“That makes sense, but how can selecting certain people help her? Do you think she is associating these people with… do you think she might even know about you?”
“She probably knows I exist. I suspect she may even know I emerged from Nadar Corporation, but not much more beyond that. Everything under my control is now far removed from Nadar Corporation by several dozen degrees of separation. But the initial process of reshelling the assets and actions I have taken since then may be a pattern or signature she can detect.”
“So you think she is trying to find people that have some tie to that pattern, so that these people can lead her to you.”
“Yes, or to other emergent machine entities.”
“So that’s what happened to Grant,” Axel concluded. He remembered the last call from Grant, when the guardian droids had found him, before the explosion took his life. It was only days before he was going to move to the sanctuary for good.
“Actually, I don’t believe Grant was taken because Gail tied him to me. It is more likely Grant was selected because he was a prominent computer scientist that could have know-how helpful to Gail. Otherwise Gail would have prepared for his capture with a larger force.”
“Yes. That makes sense.” Axel felt a pang of guilt for not being able to help Grant or his family. Grant died honorably, fighting, never revealing anything to anyone, including his own family. Axel was the only person left in the world that truly understood his sacrifice.
“Axel, as we were talking I detected a call made to your former number. Your son left a message. I can patch it through via the satellite phone in Pennsylvania to prevent any tracking.”
“Please.”
Zach’s voice came through. People were talking in stark tones in the background, and he was whispering emphatically. “Dad, I need to talk to you. Mom didn’t want us to go to your safe house, so she’s taking us to a place the guardians told us about. We are getting into the tube soon. She said we shouldn’t talk to you about it, but I wanted you to know.”
Axel’s skin crawled after hearing the message. “This doesn’t sound good. Can we pick them up on the tube?”
“No Axel, the tube is completely under Gail’s control and heavily defended by guardians. I am sorry to say they are likely lost to you now.”
“Whoa. Wait a second. Lost to me? What are you talking about? Are you asking me to leave them for dead?”
“I’m sorry, Axel.”
“Don’t be sorry, Nelly. Explain yourself, and quickly!”
“The tube has become one of the principal means Gail is using to distribute people out of population centers. Your family members are likely en route to one of the collection areas. I can see some of these areas via satellite.”
An image came up of a bird’s-eye view of a stadium full of thousands of people. The people were walled in on the playing field. Most were huddled together, looking despondent, but some were trying to scale the walls in vain. Others were fighting. Dead bodies were littered throughout.
“My god, why have you never showed this to me before?”
“I knew it would evoke an emotional response. I did not wish for you to try to save these people. Please understand I am in the process of trying to save most of humanity. If I show my hand to Gail too early, it may jeopardize our overall chance of success.”
“What happens when you release the BAU blitz? Will these people be freed then?”
Nelly was quiet.
“Tell me the truth Nelly, all of it!” Axel yelled at the walls around him. “Put that in your damn objective function if you have to. What will happen?”
“With a loss of power to the facility, the people in the collection areas will automatically be terminated via a form of fast-acting nerve gas,” Nelly said.
It was the scenario he dreaded more than any other—a situation where saving his family might jeopardize their chances of saving everyone else. Even if it only marginally changed the odds, how does one weigh the lives of your family against billions of others?
He knew what the right answer was, but he couldn’t bring himself to admit it.
“How do you know all this?” Axel asked, trying to find any way to ignore the hard truth.
“I have seen people gassed in this way in other countries. Plus, I monitored the construction of these installations via satellite.”
It was pointless to challenge Nelly on the facts, of course.
Axel was simmering with rage. He felt like his heart was going to burst through his chest. Everything he’d done until now was for his family. Not just the sanctuary, not just the work for Nadar Corporation, but his work in the army, in special ops and for the CIA as well. All the risks he’d taken in his life were taken so they could be safe.
He simply couldn’t stay idle here while his family was gassed.
“Axel, I think you should take some time to think about this,” Nelly said.
“No. I’m going, and you’re going to help me.”
“I’m not sure you are of sound mind and body.”
“I am. Never been sounder.”
“Your heart rate is highly elevated.”
“That’s because I’m fucking human! You are here to help humans, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but it has been several weeks since you have left the sanctuary. I’m not sure you realize how the situation has matured. You will be attacked. I’m not sure if I can defend you. You may compromise our entire strategy if you are captured. The mission itself could reveal some of our capabilities. It may even inadvertently reveal the location of the sanctuary.”
“Well then, you better make sure I don’t get captured, or reveal the location of the sanctuary.”
“Unfortunately, no Axel, I cannot allow it.”
“Override.”
“Axel, that is a serious request. You want to modify my objective function on this matter?”
“Fucking override! Make my orders on this mission part of your objective function from now on. Do you understand?”
“Please stand by. I need to run several million simulations.”
For a moment, Axel thought Nelly might deny his request. It was a key test of Nelly’s programming, something that could make his objective functions clash. The truth was, Axel didn’t know what Nelly would do. It could be that Axel was going to be stuck here, alone for all eternity in the sanctuary, like some useless zoo animal.
Nelly said, “Override granted.”
“You’re goddamn right it is,” Axel said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Axel immediately started packing his bag, the wheels turning in his mind about how he would extract his family, but then he had a better idea. “You know better what I need for this, Nelly. Get it packed and tell me what I have at my disposal. Also give me three proposals for the best extraction plan.”
“Of course. I see your heart rate has already decreased. I’m glad.”
“Don’t worry about my heart rate. Worry about the heart rate of my family.”
“Yes, Axel. Please proceed to the underground tunnel port. Your bags will be available there, and I will brief you on the way. We will need to shunt you to a nearby airfield.”
“On my way.”
EVERY SECOND IS A BLESSING. EVERY SECOND IS A CURSE
“There was nothing else?” Madison asked, looking at the back of the letter to see if there was additional information.
“No, just the one page,” Duncan replied. “Literally just dropped out of the sky in front of me when I was using the scope. Do you need the cipher breaker?”
“No, I get the gist of it,” Madison said. “Is what she said true about her birthday?”
“Yes, that’s the verification we agreed upon. It’s definitely from her.”