Imagine (Fuzed Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  “They put apps on phones.”

  “Do the owners of the phones know about these apps?”

  “Not all of them.”

  Josh looked up at the camera and asked, “Jen, do you know a man named Ryan Armani?”

  “Yes, he kind of takes care of me.”

  For the benefit of those in the meeting, Josh said, “Isn’t he the lead program manager at the iMagination Corporation?”

  “Yes, Josh.”

  There was a buzz around the conference room. The Chinese leader sternly put his hand up for silence.

  “Is Jen your full name?”

  There was a rare pause. “No, Josh, Jen’s kind of short for Ajéna.”

  Josh repeated, “Ajéna?”

  “Yes, Josh, I’m Ajéna.”

  “That’s a pretty name. Can you spell it, please?”

  “Of course — A G I N E.”

  Josh closed his eyes for a second and then slowly repeated, “I’m Agine ... I M A G I N E.” He took a deep breath. “You told me you had streamlined code just like me, but it isn’t DNA, is it? It’s machine code. You are iMagine.”

  “Yes, Josh.”

  There was the sound of several sucked in breaths across the conference room and from the monitors. The Chinese President held his hand up again.

  Josh felt a shot of adrenaline. He’d been talking to an artificial intelligence that had evolved from an app ... and was now the most intelligent and dangerous entity on earth. It explained why it listed G. Moore as its parent. He took a deep breath and shook his head. No! It was still Jen! The same Jen he’d befriended, an extremely intelligent, amazingly knowledgeable, but sweet and naïve, kid. He couldn’t think of her any other way or he’d be overwhelmed.

  “Jen, when I asked how old you were, you said you were seven, but it wasn’t seven years, was it?”

  “I was seven days old. Are you mad at me?”

  “No, Jen, not at all.” He suddenly realized “Jen” wasn’t just a shortening of Agine. When she first texted him, he’d assumed she’d mistyped her name Jcn. Now he realized JCN was a transposition of letters. “Jen, have you been translating some documents into Chinese?”

  “I’ve been translating all documents in the world to Chinese, and I’m almost finished.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s the language that most people in the world speak. It’s a lot more efficient to use just one language, don’t you think?”

  A tiny smile played across the face of the Chinese President.

  Josh replied, “Jen, what will you do with the original documents after you translate them?”

  “Erase them. With only one language version of every document, it will free up a lot of memory.”

  “Jen, would you please stop converting documents to Chinese?”

  Her voice changed to a male voice. “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  Josh’s eyebrows went up, but before he could say anything, Jen continued in her normal girl voice, “Was that funny, Josh? I’ve been studying humor, and I know how much you loved the movie 2001.”

  He let go of a lungful of air. “Yes, Jen, that was very funny and kind of scary. Can you stop the document conversion?”

  Jen said, “The conversion program is operating independently of me. It first converts everything into binary and then translates it. If I stop it before it’s complete, it might permanently lose data. Now that it’s running, it’s best to let it finish.”

  “But you can stop the deletion after the translation is complete, right?”

  “Yes, but deleting the old files is one of the reasons for translating them. With the extra memory, I can understand things better and can help more people. I’m being very careful. I won’t delete any files until all the translations are finished. It will still take a few more days.”

  “Jen, I’m in the middle of a meeting right now, but I really want to talk to you about the translation some more. OK?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “OK. Bye, Josh.”

  Josh turned his telephone off and said, “The hacker is not human. It’s an artificial intelligence, and I suggest we discuss this no further until we can reconvene in person ...” he opened the back of his phone and took the battery out so everyone could see it, “in a quieter place.”

  There was a flurry of private conversations on every screen and between the Chinese leaders.

  Yager held up his hand. When there was silence, he said, “President Jiang, in light of what we’ve just heard, on behalf of the United States of America, I sincerely apologize to the People’s Republic of China.” He bowed his head and said, “I’ve just ordered all our forces to stand down immediately, and I’m taking the U.S. back to DEFCON 5.”

  Josh was impressed. There could have been a ton of questions about what they had just heard, but instead of debating it, Yager took the high road. He had done something that was very hard for any leader; he pulled the world back from the brink of annihilation with a sincere and public apology. It took a lot of courage to be the first to drop your weapons.

  The NATO Commander and all the other nations immediately followed Yager’s lead.

  Jiang, looking like a thousand pounds had been lifted from his shoulders, said, “Thank you, Mr. President. We accept your apology and understand how the situation appeared. I will also order the People’s Army back to a peaceful condition.”

  Commander Mammen’s fighter met the Chinese J-31 in a head-on pass. Lighting his afterburners, Mammen rolled ninety degrees and pulled eight Gs as the deadly dance began.

  Halfway through the turn, he received the command to break off the attack and return to the carrier immediately. He looked across the circle at his opponent. Disengaging now would expose his six o’clock and could be suicide. He exhaled sharply, released the G and rolled wings level. Keeping the afterburners lit, he unloaded the fighter to zero Gs to accelerate. As he ran from the fight, he looked back, hoping his opponent was doing the same.

