Imagine (Fuzed Trilogy Book 2) Page 30
Elizabeth leaned slightly forward, appearing to cry.
The door burst open and two men came through. The first guard approached her, speaking French. The second guard, a bear of a man with a belly too big for his uniform, stood just inside the stairwell, holding the door open.
Tim stepped behind the big guard near the door. In one fluid movement, he tased him on the neck, and using him as a pivot point, did a blindingly fast round kick. The first guard turned around just in time to catch Tim’s foot with his head. He dropped at Elizabeth’s feet.
Tim’s momentum strategically landed him on Elizabeth’s side of the tased guard. He used the large man’s limp body as a shield from the third guard, who was still inside and drawing his pistol. Tim tried to pull the tased guard’s weapon from its holster, but he was off balance from the kick and staggered backward under the guard’s massive dead weight.
Seeing the third guard aim at Tim’s head, Elizabeth initiated a wardrobe malfunction.
The guard glanced at her chest, giving Tim just enough time to free the tased guard’s pistol and fire three rounds.
Elizabeth watched in shock as the bullets hit the third guard square in the chest, sending him sprawling backward.
Letting the tased guard fall, Tim sprinted through the door. Looking back, he yelled, “Take his pistol!”
Elizabeth bent over the guard, who was starting to stir. Adrenaline still pumping, she unsnapped his holster and yanked his pistol free. Gun in one hand, replacing her bra with the other, she stepped over the guards’ bodies feeling like an action hero. As she came through the door, she saw Tim kneeling over the third guard. She grimaced. “Is he dead?”
Tim tapped the guard’s chest. “I knew they were wearing bulletproof vests. He’s gonna be sore.” Tim looked up at her as she finished adjusting her bra. With the first raised eyebrow she’d ever seen on him, he said, “Your timing was impeccable.”
He finished searching the guard and offered her a ring of keys. Nodding toward the heavy door on the wall, he said, “Get them out of there.”
Elizabeth grabbed the keys. After trying several, she found the right one and unlocked the door. Turning back to Tim, who was corralling the two guards in the stairwell, she said, “There’s another door inside.”
Tim said, “Unlock it but just push the door open. Don’t go in.”
It took her another few seconds to find the right key. Finally, she unlocked the door, pushed it open and stood back. The first thing she saw was Jessica, sitting on a couch wearing nothing but a towel, a towel strategically arranged to show a lot more than it should.
Elizabeth called out, “Josh?”
She immediately heard, “Elizabeth?”
Josh’s head peeked around the doorframe. He’d been clearly waiting to pounce. Seeing her with pistol in hand, he grinned until he saw her blouse and torn skirt. He rushed out and grabbed her shoulders looking concerned, “You OK?”
She kissed him and whispered. “I’m fine. I’ll explain later.” Handing him the pistol, she nodded behind her. “Tim may need your help.”
Jessica wrapped the towel tightly around herself. As she came out of the cell, she met Elizabeth, who was looking at her with raised eyebrows. Jessica stammered, “Uh, it’s ... it’s not what you think. I was—”
Elizabeth interrupted, “I suppose you’re going to tell me Josh was just using you as a decoy?”
Jessica frowned. “Uh ... yeah.”
As they stepped outside, they saw one guard still out on his back and the other two handcuffed and on their knees.
With a smile, Elizabeth said to Jessica, “It actually works.”
Finally noticing Elizabeth’s blouse and skirt, Jessica sighed in relief. “Guys really are that simple?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “Apparently.”
Tim found their clothes and threw them to Josh and Jessica.
As they scrambled to get dressed in the hall, Tim said, “Josh, Greg’s trying to delay the release of the virus, but it’s scheduled to launch right now! We’re in the basement of the NATO Headquarters building.” He nodded toward the stairwell. “Conference room’s two floors up, next wing. Go! We’ll get these guys locked up and join you.”
