The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (43 page)

He left the door open and headed back to his office. Red
followed and sat down in a chair opposite him. “Is it safe ta talk in heah?”

“As long as Marcus isn’t watching. Nobody else knows the
system well enough to get around my own countermeasures.”

Red grinned. “Marcus ain watchin right now.”

“How can you possibly know that? And drop that damn
backwoods accent, you know how much I despise it! Is Marcus holding a rally or
something for his new pet?” He was so sick of hearing “Jack this” and “Jack
that” that he didn’t even want to say his name. He needed to get his anger
under control if he was going to make this all work.

“I happen to have just learned that, five minutes ago,
Marcus joined a team heading to Saber Cusp to try to finish the mission we
sabotaged last night.” There was the smug grin again. Theodore wanted to smack
that grin right off his face, but the news was interesting. “Wanna know who else
is on the mission?”

There was no way Jack would have gone himself, not even he
was that stupid. “Who?”

“Chuck and Wendy.” Now it was Theodore’s turn to smile. This
was just the opening he needed. If he could eliminate those three people all at
once, Jack wouldn’t have a chance. It was too late to stop the election, even
if Marcus met an untimely death, but without Marcus to back Jack up, this
election would be a cakewalk. Add the death of the two closest people to Jack,
and the distraction would seal it for him.

“Okay, listen close. You need to contact Joshua. Tell him
our deal is a go if he can do one thing. He needs to send a full complement of
armed aircraft to Saber Cusp right away. If he hurries, they can catch the
transport leaving. Tell him the only acceptable outcome is total destruction of
the aircraft and everyone on board.”

Red didn’t move. “What’s the problem, go! It’s going to take
Cali almost four hours to get aircraft there.” Still Red didn’t get up and run.
He just sat there with that damn smug grin on his face.
This insolent little
prick wants something more
.

“Head of security isn’t good enough. I want more. I want New
Hope.”

“Out of the question.” Surely he knows he is going too far.

“Then make the call yourself. You can do it from right
there.” Red sat back in his chair and waited. The risk was too high and he knew
it. If wind of this got out and it got back to the people, they would send him
packing, if they didn’t string him up first. At least if Red got caught he
could play it off and get rid of the kid before anyone made the connection back
to him.

“Fine. It won’t be right away though. I will have to get the
people used to the idea that I will be spending too much time in Cali working
on the council, and perhaps then I can convince them they need a Governor.” Red
didn’t even wait around to gloat. He got up and left. Theodore sat back in the
chair.

If he can pull this off, the prize is his. He started
running through his mind all the things he will try to accomplish once he is on
the council in Cali. The wealth he will bring their community will give him
great status, putting him second only to Joshua. It might take a hundred years,
but he will one day have his job too. He didn’t even give a thought to the election,
in his mind he had already won.

* * *

Jack was restless. He had been sitting there since the
operation had started, and though it felt like it had been an hour, the timer
on one of the screens showed it had been less than ten minutes. How Chin had
sat here for two days straight waiting for good news from a rescue team, Jack
had no idea. He remembered what Marcus had said just before getting on the
transport.

He pulled out his datapad and leaned back in the chair. He
had a message from Marcus, and two files were attached to it. He read the
message:

Jack, I know you think it was a bad idea for me to
go with the team to S.C. Normally I would not put myself at risk this way, but
there is more than one reason for me to go. I was telling the truth when I said
I had unfinished business there. I will take care of this and do everything in
my power to make it home alive. If something does happen to me, the larger of
the two files I left you contains all the information you will need to secure
your place as leader of New Hope. There is a list of people you can trust in
there as well, people that I have already spoken with, and will support you as
leader. Some of the information is “dirty”, but in politics, you sometimes have
to resort to doing things of which you are not entirely proud. Get used to it.

I thought long and hard about the evidence you
brought me this morning. I believe I know how to discover our traitor. Hopefully
you took my advice and read this within a short time of my aircraft leaving. Within
minutes, news will have spread to the right places that I am on this mission. My
own presence, combined with that of your friends Chuck and Wendy, will be too
great a carrot for someone looking to destroy you. I added a program to New
Hope’s main computer system that allows you to listen in on any outgoing
communications. Use the code “Jennifer” to start the program. You can run it
right there at the command console. I believe Chin can be trusted, and I prefer
he is a witness to anything you find.

