expertise in the area of vocational hire and I think any of them would be able to successfully manage the station. What is the next step?”