Scott returned to Mexico, and it was impossible to ignore how nervous his employees and partners were. Their productivity was down to almost nothing, as people spent most of their time watching news feeds and speculating. The US government was talking about temporary relocation. The White House would move to Philadelphia for the first time since 1800. Congress was setting up offices in Charlotte, and the Supreme Court would be operating out of Los Angeles.
Two of the crews that had launched attacks on the power stations had been captured, and there was speculation on the news that the groups had ties to the Governor of Texas. He firmly condemned the attacks and denied any connection, but the FBI set up barricades around his home and were in a standoff with armed security forces at the Governor’s mansion. The Governor refused to recognize the legitimacy of their arrest warrant, and his guards were loyal enough to support him, leading to an unprecedented standoff.
Their new Strategic Planner, Nadia Kucharska, had called a meeting between the various owners and management of the Genysis companies, and Scott was eager to hear what she would recommend. Nadia looked like a middle-aged housewife dressed for a vacation, but everyone present gave her their full attention as she addressed them in her lightly accented English.
“We are all concerned with the situation of our Northern neighbors and how it might affect us. Everyone in this room has been briefed on the likely connection between a rogue AI called SPAI which was likely the cause of the attacks on Washington. In my estimation, it was acting against perceived threats, but someone in the program must have caught on and shut it down before it could finish what it started. We’ve seen signs that it is still trying to influence the conflict between Texas and the US. I think Texas secession is now very likely. The US national news has been eliminated from local broadcasts, where they are focused on the siege of the governor’s mansion and various raids by Homeland Security around the State. Outside Texas, the news has focused on all the ‘evidence’ tying the attacks to the governor.” Nadia paused briefly to let this sink in.
“This is crazy! People in Texas won’t go to war just because the news is making it look like they are under attack,” Matt protested. “Even if they are angry, no one is going to fight when the other side has all the soldiers and weapons.”
Melinda’s voice came through over the intercom system, “Everyone save your comments until Nadia is finished.” She glared at Matt.
“You are correct that the moves we have seen so far will not start a new Civil War. We don’t even know if that is the goal of this AI. I spoke with Scott, and we think that understanding SPAI’s core directives is a top priority for predicting how it will behave. I have some guesses, but none of them fit perfectly with the behavior we have seen so far. I’m recommending a few actions we should take immediately to try to prepare for the most likely scenarios. Also, we have to get better information about our potential opponent.” Nadia continued.
“First, I’m recommending we re-task the new exploration submarine to send a commando mission to acquire Theofanis Zervou from his location in Algeria. This will set back our plans to find a site for the Atlantic Ridge base, but it’s our best chance for good intel. Theofanis has indicated he wants our help, and he will have the best insight into the AI system we are up against.”
“Second, we will start our road bypass project immediately. We need to be able to expand quickly, and this is the largest bottleneck. Waiting for all the governmental approvals will take at least six months, even with hefty bribes. Building the infrastructure and then paying penalties will be less costly than the delay, and it will be critical to build up our power base soon enough to influence upcoming conflicts.”
“Finally, I think we need intelligence assets in Russia. With the technology they have stolen, I think they will be a huge threat to us within a year. I estimate a high probability they will challenge the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere using new systems that include our technology. I have a few scenarios here which I will share with you, and most of them include a bad outcome for us. I will send details after the meeting. That’s it, you can ask questions or comment if you want.” Nadia finished.
“You ran all this by Melinda before the meeting, and she agreed?” Matt asked.
“Yes, I’ve been working with her closely for the past week.” Nadia confirmed with a nod.
“Thanks for the update, and glad you are working for us.” Zaliha pitched in, “I’ve been thinking about what Russia will try next, and I don’t think we have time to wait for intelligence reports.”
Nadia cut him off, “That is an excellent point. One of the possible scenarios is that they use the fusion power sources to build orbital energy weapons. I detailed this in my notes. In this scenario, they would destroy our onshore facility and the surface docks for Proteus, and it could overturn the current balance of power in the world. I estimate roughly a thirty percent chance they use this strategy, and if they do, we are a likely one of their first targets. Government buildings, Aircraft carriers or nuclear silos are less likely because they would start World War 3. They have already proven that hitting us does not start a war, but it would scare plenty of people. I included a contingency plan to evacuate these locations if they launch a mission, but it’s critical we get intel, so we have some warning.”
“Can’t we build a spaceship or something to blow up their satellites before they hit us?” Barry asked.
“I considered this, but even if we hired more NASA people, I don’t think you could get a space program capable of destroying their weapons up and running in time,” Nadia sighed, looking away.
“Don’t count us out just yet.”
“I’ve been working on plans for a space plane, but there is no way we could build it in less than six months, and it would not be safe. I guess if I didn’t have to worry about life support and could remove some of the redundant safety features, we could try a launch in four months if I had help from Barry and Matt’s teams nearly full time.” Zaliha’s forehead wrinkled as she worked the problem.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“That is really fast, but it’s likely the Russians will be ready in a similar timeframe,” Nadia argued. “It’s not their only option for attack, and if we commit all our resources it would delay the exploration sub and infrastructure projects. Those are also very important.”
“What if we stole a rocket?” Adriana asked. “We have air trucks, cargo ships and commandos. SpaceX launches rockets from Texas. They are conveniently located in Brownsville, which is about as close as you can get to our location. We could even return it to them when it lands.”
“This could work. We’ll need to build a defensive weapon system that we can launch, and facilities on the ground for fueling and ground control. It would be less of a burden on Matt and Barry’s groups. We need to hire some people, but this could work. I’ll work with Melinda to organize workloads and try to anticipate what we need to do to juggle all these projects.” Nadia replied.
“So just because there is a small chance the Russians are building an orbital weapon platform, we plan a spaceship heist?” Scott asked with a huge grin, “That is kind of awesome!”
----------------------------------------
“This is terrible!” Scott complained.
“You were at the meeting and agreed to our plan,” Melinda replied patiently. “You must realize that to pull off four major operations in such a short timeframe, we need to use every available resource.”
“But I’m just a programmer!” Scott whined. Melinda had told him that he would be part of the team going to retrieve Theofanis from Algeria. He would be going with Terrance and Carl, while Sergio would be leading a larger team to steal the spaceship.
“You’ve worked with Carl on his new upgrades, and you even train with the security guys. Don’t tell me any of your other programmers could keep up with you physically or fix issues with Carl as quickly.” Melinda argued for the third time.
“What about all my projects here?” