Coding Isis (35 page)

After three hours of coding, Chris felt he was finally at a point where he could test his routine. He took a deep breath and punched the execute command. He waited for a response, and his screen changed to show the usual
Identifying
message with a little circle spinning away to show the user the computer was busy. That was a good sign; the system appeared to be seeing him in a new light, as it were. The circle kept spinning, what was taking so long? Was it working?

The door opened and Maynard came in to the office.
Shit
. Chris almost jumped out of his chair and he felt his face flush.

‘How’s it going?’ Maynard asked.

Chris didn’t want Maynard to see his screen, so he stood and walked towards Maynard. ‘Just going to grab a coffee,’ he said. ‘Things are going well, I’m nearly finished on the enhancements to the facial recognition. It’s been a real challenge but I think I’ve done well.’

‘You have Chris, we’re very pleased with our new results and they seem to be working well in the field too.’

I bet they are you bastard
, thought Chris.
Is that all this is to you? Some kind of exercise? You killed three people last night. Was that just a field trial?

Chris made his coffee and walked back to the office, Maynard made his excuses and left to go for a meeting. Chris sat back down at his desk and the locked screen changed to the Identifying logo as the computer tried to recognize him and sign him in once more. This time it seemed to work a little faster and he felt good when he saw the message appear on the screen.

Welcome Joshua Tully.

He’d done it. He brought up the feed from his own camera mounted on his computer monitor and was amazed by what he saw. He recognized the background and the clothes he was wearing but the face, his face, was that of Joshua. It was perfect. If you were looking at this feed, even as a human, let alone a facial recognition system, you would never know there was anything unusual about what you were seeing. If you believed your eyes, he was Joshua. He spent a while turning his face from one side to another, touching it with his hand, and still the image was perfect in every way. He smiled and the image of Joshua smiled back.

Now to try to see what he could access. He started by looking for logs of the recent field trials. He wanted to see if the drone had been used last night, but he was surprised to get an access denied message. Surely Joshua would have access to anything he wanted in this system? He tried again to search the database for Ben Naylor as a target, but again no access. He brought up the list of users in the system and found that there were two Joshua’s signed in.
Shit
, he hadn’t thought of that. He needed some way of switching back to his normal sign in too, so if he got any more surprise visits from Maynard he could change back without being detected.

He coded some changes to the routine so that he could switch back using a series of gestures, a rub on his chin, followed by running his fingers of his right hand through his hair. He tested it out and the camera feed changed in an instant. He repeated the gesture and he changed back to Joshua. Nice. Now to see what he could do about having two Joshua’s. Now that would be a fun problem to solve.

Maynard and Joshua were sitting together watching a computer screen.

‘That son-of-a-bitch,’ said Joshua. ‘He actually did it.’

‘It’s a good job we put the restrictions in place. So what do we do now?’

‘I think it’s time Mr. Sanders had a medical emergency. When can you get the drone up?’

‘I need twenty minutes,’ said Maynard. ‘I’m assuming you want a clean kill, no ballistics?’

‘I do. Get it ready Maynard, call me when she’s in the air. I think I’ll take Chris for a view of the city from the roof.’

Wyn went with Michelle to the hospital and followed her to Chris’s office building in Chris’s car. He left the car for Chris and then went back to the house with Michelle.

‘I think it’s time I was heading home,’ he said. ‘I’m pleased everything seems to have settled down for you guys.’

‘I’m going to miss you, I think,’ said Michelle. It was true. She had enjoyed having Wyn around and he was good company, once you got past some of his more annoying habits.

‘Are you going to wait around for Chris tonight?’ she asked.

‘Nah. We’re not that big on goodbyes, I think I’ll just grab my things and get a coach ticket to somewhere west; see some of this country of yours before I fly home.’

It didn’t take Wyn long to pack and he threw his large kit bag down in the hallway.

‘Are you sure I can’t give you a lift someplace?’ asked Michelle.

‘I’m sure,’ he said.

‘Well, I guess this is goodbye for now,’ said Michelle. She held out her hand. It seemed somehow overly formal and Wyn put his arms out instead. She stepped forward and gave him a big hug. She really would miss him. She leant back a little and looked at him.

‘Take care now,’ she said.

Wyn didn’t answer, instead he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. She would have expected a friendly peck but instead it was a kiss with passion and Michelle surprised herself when she kissed him back. She felt her heart race and a tingle in her belly. The kiss lasted a long time and Wyn moved his hands and grabbed her ass, which made Michelle wonder what the hell she was doing. She took his hands away and pushed him back.

‘I think you’d better go,’ she said.

Wyn smiled and picked up his bag.

‘Thanks for everything Michelle,’ he said.

When Michelle closed the door she leaned with her back against it and let out a big sigh. She’d been with Chris for ten years and that was the first time she had kissed another man, at least like that, and she felt guilty but at the same time excited. It made her realize just how much she loved Chris and she couldn’t wait to see him again tonight. Wyn had been sharing their house for a few days and now he had finally left, it would be good for her and Chris to be alone again. She thought she should make dinner for Chris, maybe light some candles, open a bottle of wine.

The worst thing about Chris’s job was there was no one to share things with when they went well. He’d found that people either didn’t understand or were too busy with their own work to care. His most recent work was no different. He was pretty sure his wife wouldn’t understand the technicalities of what he had done, and there was no one else he trusted. Chris was feeling pleased with what he had done, but at the same time, he was nervous about what would happen. He was racing to get finished and he felt his time was running out.

