Keystone (37 page)

Seth Mallus checked his watch
impatiently. He then barked a single command and looked at the virtual window
behind his desk.

The news
channel logo sprung into the centre of the screen, wobbling slightly as if to
emphasise the speed of its arrival. In doing so, introductory movies of the
latest news stories slid out in all directions, filling the screen. The logo
then spun round to reveal the disembodied head of a young lady, with thin
librarian-style glasses and hair tied up in a short ponytail.

“Would you
like a news roundup, or a specific story?” she said smilingly, her head cocked
to one side and an eyebrow lifted in anticipation.

“Give me a
summary of everything major,” he mumbled.

“Thought so,”
she smirked. She turned round as if to look at the introduction videos behind
her, and the camera shifted to her point of view. The videos that had been
looping their short introductions in the background fizzled out, to be replaced
by a tapestry of a dozen or so smaller videos. One by one they were brought
forward, as the avatar gave a running commentary.

“There’s been
widespread flooding in Eastern Europe, they’re now in the fourth consecutive
day of non-stop deluge in the Carpathian Mountains, which has swollen many of
the rivers in the region. Bratislava and Budapest on the Danube are currently
the worst affected large cities, while large areas of countryside in Romania
and Slovakia are completely underwater.” The video moved from raging torrents
of swollen rivers to swathes of people wading knee-deep through murky-brown
water, carrying bundles of belongings, children, the elderly and the exhausted.
The standing water stretched as far as the eye could see, and power boats
littered the countryside, picking up passengers here and there. “A humanitarian
crisis is being predicted by the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontières, with
thousands of refugees fleeing the worst hit parts, while Austria has closed its
border with the Slovak Republic.
 
Vienna
is on heightened alert for fears the rainfall will move west in the coming days
and the Austrian government is making preparations for large scale evacuations
of the city. More than a thousand people are thought to have died already, with
that number set to rise as conditions for refugees deteriorate.”

The video
dissolved, to be replaced by several bodyguards clearing a way through a
heaving throng of reporters and protesters; then emerged an attractive woman in
a red dress-suit, smiling and waving as she followed the bodyguards towards a
waiting car. “Jane Getty was today cleared of all charges in the Oil-Aid
scandal, by a High Court ruling in Canberra. The Australian far-left
politician, who made headlines in July last year for her strong support of the
Central African Republic’s communist uprising, had been accused of embezzling
several billion dollars of funding from the World Bank targeted towards
developing infrastructure in Africa. The aid, designed to facilitate the
increase in oil production for the region and help meet global energy demands,
has so far been very effective in Nigeria, more than doubling its crude oil
output to make it the fourth largest oil producing country in the world, behind
the United States, Russia and China.”

The video
switched to a view of a desolate African town. Burnt out cars littered the
sides of the road, barely a dusty track between rows of dilapidated shacks.
“Jane Getty, a former advisor to OPEC following Australia’s accession to full
membership in 2042, has fought back at her recent critics, who say that her
position in Australian politics is untenable, by attacking Prime Minister
Humphries directly. In an interview after her court hearing, Ms Getty called
Humphries a
Puppet of Westminster
and
a
Slave to nineteenth century Imperialism
and the Old World
, who didn’t have the strength to break away from Europe
and forge new alliances in the Southern Hemisphere to help make Australia a
truly great nation.” The video cut to a three dimensional pie-chart. “Polls
taken directly after the interview showed Getty’s Populist party taking a
slight lead over the Australian Labour Party, sparking fears in London that
dissolution of the constitutional monarchy, in effect since 1901, could be a real
possibility when votes are cast in the New Year.”

Mallus checked
his watch again and then returned his gaze to the screen.

The video
disappeared, and another story came forwards.

“Diplomatic
relationships between China and the United States worsened this afternoon, as
four Chinese warships moved into defensive positions in International Waters
off the Pacific coast of America. The ships, Lanzhou class destroyers, form
part of the country’s recently formed Fourth Fleet, the first Chinese fleet to
undertake exercises in so-called
blue
water
, beyond the traditional coastal and pacific island range of the
Chinese Navy. The public display of strength, a first for typically
well-guarded China, comes after talks between the two countries broke down
regarding the US military presence in South Korea. In an attempt to play down
fears that the situation will escalate further, the President of the United
States stated in a press conference that talks would resume soon, and that the
diplomatic process would prevail.” A flying camera took in miles of border
fences, lookout towers and barracks, mirrored on the other side of an empty
band of grass a couple of miles wide. “The United States continues to have a
significant military presence in South Korea, in particular along the one
hundred and fifty mile long Demilitarised Zone, with over forty thousand active
personnel stationed there. A recent peace treaty between North and South Korea
has been brokered mainly by China, though the former has refused to sign the
accord while the United States maintains a presence in the region. Despite
significant external pressure, the US has refused to leave its defensive
positions, a move largely resented by South and North Koreans alike.”

The next video
showed the unmistakable backdrop of the Pyramids of Giza, in front of which the
sprawl of Cairo shimmered in the baking sun. Plumes of smoke emanated from half
a dozen locations across the Egyptian capital. “No one has yet claimed
responsibility for yesterday’s terrorist bombings in Cairo, which left dozens
dead and hundreds more injured. The attacks, against mainly Western targets,
are believed to have been carried out by one of a number of Islamic
fundamentalist cells in the country, who have been calling for the creation of
an Islamic State, the introduction of Sharia Law and an end to the democracy
that many Egyptians believe has favoured Western influence over traditional
values.”