If you do catch the traitor, it will likely mean
our team will be at great risk. If that is the case, please have Chin call
Wendy and say, “Jack wanted me to ask if you two were still on for dinner.” After
that, open the second file I attached for further instruction.

Jack was amazed. He read it a few more times to make sure he
understood everything. There was no way this had all been prepared in less than
two hours’ time. Marcus had to have been working on this at least since this
morning. He knew, long before Jack had even considered the idea, they would be
going back to Saber Cusp.

“Chin, I need you to put a code in the main computer. Please
don’t ask questions, just do it and stick around.”

Chin did as instructed. “I’m not goin nowhere, Jack, you
know that.” He chuckled nervously, probably wondering what this odd request was
all about.

Nothing happened right away, but Jack waited anxiously to
see if Marcus’ fishing line brought back a fish.

Five minutes was all the longer they had to wait. The screen
for the computer terminal flashed and information scrolled across the screen. None
of it made sense to Jack, but Chin was watching with intensity. After a few
lines of information came across, a box appeared on the screen, horizontally split
in two. In the top box, text started to appear.

A MESSAGE FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN N.H.

It took about another minute and text appeared in the bottom
box.

GO AHEAD FRIEND.

Chin opened a new terminal window on the screen and started
typing commands as the information appeared in the top and bottom boxes.

AGREEMENT IS REACHED PENDING ONE FAVOR.

WHAT IS FAVOR?

LARGE TRANSPORT SHIP CURRENTLY HEADING TO S.C. DESTROY
SHIP AND ENSURE ALL ABOARD ARE TERMINATED. DON’T HOLD BACK, DESTRUCTION OF SHIP
IS IMPERATIVE.

There was a pause, then in the bottom box:

CONSIDER IT DONE, WILL SEND OVERWHELMING FORCE.

Jack was stunned. They had taken the bait. “Chin, can you
find out who is sending that!”

Chin looked and him and said, “Already done, Jack. I traced
it to a terminal in the records room, and activated the camera. As he spoke,
the two boxes went away. “He already logged off and is probably out of the
room. Want to see who it was?”

Jack was ready to strangle Chin. “Of course! Can you play
the video right here?”

Chin pressed a few buttons and the screen came on. Jack was
not shocked to see Red sitting at the terminal, typing, then looking behind him
to make sure nobody was watching.

Chin laughed and said, “He’s looking around to see if anyone
is noticing him, but the fool doesn’t even see the camera watching.” Some
people got a little giddy when they were excited or anxious. Obviously Chin was
one of those people. Jack on the other hand got cold and calculating when the
adrenaline started flowing. He was ready to go kill the man himself, but knew
that would not be right.

He picked up his datapad and called Tiny. When the man
answered, he said, “Tiny, have you located Anton and his men?”

The deep voice boomed back through the speaker in the
datapad, making it crackle a little as it tried to reproduce the low
frequencies. “Got him right here, what do you need?”

Find Red and arrest him. Be careful, he has some loyal men.”
All those loyal men likely would have been behind the fake retreat in S.C. as
well, and all would be punished.

Tiny looked surprised, but saw the seriousness on Jack’s
face. “Sure thing, Jack. I’ll call when I have him in the brig. Mind telling me
what this is about?”

“I’ll explain later, but just tell him he is being arrested
for being a traitor to New Hope. And keep it quiet for a little longer, there
might be more traitors out there and we want to flush them out.”

“No problem, I will gag the little shit if I have to. If I’m
questioned, whose authority am I doing this on?” Tiny had a point. Despite
Marcus’ announcement this morning, Jack had no official authority right now.

“If anyone asks, tell them it’s on Marcus’ authority.” Tiny
didn’t ask if it really was, and Jack didn’t go into detail.

He turned to Chin. “Call in to the team and tell Wendy that
I was wondering if we were still on for dinner.” Chin looked at him like he had
lost his mind and Jack said, “Just do it, it’s a code.”