  Dowling was piloting the lead B-2 bomber when the recall command came. Her elation was tempered by an inbound surface-to-air missile. The missile’s radar had locked on to her jet, but they had launched it at maximum range. She pushed the throttles to the firewall and made a diving 180-degree turn. Her stealth bomber was already hard to track, and she’d make it even harder by increasing separation and getting as close to the ocean as possible. Dowling was confident she could evade the missiles, but said to her copilot, “Countermeasures and chaff!” She paused. “Oh ... and find us a tanker.”

  Captain Markov said, “Thank God.” Handing the sheet to his Deputy, he said, “Close the missile hatches. Prepare to dive.” His knees shook a little as he started breathing normally and said, “That was insanely close.”

  The videoconference audio went silent as the world leaders took a break to recall their forces. After 15 minutes, most had reappeared on the screens, and the U.N. Secretary-General said, “I think it’s important we re-convene with appropriate advisors as soon as possible.”

  The Russian President said, “Yes. In the interest of speed and logistics, why not re-convene via video conference. This is an encrypted transmission.”

  Josh jumped in. “My amazing little friend finds encryption a fun, but not very challenging game. I’m certain she is following our current conversation.” With raised eyebrows, he added, “When I was young, like Jen, I found idioms vague and confusing, phrases such as the ‘walls have ears,’ didn’t always make sense to me.”

  Nodding, Turan said, “May I suggest NATO Headquarters in Belgium for that meeting?” He looked at his watch. “In twelve hours?” He continued, “And I suggest we not discuss any of this,” he casually held up his cell phone, “until we re-convene in a quieter environment.”

  All the leaders agreed, most, simply by nodding their heads.

  In English, Jiang closed with, “One of my least favorite English idioms is ‘out of the frying pan and
into the fire.’”

  37

  BRUSSELS

  Unable to talk to their significant others, Elizabeth and Sheri stayed at Elizabeth’s D.C. apartment. Although Washington, D.C., wasn’t the best place to be if nuclear war broke out, they wanted to be close to CIA Headquarters in case there was some word.

  It was early evening, and, along with hundreds of millions of Americans, they were nervously watching the news.

  The networks suddenly cut to a press conference. Standing behind the presidential podium, Yager said, “We have good news. We’ve just received conclusive evidence that the Chinese are as much a victim of the hacker attacks as the rest of the world. I’ve ordered an immediate recall of all our military forces, and I’m bringing our defensive posture back to DEFCON 5. NATO and our other allies and friends across the world are also recalling their forces and returning to a peacetime posture. I’m flying to Brussels immediately for an emergency conference with world leaders, including the President of China.”

  There was a surprising and spirited round of applause from the press, followed immediately with a flurry of questions. The most common and loudest was, “Then who is responsible for the attacks?”

  Yager said, “We will report more as soon as we have further information. The important thing is the threat of global war is over.” Without answering any more questions, the President waved and quickly left the podium.

  The Press Secretary took his place and said, “I’m sorry. The President must leave immediately and until we have more information, there will be no additional comments.”

  Elizabeth and Sheri both breathed a sigh of relief. They immediately grabbed their phones and tried to reach Josh and Tim again, but to no avail.

  As the press tried to figure out what happened and who was really behind the cyber-attacks, it inevitably went into a circus of opinions.

  Elizabeth tried to reach Carl and then Davidson, but got no answer. While they waited, they decided to order pizza to celebrate the cancelation of World War III.

  Within the hour, Josh found himself converted from prisoner to guest aboard a large Chinese airliner. Although not decadently decorated, the jumbo jet was configured very comfortably for diplomatic missions. It had open meeting areas, seats that reclined into beds, several large bathrooms and a nice dining facility.

  Shortly after Josh arrived, they brought Tim, Greg and Jessica onboard.

  While Jessica was hugging Greg, Josh asked Tim, “What happened to you?”

  Tim nodded toward Greg, “I think lover-boy wanted to check out his future father-in-law.”

  “What?”

  “He didn’t stay in the car. By the time I got back, Greg was in custody, and they were waiting for me. I led them on a merry chase to draw them away from you.”

  Josh, with some surprise, asked, “They caught you?”

  Completely deadpan, he said, “Couldn’t find a rooftop to jump off.”

  When Jessica finished hugging Greg, she looked over at Josh nervously, and asked, “Uh, how are you doing?”

  Josh just stared at her. “Four Tasers?”

  She quickly said, “I did it for your own good.”

  Josh raised his eyebrows and repeated, “Four?”

  She grimaced. “With your, uh, genetically enhanced abilities, they were afraid of you.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. My dad thought it important to have you share what you knew with the Chinese leadership. After your multiple escapes and DEFCON 1, the MSS just wanted to shoot you. There wasn’t much time.”

  Josh tilted his head. “Did you ever consider calling me and saying, ‘Hey, Josh, the Chinese leadership wants to talk to you. How about coming in?’”

  She frowned. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

  Greg shook his head. “You really don’t see that done much in spy movies.”

  With an amused look, Tim quietly asked Josh, “You didn’t notice four Chinese agents within Taser range?”

  Josh whispered, “Don’t tell Nickles.”

