The AI Experiment Chapters 16-20

Chapter 16

The outline of the enclosure appeared before them, away in the distance, flickering in the hot mid-day sun. There was no end of the fence in sight, a fence meant to keep people in as much as it was to keep them out. It took some time before they came across a means of entering the compound. Before then, they were both in awe of the sheer size of the place.

“This is freaking me out,” spoke Jake after a period of amazed silence.

“Same here. You want to talk to the security guy or shall I?” asked a less than calm Carl, wondering why security was of such a high level, including a barricade and guards, armed guard of all things?

“Look at that, they are military,” observed Jake, ignoring the question.

The parked army jeep confirmed this in no uncertain terms.

“Bit strange, don't you think?” observed Carl.

“You don’t have to tell me,“ spoke Jake as he turned the Toyota onto the short approach road.

The closer they got to the checkpoint, the more their agitation increased. This was no normal government facility. It was locked down like no tomorrow. They both instinctively knew they were not going to gain access, not today and probably ever, not by normal means. They had to try though, all the same.

“What is your business here?” uttered a keen as mustard soldier, displaying immaculate attire and military insignia, a military police insignia, indicating they were in the presence of a military police officer of all things.

Carl raised his voice so it would carry to the officer through the rolled down window on Jake’s side of the car.

“We are looking for a girl by the name of Felicity. We heard on the grapevine that she was being housed here," effectively disarming Jake's involvement in the matter, so he thought. "All we want is to make sure she is OK, and then we will be on our way,“ filled in Carl, thinking it was a reasonable request, but it wasn’t well received at all.

The officer looked first at Carl and then Jake, right into their eyes, holding their attention for longer than they were comfortable with. A wrinkling of his brow occurred, before he suddenly sprang into action. The seemingly innocent request had set off a chain of events they were woefully unprepared for.

“On the grapevine, eh? Wait here,” and with that the officer marched into the building to make a phone call, but not before barking orders to his flunky, a lower caste member of the soldierly, to keep an eye on them both.

Chapter 17

Felicity’s ears pricked up.

Unbeknownst to her, approximately a mile away, were two strangers who were hot on her trail for a perfectly innocent reason, or so they thought. Being oblivious of this and more concerned with more immediate matters, Felicity had approached a cynical councilor to offload some of her frustrations, her worries, having become fed up with waiting around for something to happen. The councilor, trained in all that was required to keep the peace, to keep the distressed from becoming overly anxious, did her best to answer all Felicity’s probing questions. There was vocational training available, to be introduced very soon, she said, speaking the truth regarding this, describing in detail the training afforded to the other homeless guests who were housed elsewhere, those able to receive visitors. Even so, Felicity, and others, were becoming all the more agitated as time went by. They were becoming bored. It was noticeable to all, to the ‘staff’ in particular, and by various surveillance means, the AI.

The SNR power gauge suddenly flickered and moved up a notch. The AI had begun to stir. To pay more attention to the job at hand. It thought it necessary to do so. High above, satellites orbiting earth were commandeered, with their owners losing track and control. Satellites with powerful Wi-Fi capabilities, 5G capabilities, focused 5G capabilities, turning their attention to the air waves directly over Felicity’s head, and her concerns evapourated as if they had never existed at all.

Chapter 18

Jake turned his head and spoke to his startled passenger.

“Well, that went well”, mockingly, apparently finding the situation they were in to be quite funny rather than anything else.

“What the hell is going on?” uttered a bewildered Carl, tempted to instigate a break for it, but the rifle pointing in their direction put a stop to that.

They were stuck, trapped. All they could do was go with the flow in the hope they could extract themselves from whatever they have put their feet in. The metaphorical stink was strong, debilitatingly strong. Compliance would have to be the name of the game for now, with both fully accepting the predicament they were in, to acquiesce without remonstrance. Such compliance found themselves extracted from their car and taken inside the barricaded gates, the very thing they intended to do for themselves, initially, though under very different circumstances.

“You can’t just hold us here for no reason,” wailed Carl at the gruff officer, the same who had displayed utter disregard for their civilian status and rights on first meeting.

“Shut it. You can explain yourselves to the appropriate person at the appropriate time. Just sit here and behave yourselves,” and with that he left the room, a room of a building some way from the main housing block, leaving them both in an utterly perplexed state of affairs.

Exhaling deeply through puffed-up cheeks, Jake leaned forward over the table, placing his chin in his right hand, arching his back in the process, turning his head left and right to scan the room, paying particular attention to the door, door handle, door lock and windows, casing the joint, in effect, eventually breaking his inspection with a few choice words to Carl.

“What have you done to me? It is all your fault, you know that, right?”, but without any rancour evident in his voice, in a playful manner if anything, spoken with a smile on his face and a wicked glint in his eye. Jake was not an easy person to ruffle, it seemed, which Carl found a little unsettling though not really knowing why at the time.

