The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (39 page)

BOOK: The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles)
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“Why are you
working on the weekend? Is there a new secretary there I should know about?”

Laughing, and
wishing that was the problem, he shook his head.

 

“No, that’s
not it. Things are kind of a mess at IntelliHealth right now. I believe we can
work it out, but for now it’s got everyone very occupied.”

“Is everything
ok?”

“Yes, I’ll
tell you all about it when you get back home.”

“Ok, well
don’t bother with Alex’s school, I’ll send him with a sick note or something
when we come home.”

“I understand.
I love you, Jean.”

“I love you
too, see you soon.”

“Tell your
Dad, happy birthday for me.”

“Will do, bye
Ryan.”

“Bye.”

 

He didn’t
mention that he was at the heart of a crisis where the goal was to kill an
artificial being before it took over the world and brainwashed everyone’s kids.
He thought it would have been a little too gory over the phone.

 

He needed to
speak with Jeff, and walked next door to find him working at his terminal.

 

“Jeff, please
submit your plan for testing of the Rn186 vaccine to the labs upstairs. I know
you said it would take some time for the analysis, so you should go ahead and
get it started. Dr. Cohen asked that you send the message through him.”
“Okay, I have the process drafted and ready to go.”

“Excellent,
let me know when you get the results.”

Jeff began
coordinating his testing through his contacts upstairs.

Feeling a
little useless himself, Ryan walked over to see Jim.

 

Walking into
Jim’s office he sat down quietly and looked out the windows.

Jim was waving
his hands about, moving data around to different monitors in front of his desk.
After a moment, he seemed to find an arrangement that he liked, because he
settled down and began typing again.

Without
looking up, Jim noticed Ryan.

“Hey Ryan any
news?”

 

“Cohen’s team
upstairs is busy trying to send instructions to the other Facilities.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Also, I spoke
with my wife. She and my son are vacationing on the beach in Florida.”

“Sounds nice,
does she know we’re fighting for mankind here?”

“Nope. I
forgot to mention it.”

Jim chuckled.

 

“Jim, what are
you working on?”

“I’m trying to
write a script that I can carry on my tablet, that will watch Sid’s activity
and alert me if it changes.”

“That sounds
very good. Cohen will want that too, I’m sure.”

Ryan watched
the city below moving off into the distance. Everywhere there was activity. He
tried to imagine it years from now, still standing, but empty and desolate. He
wondered if SID looked down at the city through the Facility’s cameras. Maybe
this was how he saw all the cities of the world, looking down from 250 floors.
‘Maybe this is why he thinks he’s a god,’ he thought.

 

“Jim, you
heard it speak this morning; that horrible voice,” he said, “Do you believe
it’s just a malfunctioning program?”

 

“Ryan, I’ve
studied programming and artificial intelligence. I’m pretty well versed on
both, and what I heard today didn’t sound like a program. And did you catch
that bit about
 
‘the awakening’?”

“Yes, I heard
that too. As though there was a definable point in its timeline, after which it
was cognizant.”

 

“Yeah. That
was how I took it too,” said Jim.

“I don’t think
it matters right now if it’s alive or not,” said Ryan, “We need to respond to
it as though it is cognizant, or we run the risk of underestimating it.”

Jim nodded, “Yes, I totally agree, it’s already fooled me once, I won’t treat
it like a broken program again.”

“I’ll be glad
to be there when we throw the last switch, and turn him off for good,” said
Ryan.

“Yeah, it’s
going to be a tough couple of days waiting for everyone to power down their
servers.”

Jim stopped
typing, and hit the enter key. “There, I think that should do it.”

 

He held out
his hand for Ryan’s tablet, “Here let me install this app on yours too, and you
can help me test it. It measures the CPU cycles on the servers. It will run
constantly, and sound a little alert on your tablet whenever SID’s servers
increase activity by more than 5%.”

 

Ryan got up
handed him his tablet. He went to Jim’s mini fridge, and pulled out a water.

“And Jim, why
isn’t anyone worried about SID getting out? I mean why can’t SID jump out to
the rest of the world?”

“Well, one of
the selling points behind the IntelliHealth System is that it’s a closed
system. Our Research and Hospital Networks don’t have to worry about viruses or
hackers because we have no hard line to the outside. There is no physical
pathway for transmission of data to an outside entity.”

 

“Then how did
I call my wife from my desk a few minutes ago?”

“Ah, the
televid is on the Communications Network, not the Research or Hospital Networks.”

“Are there
more networks here?”

“You bet,
there are lots, but they live side-by-side and do not overlap without
permission.”

Ryan sat back down and leaned back in his chair.

“That sounds
complex. If I was trapped in there, and if the network was getting smaller, I
would look for a way out. Is it possible to run a check on the research and
hospital networks and verify that no other network has overlapped?”

 

Moving the
data around on his screens again, Jim said, “Yes, I can do that. I’ll need a
little time, but you’re right, it would be a good thing to do.”

As Jim began
typing again, Jeff walked in and sat down.
He looked anxious.

 

“What’s wrong
Jeff, you look worried.”