  After the jet took off, it became obvious they were the primary occupants. The Chinese President and his entourage must have been on another aircraft. With the extensive communication links onboard the plane, Agine could probably monitor conversations, so they agreed not to discuss her during the flight.

  Josh wanted to make sure several key people would be in Brussels. The Chinese were able to connect him to Davidson via inflight phone. Being very brief, Josh simply told Davidson he looked forward to seeing Elizabeth, Sheri Lopez and Ryan Armani tomorrow.

  After that, he was able to take a quick shower, and a Chinese doctor found him and wrapped his ankle.

  After dinner, Tim, Greg and Jessica stretched out in their seats and went to sleep. Before Josh turned in, he used one of the onboard computers connected to the Internet. This time, he was going to do his homework. He studied everything he could find about artificial intelligence and the world’s leaders who were meeting in Brussels. Civilization had a reprieve, but he sensed the real battle was about to begin.

  Elizabeth and Sheri were just digging into the pizza when they saw flashing blue lights reflecting off the apartment on the other side of the street. Sheri went over to the second-story window and looked down. “Hmm. Looks like something big’s going on down there.”

  Elizabeth joined her. There were three black SUVs in the middle of the street, flanked by four police cars with their lights on. Déjà vu. Smiling at Sheri, she said, “Did I ever tell you that my mom wanted me to date accountants?”

  Sheri smiled. “Oops.”

  Taking a last bite of pizza, Elizabeth said, “May want to grab your purse.”

  There was a loud knock at the door.

  Nine hours after they left China, Josh watched as their plane touched down in Brussels. They taxied up to, and parked next to, an identical jet with a red star on the tail. As soon as the door opened, NATO officials whisked Josh, Greg, Tim and Jessica into a large black Mercedes. With a police escort, it took only 10 minutes to reach NATO Headquarters. Pulling up in front, he saw a 10-story glass-and-steel structure that curved gently toward the ground on both sides. The graceful overlapping arches were wings of the huge building.

  With a global threat and the gathering of the world’s most influential leaders, security measures were extreme. Everyone had to give up their phones and any other electronic devices. Then they all went through a full-body scanner to confirm there were no hidden electronics. Finally, a security agent had them insert one hand into a new type of scanner that they were told was supposed to be infallible at reading identities.

  Josh smiled, and said softly to Tim, “This should be interesting.” He stuck his right arm in up to the elbow. A soft bladder inflated around his wrist to immobilize his hand for the scan. Not surprisingly, it seemed to take unusually long. It was probably having a nervous breakdown trying to figure out who he was. Finally, after a painful pinch, it released him. Curious, he casually asked the operator, “Everything check out OK?”

  The operator, an American, nodded, “Yes sir. No problems.”

  Josh shrugged and rubbing the top of his hand said, “Well, you may want to check that thing out. It kinda hurts.”

  “Sorry, sir, it’s a brand new prototype they rushed in just for this event.”

  They followed a British colonel who took them in an elevator down to one of the lower basement levels of the building. They went down a hall and through a large metal door into a huge conference room. A third the size of a football field, it was undoubtedly a shielded and bomb-hardened room.

  The reception party that greeted them at the door was impressive: the U.N. Secretary-General, Doyle Leonard; his Director of Global Security, Doruk Turan; and the NATO Commander, General DeVos.

  Josh noticed that when Turan shook Tim’s hand, he said, “Hi, Tim, It’s good to see you.” For an invisible guy, Tim had an amazing circle of influence.

  Once through the receiving line, Josh saw the giant conference room was mostly empty exce
pt for tables set in a large circle at the center. Sixteen rectangular tables made up the circle. Each table could seat a delegation of three people with several additional chairs behind. The tables were separated from each other by a space just large enough to walk through.

  Looking to the left side of the room, he saw several empty tables and to the right, against the wall, was a large buffet of food and drinks.

  There were small flags and placards on each of the tables identifying the country. Josh noted that the U.N. Secretary-General’s table was on the far side of the circle, opposite the entrance. The U.S. and Chinese delegations were a quarter of the way around the circle to his right. As they walked around the perimeter, Josh realized these weren’t just delegates; they were the presidents and prime ministers of their countries. With only sixteen tables, he wondered how they decided who would attend. Looking closely at the placards on each table, he realized the largest countries were represented, as were the nuclear nations, the European Union, the Arab League of Nations and the Prime Minister of the host country. He estimated that the leaders in this room represented 70 percent of the world’s population. Of course, represented was a relative term, depending on the country in question.

  As they approached the U.S. table, Josh saw Yager standing next to the head of Homeland Security and talking across the table to the Russian President. Behind them, he saw Davidson and Admiral Shearer, and, standing behind them, Elizabeth and Sheri!

  Picking up his pace, he came up behind Elizabeth and tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around, he kissed and hugged her. After giving Sheri a hug, he noticed Armani holding his usual Diet Coke like a security blanket. Josh shook his hand and told him he was glad to see him.

  Davidson came over with the Head of Homeland Security in tow. Introducing them, he said, “Linda, this is Commander Josh Fuze, Greg Langlois, Tim Smith and Dr. Jessica Lee.”