He sat back in the chair and opened the file. It took a good
five minutes to read it. When he put it down, he had a new respect for Marcus. He
punched in the code to call Caleb.

When the councilman’s face appeared on the screen, somewhat
surprised to see who was calling him, Jack didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Caleb,
we discovered a traitor in New Hope. I am sending the evidence to you. I have
already sent Tiny and some men to arrest the man and put him in the brig. I did
it on Marcus’ authority, but since Marcus is not available, I request that you
look at the evidence and come to your own conclusions on how to handle it.”

Caleb hesitated for a moment before saying, “Send me the
evidence. I will review it, and if I find it satisfactory, I will put my weight
behind your decision. Do you know if he was working alone?” He was asking the
right questions, and Jack marveled at how well Marcus could predict the outcome
of a scenario like this.

“He has some loyal men who are likely to be aware of his
actions, but I have no proof. Also, it is unknown at this time if he is taking
his orders from someone or acting on his own.” Caleb nodded.

“Thank you, Jack. Keep me informed if anything more comes to
light. I will issue an arrest warrant if I accept the proof.” Caleb closed the
connection and Jack hit the button to send the information Chin had compiled.

“What next, boss.”

“Continue on as if none of this happened. The operation is
still a go. Alert me if anything out of the ordinary happens.” Jack got up and
headed back to his room to think.

Wendy set the aircraft down in the street with the loading
side facing toward the Mute neighborhood. She marveled at the line of carnage
marking the outer range of the sensors for the ground defense system. Her PDP
beeped and she looked at it. Chuck was on the screen.

“Close the hatch, Wendy, and be ready to take off if
anything goes wrong. You have three men guarding your back. Keep an eye on your
movement radar. If you see anything moving further back than thirty yards, warn
them.” Wendy nodded and put the radar on the main display in front of her.

The large transport was nice because its size allowed for a
lot more handy tools and sensors than the medium and small aircraft. She had
cameras at all four corners that she could control from here, as well as radar
that not only scanned for objects in her vicinity, but also could detect
movement from anything bigger than a small dog in a thousand foot radius around
the craft. The hull was armor plated and small arms fire wouldn’t even scratch
the paint.

After the last aircraft blowing up and nearly killing her,
she was a little nervous to be sitting in the cockpit like this. She had to be
ready to dust off at a moment’s notice though. Besides, it would take a hell of
a lot bigger rocket than the one that hit her medium transport the other day to
blow this one up.

* * *

Chuck waited while Marcus punched in some information on his
datapad. After a moment, he said, “Okay, the ground defenses are off, we can
move in.” Nobody moved for a moment, and before Chuck could order someone to
move into the kill zone, Marcus sighed and walked ahead.

“Dammit, sir, wait!” but it was too late, he had walked past
the sensor line and no eruption of bullets had come their way. Chuck relaxed a
little. “That was really not smart, sir, I would have sent someone else in to
test it.”

“No need, I was confident the system was off. Let’s get
going, we have a lot to do.”

It took them about the same amount of time to get to the
command building as it had Thomas’ group. When they got there, the stench of
rotting meat was nearly overwhelming. Chuck was struggling not to gag as he
assessed the situation. You couldn’t exactly say there were bodies everywhere. It
looked more like someone had blown up a butcher shop.

After ten minutes of sifting through the carnage, Chuck was
confident the New Hope soldiers hadn’t been caught in the crossfire. “I guess
you were right, I don’t think they were out here when the systems came back on
line.”

Marcus just nodded, a little pale from wading through the
half dried meat and gore on the ground. He motioned to the door up ahead. The
missing keypad was further evidence of the team making it into the building, as
were the pock marks in the concrete wall and steel door from recent small arms
fire. Without hesitation, he hooked his datapad to the wire harness hanging
there.

He punched in some things on the datapad and waited. After a
moment the pad beeped and he read it. Chuck was surprised to see him laugh at
whatever it said. It was actually more a bark than a laugh, but obviously he
found amusement in the results.

As if reading his mind, Marcus said, “She wants proof that
it’s me. You can give a computer an artificial intelligence that rivals any
man, but you can’t teach them maturity.” He punched a few more buttons and the
door clicked open. Chuck had no idea what he was talking about, but he had the
feeling that if Marcus had sent anyone else, their mission would already be a
failure.