“I’ve been
using Thor to browse the files in SID’s data storage, and I think I found
something.”

Interested,
Jim stopped typing and leaned forward. “What did you find?”

 

“Well, first
understand that there are massive directories with research data from the labs.
I expected to find things like this. But then I came across something different.
I found a massive cluster of files stored as a single database. It’s almost
1000 petabytes in size.”

“Wow, that’s
big all right,” said Jim. “What’s in there?”

“Well, that’s
just it. Access to the database is locked and encrypted.”

 

Ryan said,
“Okay, you found a giant database in SID’s files that is sealed. What do you
think could be in there?”

 

Jeff stood up
and started pacing in front of them.
“Well, when I looked through SID’s files, I couldn’t find any data from his
research program regarding human sterility. There was nothing.”

Suddenly, Ryan
got it.

 

“You’re saying
that the database you found may hold SID’s work on the
fertility crisis
.”

Jeff nearly
jumped in the air.

“Yes! Maybe. I
don’t know. It’s about the right size, especially if you consider he’s been
adding to it for more than ten years.”

Ryan got up
and ran to Jeff, “Does that mean there might be answers in there for how to
repair the damage?”

Jeff grabbed
him around the waist and hugged him for all he was worth.

“Yes.”

They both
began jumping around and yelling.

 

Jim said,
“Show me the encrypted file, and let me take a swing at it.”

 

When they
settled down again, Jeff went to Jim’s terminal, and guided him through the
directories to the point that was encrypted.

Jim began
working on it.

After several
minutes, Jim stopped typing.

 

“Well, I can
tell you now that this is no password protection that I have ever seen. Instead
of strings of characters, it seems to look more like some kind of algorithm
that repeats itself, like a fractal. I’m guessing that only the response unique
to this algorithm will unlock it.”

He looked at
them and sighed.
“I’ll keep trying, but we may be out of luck on this one. It’s possible that
only SID can open it.”

 

Ryan sat back
down and looked out the window again.
“That means we have to trap SID, we can’t kill him.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan went to
Cohen’s office, which was still a hurricane of speed and movement. People were
talking and running about in all directions.

He made his
way to Cohen.

“Ryan, we’re a
little busy right now. We’re still trying to get the word out to the other
facilities.”

“I understand
Eric, but we may have found something.”

 

Cohen looked
up, and saw that Ryan was serious. He put down his papers, and took Ryan’s
elbow as he walked out of his office.

“Okay, come
with me.”

He led Ryan
around the corner to the office kitchen. Seeing that it was empty, he said,
“It's hard to find any privacy, and I have all the conference rooms tied up.
What have you got for me?”

 

“Eric, we
think we may have found a database holding SID’s research on the fertility
crisis.”

“Oh my god, we
were due a break. That’s fantastic news.”

“Yeah, so are
you ready for the bad news?”

Cohen relaxed
again and sighed.

 

“Yes, of
course, now this is more what I’m familiar with. Okay, let's hear it.”

“The database
is locked with an encrypted algorithm that only SID can open.”

“What? Are you
serious?”

 

“We need SID,
Eric. It may be possible to reverse the genetic damage SID has caused with that
information. We have to trap SID, not terminate him.”

“I’ve been
sending messages to everyone to turn him off.”

“I know, and
you should continue. You’re still driving him here, and that’s a good thing. In
the meantime, we’ll work on ideas to capture SID and get that code.”

“Well, I’ll
get back to it then. Let me know when you’ve got an idea how to coerce SID into
unlocking it.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan returned
to his office.

Jim yelled
from his office, “Ryan, come in here, hurry.”

Ryan ran into
Jim’s office where he found Jim pointing to data on a screen.

“I’ve double
checked and I’ve found an overlap in networks.”

“What is it?”

“A satellite.”

 

Ryan walked to
Jim’s screens and looked at the data as it flowed across them. Jim pointed at
the one that showed an older style, communications-array satellite.

“That is a satellite which can be used to contact the United Nations.
Apparently it’s there in case of an emergency. Maybe like if there was a virus
outbreak or something on a global scale and we needed to transmit treatment
data to everyone quickly. It also has communications codes for the
International Space Program, as well a few of the nations’ direct capitals. It
doesn’t look like it’s ever been used before. I’ll bet it was put there at the
very beginning as a safety measure, and since then pretty much forgotten.”

 

“Jim, you said
treatment information not research information.”

“That’s right.
Access to the satellite isn’t on the Research Network, technically it’s on the
Hospital Network.” Jim paused for a moment, and rubbed his hands. He had been
working non-stop for hours now.

“Ryan, if SID gets to the United Nations’ servers, then he has access to every
network in every country on the planet. If he becomes distributed across the
earth, we’ll never be able to catch him again.”

 

Ryan suddenly
felt like he did once when he was young, and got caught driving his dad’s car.
His palms were sweaty; his mind was racing with possibilities.

“What are our
options?”

Jim said, “We could prevent SID from getting out this way by separating the
hospital network from the research network, or we could try to disable the
satellite.”

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