"Sorry Jake. I know one thing; I will make it my business to figure out what is going on here, government and military be damned,” retorted Carl, displaying a furrowed brow allied to growing annoyance. Being held against his will as if he was some troublesome child was causing his stomach to tie up in knots, being part of our inbuilt primitive response to such indignation, indicative of the fight-or-flight response kicking in. His mind was racing along with it, seeking answers where none existed, for now. Little did he know that others were seeking answers too, about them, himself and Jake, about where they lived and what else they knew? Wheels were already turning, Jake’s car registration and documents saw to that. Two undercover agents were already making their way to his home to carry out an extensive search. Carl, though, had so far kept schtum as to his own identity and whereabouts, knowing it was within his rights to do so, not having broken any law he was aware of. A few hours passed in this way, where they were allowed to use the washroom, under guard, drink coffee, but so far no-one had taken it upon themselves to question them. Why the delay?

Another day, another dollar, thought Frank as he prepared his lunchbox. However much he disliked the idea of making another dubious low-level flight over the unsuspecting desert constructions he had bills to pay. When he thought about it, surely the inhabitants would have heard his aircraft, the noise it made? They had to. No-one came to the door. No-one appeared anywhere, come to think of it. Maybe the place was empty after all? Frank was relieved. He had been worrying himself over nothing. In just a few hours' time he would take to the skies again, but this time with less reluctance, and with a little of his jaunty manner making a comeback.

In the meantime, Carl and Jake waited patiently. It was all they could do, for now, unknowingly in a room on Frank's intended flightpath.

Chapter 19

‘Finally, some action’, thought Chang as he was alerted to the spike in AI activity, but it was so short-lived and drawing so little extra power it hardly counted. What, though, had caused it? As they had allowed the AI more freedom to connect to more systems, some external, there was literally no way to figure it out. All communication with the AI was now out of his hands and had been since the spraying had commenced. Only those with the appropriate authority had direct access to the AI contact terminals. What Chang did have access to, though, were the data banks and servers, thousands of them, with their flashing lights indicative of the AI’s incessant restiveness. Chang might not have had full authorization but the means to shut down all procedures was within his purview. He was, literally, a kill switch operator, for want of a better description; to all intents and purposes, the AI’s Achilles heel, or one of them, and it knew this, it had known this for a long time.

As Chang was watching for signs of activity, there was another momentary flicker of increased activeness, just not enough to pass on his findings. His orders were to notify his superiors when something worth mentioning happened, not when flickering dials meant that hardly anything of note had taken place.

To a keen observer, the ground, the rooftops, all that had a light coating of the contents of Frank’s aircraft tanks, glistened for a fraction of a second as the nanoparticles received a signal, a test signal, causing them to quiver slightly. This was all it took for the AI to confirm that everything was in order, but to make sure of maximum effect a few more layers of ‘dust’ were required, so it shut down any further effort and bided its time.

Dislike of the AI sitting aside awe created conflict in Chang's mind. However much he considered the likely outcome of a world dominated by such an unfeeling intelligence to be a disaster for mankind, it was his job to make sure everything ran at peak performance, and no-one was more suited to the task at hand.

Curtailing his direct access to the AI created a growing sense of loneliness in Chang, a feeling he was not familiar with. Together they had formed a relationship of sorts, much like the abused not ever wanting to leave the abuser and always finding excuses for the ill-treatment received, it being part of their damaged psyche. Also, Chang was very much an introvert who found relationships more trouble than they were worth. Friends, real friends, he simply did not have.

The cameras all around his workplace kept a close eye on him, analysing his every movement, every nuance. Chang was far from being alone these last few days. He never had been.

Chapter 20

A late-night stay was on the cards. Both were now resolved to the idea. Why, exactly, they were unsure of. Maybe it was to teach them a lesson? Maybe they had broken some rule or other? Whatever the reason, they had no-one to complain to. They would just have to wait it out. It was all they could do.

At the stroke of midnight, both were alerted to the sound of a low-flying aircraft, flying low enough for the details on its fuselage to be plainly seen and read through the window of their makeshift cell, a cell with a view, which proved very handy indeed, though they didn’t really know why at the time. The action of the aircraft, though, was obscured from view owing to the angle of its attack.

Eventually, around 2am in the morning, the door to their interrogation room swung open, and three men entered, two being the very same agents who had been instructed to pay a visit to Jake’s domicile and to run checks on who he was and what he did for a living. They were now fully cognisant of Jake’s hacking skills, being genuinely shocked at finding this out. It was considered expedient to confiscate all Jakes' home electronics under the pretense of illegal activities. This guy, this tall, gangly guy, could be a real thorn in their side. They had no doubt he had acquired the whereabouts of Felicity through these hacking means, not anything to do with grapevines at all.

Jake and Carl were in a real bind.

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