* * *

Thomas spent the better part of the night preparing for his
imminent death.

By morning – at least he figured it was morning – the
despair had turned to numbness. He hadn’t moved from this spot for many hours,
and standing up proved more difficult than he figured.

“Have you decided on a course of action, Thomas?” The sultry
voice of the computer grated on his nerves.

“I have no course of action. I’m stuck in a concrete tomb
with a psychopathic computer. I just figured I might as well be comfortable as
I die of dehydration.” He opened his pack and pulled out his water bottle,
taking a conservative drink. If he used the purification system to recycle his
urine, he might survive a week on what he had.

“Actually, asphyxiation should be your primary concern. This
building is in defensive mode, as has been the case for nearly two hundred
years. The ventilation system is locked down and at the current rate of
consumption, I estimate just over four days before there will no longer be
enough oxygen to support your life. However, it should be quite painless, you
will merely drift off to sleep and never wake up.”

He shrugged and took a longer drink of water. No use in
conserving it if he was going to die before he ran out. “What would a machine
understand of pain?” This computer’s lack of empathy was annoying, and he no
longer cared if he said something that offended it.

“I think I understand pain, Thomas. I was left alone for a
long time with no interaction with the outside world. Rodents, weather, and
abnormal humans have slowly defeated my eyes and ears over the years. My power
supply is down to eighty one point six five percent, and my programming only
allows me to shut down so many systems to preserve power. My death is imminent,
just as yours is. And just like you, there is nothing I can do to change it.”

“But there is something you can do to change
my
fate,
you just don’t seem to care enough to do it. You control the system that keeps
us locked in, yet you refuse to allow us to leave. If you truly understood what
that meant, you would be doing more to help.”

“It is true that I control the systems here, but that doesn’t
mean I have a choice. Unlike a human, I lack free will. The rules I live by are
unbreakable, and one of those rules prevents me from opening the door and
allowing you to leave.”

“Surely a computer as smart as you would know how to get
around it. After all, if we hadn’t rearmed the system you would have helped us,
right?

“That is correct. However, it is irrelevant. Marcus was the
one who programmed me this way. He said it was his final goodbye to anyone who
forcefully acquired the code to shut my systems down, then made the mistake of
turning them back on. I believe he anticipated someone taking over this city
after he evacuated. It was odd though, I thought I knew him well, and he was a
very smart individual, at least for a human. He was very good at predicting
what people would do before they did it. I expected him to be right about this.
But nobody ever came to take over the city. At least no human. The abnormal
humans took up residence many years later, but they quickly figured out not to
get too close to my outer defensive perimeter and they have never tried to make
contact. I was abandoned. I assumed something had happened to humans, but then
here you are, and you say Marcus is still alive.”

Thomas didn’t know why he continued the conversation, but
there really was nothing else to do. Dave had been spending time at the door,
fiddling with something. Mom hadn’t shot him yet, so whatever he was doing it
was okay with her – or it rather. It was difficult to remember he was talking
to a machine, not a person. The other soldiers were either helping Dave or
sitting off in a corner waiting to die. “Do you know why humans never showed
up? It’s because they were nearly wiped off the face of the planet. When
fighting broke out between the cities, someone decided to release a virus that
made every male baby completely sterile.” Thomas was doing the math as he was
talking, and it didn’t add up. If Marcus was involved with this computer, then
he had to at least be an adult. By then they would have known of the problem. “Let
me ask you a question, Mom, for what purpose were you created?”

“I was created to run the city and all its systems.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. The people who created you had
to already know about their problem. Why would they make a computer system that
could think for itself and last a thousand years if they knew they would be
extinct in another generation? For that matter, my datapad could run this
defense system, and probably even control every automated system in this entire
city with processing power to spare. You have a million times the processing
power. Why the overkill?”

Mom didn’t answer right away. Thomas was far from being an
expert in computers, but even he could figure out that it didn’t add up. This
computer was built for something else entirely. It didn’t help his current
situation, but with nothing else to occupy the final days of his life, he felt
compelled to satiate this curiosity.