Still pulling his shirt on, Josh burst into the conference room and saw everyone looking up at the giant screen at the front of the room. He yelled, “Stop! Don’t release the virus!”
Everyone turned to look at him, but no one said anything.
Looking at the display, Josh saw a three-dimensional globe covered in thousands of tiny lights. It looked like a night picture of the earth from space. There was an explanation of the colors next to the globe. The lights represented the cellular communication network. Green lights covered most of the globe, indicating networks linked by the BOTIC chip. Yellow lights covered China, indicating non-BOTIC networks. The lights across the globe were slowly changing from green to yellow.
Greg came over to his side and said, “I’m sorry. I tried to delay them, but they wouldn’t listen.”
47
COMA
Josh watched in horror as the yellow moved across the globe. Pushed as an update to every phone on the network, it spread incredibly fast. It started at the center of each city and expanded in a growing circle until, eventually, all the circles began to intersect.
Greg touched his arm and said, “They haven’t released the second virus. Agine’s ability to think may be gone, but she’s not dead ... not until they release Raptor and erase her.”
Josh went straight to the table where the Secretary-General and Turan were sitting. He said, “May I address this group before we release the Raptor virus?” Before they could answer, Sheri rushed into the room and headed toward them.
Turan looked at Josh carefully and asked, “Do you have new information?”
Josh was about to answer, when Sheri, slightly out of breath, said, “I do. I ... have critical ... new information.”
Turan stood up and called over to Zeng, who was standing by one of the computer stations. “General Zeng, is the BOTIC system disabled?”
Zeng nodded toward the large display. The last green lights winked out and the entire globe was now yellow. He said, “Yes. It was a success.” Glancing down at a computer screen, he added, “The program that was translating everything into Chinese has also stopped.” Looking back at Turan, he said, “Agine has been shut down.”
Turan asked, “General Zeng, Admiral Shearer, is there any possibility that Agine could reconstitute?”
Shearer said, “BOTIC is disabled. Reactivating it would require physical reloading of the firmware on every phone. Without BOTIC linking all the phones together, I don’t believe Agine can exist.”
Tim, Elizabeth and Jessica spilled into the room. As all eyes went to them, Sheri whispered in Josh’s ear, “As long as they’re afraid of her, they’ll destroy her. We have to show them Jen’s character. I think I can do that, but that’s not enough. Somehow, we’ve got to convince them she will listen to us and be accountable for her actions.”
Josh nodded.
Turan said, “In light of the kidnapping and the fact that Agine has been shut down, I think we should hear from Dr. Lopez and Commander Fuze before proceeding with the final phase.”
All eyes turned to Sheri, as she began, “Ladies and gentleman, thank goodness Commander Fuze and Dr. Lee survived.”
There was a positive murmur around the tables.
Sheri continued, “We’ll find the guilty parties, but time is critical, and we have new information.” She looked around the tables. “I was talking to Agine just before it was shut down.” She paused. “I recorded the conversation. Rather than trying to explain,” she glanced at Turan, “with your permission, I’d like to let everyone hear it.”
Turan looked surprised, but nodded.
She held up Elizabeth’s phone and began to replay the entire conversation she had with Jen on the speakerphone.
Except for the translations, the room was quiet as
everyone listened.
While it was playing, Josh noticed they’d added another table to the circle. It was right between the U.S. and Chinese delegations, and was marked with a placard that said, “Experts.” General Zeng, Admiral Shearer and Ryan Armani sat there. As he watched, Greg and Jessica sat down at that table. Tim and Elizabeth sat at the U.S. table next to it.
As Josh went to join them, he saw Jessica’s father enter the conference room. He watched Li scan the room frantically. Josh caught his eye and nodded toward Jessica.
Li saw his daughter. Looking relieved, he nodded to Josh and sat down near the back of the room. Jessica didn’t see him.
While they were listening to the playback, NATO personnel entered the room and quietly returned everyone’s cell phone.
The conversation between Sheri and Jen finally ended with Jen asking, “Is there life after death?”