The video of
Cairo vanished, to be replaced by a deserted factory, its gates padlocked.
“Production at the Chicago Assembly manufacturing plant ended for the last time
this morning. The factory, Ford’s oldest remaining manufacturing plant, first
built the famous Model T Ford in 1924, and in the subsequent century saw
production of the characteristic Taurus, Mercury and Centauri models. Analysts
see the closure of the Chicago plant as the final nail in the coffin for the
American automobile industry, following –”

“OK, stop,”
Mallus held his hand up, giving a quick glance to his watch as he did so.
“Floods, terrorists, diplomatic tension over Korea, political scandals,
factories closing, I get the picture.” He looked into the eyes of the lady on
screen, who had turned round to face him as the screen zoomed away from the
news. “No mention of Mars in all that, was there?”

She shook her
head. “Nothing new. But everyone knows the real tension between the US and
China is because of the cover up on Mars and the suspicion over the Taikonaut’s
death in transit to Mars. The Korean situation is a good excuse for China to
really pull its weight, and thanks to the Mars story, there is considerable
public support behind the action.”

“And Cairo?
The fundamentalists?”

She looked to
the top left of the screen pensively for a few seconds, as if trying to
remember something, then faced him again. “The online community is largely of
the opinion that Islam sees the West as being weakened by the Mars findings.
Christianity, which is the main religious belief system in the West, is reeling
from the discoveries, and is not dealing with it very well. The existence of
intelligent life on Mars seriously puts into question the Book of Genesis,
which is the fundament for most of Christianity. So far, the only defensible
position that has been put forward is that the Martian findings are human
artefacts, but that still contradicts the timelines put forward by the Bible.
No official body has commented on the Mars findings yet. Until they do, and in
particular until the Vatican does, news agencies remain cautious. One
consideration is that with a lack of follow-up evidence from Mars, there is a
hope that the story will simply blow over and be judged a fake. This is
something the Islamic fundamentalists don’t want to happen, so they’re taking
advantage of it while it’s still a hot topic among the general public.”

He looked at
the lady and shook his head. “Screen off,” he said bluntly, and she dissolved
into the background looking slightly offended to be switched off.

In her place,
a busy cityscape emerged, giving the impression that his office was actually at
the top of a tall skyscraper overlooking a large coastal metropolis. The
illusion was impressive, one of the more satisfying virtual landscapes that had
been programmed in to the office’s window to add colour to an otherwise bland
underground setting. He afforded it a half-interested gaze for several moments,
following a small airship with minor enjoyment as it wound its way round the
towering buildings advertising a popular beer. The attention to detail in the
simulation was truly stunning, although he knew full well that if he sat there
watching for long enough, the very same airship would wind its way inexorably
back along the exact same route,
ad
infinitum
. The one touch that was unpredictable was the weather, and its
effect on the sky. In fact, in spite of the basic algorithms that governed the
‘actors’ in the scene, the way in which the light played off every surface,
even bending round and through individual drops of water as they ran in
rivulets down the window panes on a rainy day, meant that it never looked the
same twice.

He kept the
scene going for a few more moments, until a dark cloud finally slumbered its
way in front of the morning sun, before bringing himself from the reverie into
which he had so easily fallen. He checked his watch.

It was time,
and he didn’t want to miss it.

With a couple
of concise spoken commands, the window scene disappeared, to be replaced by a
split screen. In the top left hand corner he saw Mars; Dr Jane Richardson was
sitting at the communication panel of the MLP. Her left hand rested on the
joystick controller of a remotely operated camera, while her right hand
fidgeted with her unkempt hair. She was staring endlessly at the video output
of the remote camera. In the bottom left hand corner, the camera, stationed
inside the underground tunnel into which the other two members of the Mars
mission had disappeared, panned slowly from left to right, then back again. On
the floor, Dr Richardson had set up a spotlight, which was focussed on the
stone door that now remained tightly shut.

The bottom
right hand corner of his display was blank.

In the top
right hand corner of the screen, a CCTV camera showed three utility vehicles
reversing into DEFCOMM’s main hanger through a large sliding door, which closed
as soon as they were safely inside. The drivers, wearing blue overalls and
baseball caps, got out and almost as one opened wide the split rear doors of
the vans. Three identical teams of six people, wearing white lab coats, wheeled
three identical devices, roughly the same dimensions and shape as an average
household refrigerator placed on its side, up to the open doors.

Quick checks
by the drivers were followed by the devices being loaded carefully and
smoothly, until they had disappeared inside the vehicles. The doors were
closed, the drivers got back behind their wheels, and the large sliding door of
the hanger opened once more. Seconds later, the three vans were gone, the
hanger closed, and the men in lab coats had returned to what looked like normal
duties: overlooking the final assembly of a thirty foot long missile, checking
visual readouts or supervising a large winch assembly that brought segments of
a second missile from deep within the DEFCOMM complex.

He checked his
watch again: a blink-and-miss-it ninety seconds had passed. Carefully planned,
expertly executed. He shook his head in wonderment; there literally was no
substitute for getting the right people for the job.

And in that
time, on the left hand side of the screen, Dr Richardson had panned the
remotely operated camera from left to right and then back again, half a dozen
times. Her posture remained unchanged, and she was still fidgeting with her
hair.

While hope
remained that a solution to the Mars problem would be found, his instincts told
him that Dr Richardson, regardless of whether they found the other crew members
alive or not, would not fully recover from this ordeal, and replacing her with
a simulation was simply out of the question.

Cityscapes indistinguishable
from the real thing, busy playgrounds, even Martian exploration; you could fake
them all and no one would suspect a thing. But there was no substitute for
genuine human behaviour. A real human could tell a fake human’s face. Oh, there
was no doubt you could play a trick for a while: advanced textures, hair,
lighting effects, frame-perfect animation, cartilage-elasticity algorithms and
detailed muscular modelling could all come together to create a truly
believable person.