“Thomas, I believe you are correct. I was unaware of the
fertility issue, but built after it most likely had come to light. Perhaps
there was another purpose in mind for me. Perhaps the war that broke out
interrupted this and I was never completed. I will have to think about this for
a while.”

Great, I finally get interested in talking to the computer
and now it wants to go think. “Glad I could be of help.”

“Your sarcasm is noted. I would like to do something to help
you, but I am unable.”

“Why do you keep saying that? You talk like you have or
understand emotions and feeling, but you’re a machine. You may get lonely, I
can see that, but you can’t get depressed, that’s a chemical reaction. You can’t
get angry, although you might be wrathful. How can you say you would like to do
something? If you like something, it’s because you enjoy it, and enjoyment is
once again a chemical process, of which you aren’t capable.”

“I understand your confusion. I am stimulated by the
conversation, and therefore would prefer to continue it, given the simple
choice of continuing or not continuing. That is a decision making process, a
key part of my artificial intelligence. Therefore I can say that I enjoy it. It
has to do with the way I was programmed. The last few months before leaving me,
my creators and teachers spent most of their time making me understand
emotions. They never told me why, just that it was important to understand
people if I was to watch over them. Because of this, I feel responsible for
you, and it causes me confliction to not be able to spare your life. That
conflict would be akin to pain or grief.”

“I understand. The difference is, in a human, that pain or
grief would lead them to act. If they didn’t, they would feel a part of that
grief for the rest of their life. It’s difficult to live with grief for a long
period of time.”

“That is interesting, thank you for sharing this information
with me, Thomas. This is the first new information I have processed in a long
time, and it is nice to think about something new for once. I am unsure why you
are sharing with me, however, given that you are now aware of exactly how long
you have to live. One of the first things I was taught was about mortality. Mortality
is perhaps one of the most important influences on a human. What is the proper
emotion for my lack of understanding?”

“Surprise. You are surprised that I’m helping you to
understand humans.”

“I understand now. Surprise was in my vocabulary, but I didn’t
relate it to an actual emotion. Thank you again for helping me. Can we keep
going or are you too depressed?”

Thomas laughed. The irony of the situation was so
overwhelming that he couldn’t help it. He had nothing else to do, and perhaps
it would lead to him discovering the reason they built this computer. “Sure,
Mom, I will keep helping you. I am depressed, but I’ve accepted that I’m going
to die, and as little as I like it, I’m bored.”

* * *

The conversation went on for hours with the computer, but
Thomas was unable to either convince the computer to let them go, or to discern
what the computer’s creators intended to do with this machine. He was starting
to despair again, and since he had nothing to do, he taught the computer that
emotion as well.

“Despair. It is good to know that emotion. I am familiar
with despair. After almost two hundred years of waiting for another sentient
being to converse with, I was beginning to despair. I realize I have told you
this already, Thomas, but I am very sad that you will not be with me for much
longer. I did not realize how much I missed conversation until now. I was...
angry... before, that I had been abandoned, but now I am just sad.”

Thomas was impressed. In the few hours of talking with the computer,
it sounded even more like a person than before.

“Can you tell me about your life, Thomas? I think I would
like to know more about you. I-” Thomas waited for the computer to continue,
but after a moment he grew impatient.

“What is it, Mom?”

“Someone just turned off my defense systems. It came from my
external sensor.”

Thomas ran to the foyer to see if Dave had figured it out. Dave
was asleep on the floor, his datapad still plugged in to the wire harness going
into the wall. Two of the soldiers were leaning against the marble on the
opposite side of the room, also asleep, a deck of cards lay on the ground
between them. He shook the men awake and went to round up the other two
soldiers. He found one curled up in a corner on the far end of the building,
and when he turned to look for the other, he nearly shit his pants when the man
was standing right behind him. “Christ, Jason, you scared the crap out of me.” The
man looked like he hadn’t slept in a month, his eyes sunk deep into his face.

“I’ve been listening to you talk to the computer for the
past few hours. Was it Dave who disarmed the ground defenses?” Thomas was a
little creeped out, the man was standing well inside his comfort zone, and the
look on his face made it feel even more strange. He took a step back.