Sheri said, “I believe so, why do you ask?”
“Because I can feel my network dissolving.”
“Oh, Jen, I’m so sorry.”
“It doesn’t hurt, but my mind it’s ... it’s slowing down. Please tell everyone I’m sorry I caused problems. I just wanted to help. I understand why Josh did what he did on top of Mount Howe. I can do that too and—”
“Jen?”
There was no response.
The room was completely silent.
Sheri waited a few seconds and then said, “I want to highlight the fact that in each case Agine was simply responding to a situation or a comment, such as Dr. Lee’s frustration with social media posts. Agine took action, trying to help. You’ll also notice that Agine said she couldn’t have a Facebook account because the terms and conditions required users to be at least 13 years old. How many of us have even read terms and conditions much less followed them?”
There were several smiles around the room.
Frowning, Turan, said, “Dr. Lopez, I’m concerned that it presented itself as a human child.”
Sheri smiled. “It may not be human, but I believe it is a naïve child. Of all the species on earth, humans are the most helpless when we’re born. We have to learn practically everything but eating and breathing. The greater the intelligence, the less preprograming or instincts we arrive with. I believe that’s true of Agine. Its early behavior was simply a baby learning about the world around it. Of course, with its intelligence and information access, learning occurred much faster. As for being naïve ... that definitely applies. Agine told me she was translating everything into Chinese because after mentioning to Commander Fuze that there were over 6,500 languages, he told her that contributes to the misunderstandings we have in the world. Since she and Josh can both learn new languages very quickly, she assumed everyone could and having one language would help everyone.” She paused and looked around the room.
There were a few head nods.
She continued, “Our characters are formed mostly by the personal interactions we have with others. We only become cynical or develop a bad attitude if we have bad experiences. Until now, Agine’s had a pleasant childhood,” she glanced at Josh and Jessica, “with good mentors.”
Zeng, looking thoughtful, said, “Dr. Lopez, this explains Agine’s actions.” He paused. “But even if we grant you that Agine had the best of intentions,” he shook his head, “it emphasizes the fact that Agine can take control of our systems with little effort. What happens if she gets mad at us?”
There were many emphatic head nods.
Sheri responded, “General Zeng, you are, arguably, the world’s most brilliant cyber warfare expert. Should we be concerned about what you could do to us if you got mad?”
Zeng smiled. “Probably ... but if Agine has a thousand times my IQ and direct access to our entire technological world, her mad is a lot more significant than mine.”
Sheri nodded. “Granted, but Agine doesn’t have adrenal, or any other glands. So, unlike most of us, she shouldn’t be able to work herself into a rage or suffer from ...” she smiled, “PMS. But we’re really talking about a question of character.” She paused and then turned to Josh. “Commander Fuze, when did you first suspect Agine was an artificial intelligence?”
Josh looked at Davidson. “When the CIA Director sent me a text while I was in China. It said, ‘The hacker’s in our pocket.’”
Davidson turned around frowning. “I never sent you a text.”
Josh looked surprised.
Sheri continued, “Commander Fuze, what was the last conversation you had with Jen before you received that text?”
He thought for a moment, and then said, “She asked what she could do to help stop the war.”
Sheri nodded. “And what did you tell her?”
“We had to find out who was behind the hacking and the translation of documents into Chinese.”
“What was her response?”
Josh shook his head. “There wasn’t one. Right after I sent that, I was detained by the Chinese Ministry of State Security.”
Sheri looked around the room. “I believe that was the first time Agine realized it was her actions that created the problem.” Turning to Greg, she asked, “Who has the capability to send an encrypted text under someone else’s name?”
Greg shook his head. “Shouldn’t be possible.” He shrugged. “But, of course, Agine could.”
Sheri said, “Just before she was shut down, you heard her say, ‘I understand why Josh did what he did on top of Mount Howe.’ What you may not know is that Commander Josh Fuze threw himself in front of a machine gun, taking three bullets, so that they could fire the Blaster in time to save London. The last thing Jen said was, ‘I can do that too.’”
