“Then in what way would you prefer to be disrespected?”
She pointed a finger at him. “You are relieved of your post. If you’re smart, you’ll order all your personnel to—”
“Okay, that’s enough now…” Hedrick cut the line, and the wall returned to the form of wooden panels with artwork. He spoke to the ceiling. “Varuna.”
Varuna’s voice came to him. “Yes, Mr. Director.”
“What actions are under way in the U.S. government to rein in the BTC?”
“Encrypted communications between elements of the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Defense indicate preparations for a police action to seize all BTC facilities in North and South America.”
Hedrick shook his head grimly. “Madness. Who’s in charge of the operation?”
“Director Kaye Monahan appears to be in nominal command, Mr. Director.”
“Keep me informed as their plans evolve, Varuna.”
“Yes, Mr. Director.”
The office doors opened as the elder Morrison walked in. “I’ve got some bad news.” He paused for effect. “And worse news.”
Hedrick sat down in his chair. “Not you, too.”
“Jon Grady evaded our people in New York.”
“Goddamnit! Then he was there?”
Morrison nodded.
“Why on earth didn’t they just nox him?”
“It’s complicated. He had some low-tech tricks up his sleeve. Apparently there are steam tunnels beneath the university. He knew his way around them—used them to escape with Davis undetected.”
“You didn’t analyze the meeting site beforehand?”
“Of course we did. But AIs come back with lots of recommendations. It’s a lot of information.” Morrison grimaced. “Mistakes were made, I admit.” He paused.
Hedrick sat fuming at his desk. “We are headed for a serious problem with the U.S. government, and the last thing I need right now is our most precious asset running around loose.”
“We have a recording of Grady’s conversation with Agent Davis, though. He’s relying on her to help him get the word out about the BTC.”
“Then he briefed Davis on us?”
Morrison nodded.
“Hibernity?”
“We’re not certain—they had some time unobserved when they were moving through the steam tunnels.”
“Eliminate Agent Davis.”
Morrison made a calming motion. “Whoa. She’s the arresting agent in the Cotton case. It will complicate the trial and bring unwarranted—”
“Goddamnit, Morrison!” Hedrick ran his hand through his hair. “We need Grady.”
“We can still handle this. Grady will have difficulty convincing anyone of anything, and every time he tries is an opportunity for us to grab him. We’re still in control.”
Just then the office door opened again and Alexa entered Hedrick’s office, looking quite upset.
“Graham, I need to talk with you about Hibernity.”
Hedrick sighed. “And I need to talk with you about supporting field operations. Mr. Morrison tells me that his team didn’t know about the steam tunnels beneath Columbia University. It was your job to—”
“What’s going on at Hibernity?”
Hedrick exchanged looks with Morrison—then back at her. “Hibernity isn’t your concern.”
“Yes, it is. I’ve seen evidence of terrible abuse there that must be investigated immediately.”
Hedrick scowled. “Alexa, I have got no less than two major crises under way at the moment. Now, if this relates to locating Mr. Grady—by all means. Find him. Because he’s still missing.”
She stood unmoving. “I thought the purpose of Hibernity was to safeguard dangerous intellects in a humane environment until their knowledge was no longer a threat to civilization.”
“I really don’t have time for this.”
“Is that its purpose?”
He pointed toward the door. “My dear, I will gladly talk about this later. Hibernity isn’t going anywhere, and we’ve got a major crisis.” He then squinted at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be monitoring the search for Mr. Grady?”
Morrison stared at her. “Alexa was there, Graham.”
“What do you mean ‘there’? Where?”
“That was my second bit of bad news: Alexa was at the op. Out in public. In New York. Isn’t that right, Alexa?”
Hedrick turned on her. “I thought I ordered you to support intelligence operations here. We went over this; you’re not a field operative.”
She stared back defiantly. “It was a good thing I went.”
“I expressly forbade you to participate. This was a tech level four operation—and what you fail to appreciate, my dear, is that your very body is tech level eight. You should not be moving about in public. Ever.”
Alexa stared at him.
“I’ve been too indulgent with you—too lax.”
“When can we discuss Hibernity?”
He pointed to the door. “Make an appointment with my assistant.”
“Graham—”
“You mean Mr. Director!”
She cast another look at them both, then turned on her heels and left. The doors swung shut automatically behind her.
Morrison watched her exit. “What was she doing there?”
Hedrick turned on him. “And you, why didn’t you tell me she defied me?”
“I only learned about it after the fact—when the AIs were going through all the surveillance cameras looking for leads.”
“You mean she didn’t tell you she was there?”
“It’s worse than that. She caught Jon Grady—and she let him go.”
Hedrick leaned back in his chair trying to process this news. “I… I don’t believe that.”
“She’s clever. I’ll grant her that. She went through all records on Grady, put two and two together, and decided she was going to show us up. Capture Grady herself.”
“And she didn’t tell your team about the steam tunnels?”
Morrison shook his head.
“That’s why you didn’t know.”
“We were relying on her.”
“But she let Mr. Grady go?”
“There’s a surveillance video you need to see—something from the streets outside the university. Alexa knows…”
CHAPTER 20
Behind the Veil
Alexa moved through the supercomputing cluster, the bulk-diamond security doors sliding aside as she approached. She rarely came down here but hoped her access rights would allow her to go where she pleased. So far they had.
Before long she came to the control center, where a room filled with technicians at holographic workstations monitored the vast quantum computer networks that powered BTC global operations. In truth, almost everything—including malfunctions—was handled by AIs, but humans were always in the loop to approve major changes. There had been rogue AIs before, and now BTC engineers had developed AIs that were dedicated to detecting and eliminating incipient singularities before they emerged.
But mostly the BTC IT workforce conceived of new designs to deal with evolving needs of the organization. Coding was now too complex for humans to engage in (since most programs now had billions of lines of machine code). Thus, software was more frequently “grown” in a genetic process whereby millions of virtual generations were cycled through to evolve the most capable solution. They’d grown systems far too complex for the most brilliant human brain to comprehend.
As she moved through the IT cluster, techs nodded to her with broad smiles, some craning their necks to catch sight of her.