The office door opened and Joshua walked in. He was congenial as usual, and Chris could not see through his pleasant façade.
How do you do it?
he asked himself.
How can you be such a two-faced lying, murdering bastard and act as though you’re my best friend?

‘How’s it going Chris?’

‘Good, all good; I’m just finishing the last of the facial recognition routines. I think you’re going to like it.’

‘I’m sure I will. I’ve got a rare treat for you Chris, come with me.’

‘What’s this? Bonus time already?’

‘Better than a bonus Chris. I’d thought you might like to see your hard work in action. I’ve arranged for a flyby of our UAV. Not many people get to see these urban UAVs as then tend to fly high and are so small, they go unnoticed.’

Chris was pretty sure that Joshua wasn’t going to have him shot at his place of work. Besides if he wanted to kill him, he could probably pay for someone to take him out some place quiet and put a bullet in his head.

They climbed the staircase and Chris went without a struggle. He couldn’t win in a fight with this man. Not that he couldn’t overcome him physically, but he knew that there were others watching and the threat over Michelle was always present. If he brought him down, what would happen to her? His life felt like a raft that was riding a raging torrent, being thrown around by a mass of water that was so powerful he could do nothing to control his destiny but occasionally stick a paddle in and pray like hell.

‘We know you’ve hacked the system Chris and no doubt you know we killed Jasmine and tried to frame you for her murder and have you killed in prison.’

The statement was delivered in a matter of fact way, as though he had just delivered the most recent sales figures to a board of directors. They got to the top of dark stairwell and Chris had to screw his eyes shut as they walked out into the brilliant sunshine. When his eyes adjusted he saw that Joshua was holding a gun. At this range he couldn’t miss and Chris didn’t fancy taking his chances.

He looked into Joshua’s eyes trying to find something he could connect to. There was nothing.

‘You’re crazy,’ he said.

Joshua gave a small laugh. ‘Oh come now Chris,’ he said, ‘the world would be such a boring place without a few crazy people, don’t you think?’ He smiled and lowered the gun slightly.

‘You see Chris, I am what is known as a utilitarian. I believe that the moral worth of my actions is determined solely by their provision of the maximum happiness or pleasures among all sentient beings. Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s the principle of providing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. I believe that in order to be a good shepherd, one must be prepared to kill a few coyotes.’

Chris felt sick. He knew it was part of his body’s natural fight-or-flight reaction, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to puke all over his shoes. He thought about what Joshua had said.
A good shepherd killing coyotes?
This guy was certifiable.

‘What does that make me, Joshua? Am I a coyote?’

‘I’m afraid, Chris, that you have become an inconvenience.’ He raised the gun again and pointed it at Chris’s face. ‘If you have any last words, now would be a good time.’

‘Fuck you Joshua.’

‘How very eloquent,’ said Joshua. He held his gun steady and with his left hand he pressed the send button on his phone, a signal to Maynard to proceed as planned. For only the smallest fraction of a second, he glanced at the screen of his phone, but for Chris that was all the opening he needed and probably the only opening he would get. He kicked at the gun and it flew from Joshua’s hand and skidded across the roof, he started after it, but it dropped over the edge before he could get to it.
Well at least that evens things out a little
, he thought.

‘You’re not going to get away with this,’ Chris said.

Joshua laughed. He laughed so much that he needed to put his hands on his knees. ‘Oh my dear Chris,’ he said. ‘You really believe I’m the bad guy don’t you? You’re so naïve.’

He straightened up and started to walk toward Chris.

‘I’m intrigued by your thought process Chris. If I’m the bad guy, what does that make you? Are you the hero? How are you going to get out of this Chris?’

Maynard watched Joshua and Chris on the roof through the feed from the drone. The computer-enhanced images were beautifully rendered. The cross hairs were drawn over Chris’s head and he nudged the controls a little to zoom in so that he could get a better look. He’d received the signal from Joshua and switched over to the camera’s live feed. The drone was fully charged and was primed to deliver a deadly dose of high-frequency radio waves, directly in to Chris’s skull. Maynard was quite intrigued as to what the result would be. He’d seen, and conducted plenty of trials on their test subjects: terrorists that were being interrogated in their own facility. In truth they were not trying to get any information from these people other than how effective their weapon was, and what better way could there be to test a weapon against terrorists than on the terrorists themselves. But that was different. That was in a controlled environment where the victim was restrained, there were no weather conditions to contend with, no level flight to maintain. This would be the best test yet. He wondered whether he should be recording the results for Joshua to watch back later. Of course he would want to see this. He typed the command to start the recording.

He turned up the power settings to full, lifted the safety and hit the kill switch, then settled back to watch in eager anticipation. He should have brought popcorn.

The beam of radiation had started but there were no visible effects as yet, but then he saw what he thought was the slightest of flickers on Chris’s face. He brought his hand up to his temple,
was he feeling this?
Maynard wondered.

‘Is this hurting you Chris?’ he said with a wry smile.

He zoomed in a little more and maneuvered the drone around so he could see Chris’s face full on. His eyes looked sad and then the blood vessels in his left eye popped. It was such a shock it made Maynard jump back from the screen and giggle with nervous excitement.