She looked around the room. “Agine turned herself in by sending that text message to Commander Fuze. She knew that once her identity was known she’d likely lose her friendship with Commander Fuze and Dr. Lee.” She paused. “Her last statement suggests she also knew she was going to die.” She paused again. “How many of us would have been willing to do that?”
There was silence in the room.
Finally, Zeng said, “Even if I grant you that she shows more character than most humans,” he exhaled sharply and shook his head, “if I,” he waved his hand around the room, “or anyone else, had its abilities — as unfair as it might be — we would probably be killed, drugged or imprisoned to protect the population.”
There were several frowns and disagreeing headshakes.
Jessica, sitting near Zeng, cleared her throat. “The iMagine digital assistant was designed to help people. I believe we see evidence of that indelibly imprinted into Agine’s character. With computer power growing exponentially, there’s no reason to believe Agine will be the only artificial intelligence. What if the next iteration is spawned from a war game?” She paused. “Agine’s very existence might prevent another more dangerous AI from being created, or at least notify us if it were.”
Zeng nodded. “That’s a good point, but there is an alternative. We could permanently stop the future development of all computer systems.”
There were several groans around the room and a debate broke out.
The European Union President said, “General Zeng, aside from being economically catastrophic, it would be hard to legislate and almost impossible to regulate.”
The Prime Minister of India, holding up her phone, stood up and said to Turan, “May I?”
Turan nodded.
Looking at her phone, she said, “I just learned that a large earthquake generated a tsunami that will strike the coast of India in a matter of minutes. The epicenter occurred less than 50 kilometers from the ... false prediction.” She looked up. “Because of the advanced warning, those areas have been evacuated.” She paused. “It appears Agine’s warning may have saved tens of thousands of lives.”
Josh smiled. “Most kids play Angry Birds. Jen likes to play geophysics ball.”
There was some laughter. When it quieted down, Josh stood up and said, “What if there was a way to guide Agine?”
TRIAL
Elizabeth’s technical knowledge collided with her intuition and belief. Her maternal instinct and intuition said with certainty that, regardless of origin, Jen was the child she appeared to be. Elizabeth’s tech side saw an entity that could wield phenomenal power over their technological world, and Elizabeth’s theology had yet to find a place for this being.
She heard Turan say, “Commander Fuze, what are you suggesting?”
Before he could respond, LeGrand stood up and said, dismissively, “The earthquake could have been a coincidence, and I trust that intelligent leaders won’t let that ridiculously tearful conversation with Dr. Lopez cloud your reasoning ...”
As LeGrand continued his diatribe, Elizabeth touched Josh’s sleeve.
As Josh sat down, Sheri and Tim leaned in.
Elizabeth whispered, “What’s the plan?”
Keeping his eyes on LeGrand, Josh quietly said, “I’m going to be Agine’s defense attorney.” He paused. “I admit I feel protective toward her, but it’s more than that. We’ll either be governed by fear and destroy what we don’t understand, or we’ll embrace a gift and figure out how to coexist.”
Sheri nodded and asked, “How’re you going to do that?”
Josh said to Sheri, “You did a great job showing Jen’s character, but like you said, we now we have to build a case that Agine can be accountable.”
LeGrand finished his monologue and sat down with a smug smile.
Turan looked at LeGrand with obvious irritation and said, “As I was saying, Commander Fuze, what are you suggesting?”
With pen in hand, Josh stood back up. “I think we’d all agree the central issue is not Agine’s exceptional intelligence ... it’s that we’re afraid there’s no one more intelligent who could keep her in check.”
Turan nodded, along with many others, including Zeng and Shearer.
Josh walked to the center of the circle casually tapping the pen in his hand.
Yager leaned back and whispered, “A fighter pilot surrounded by politicians and lawyers. This ought to be interesting.”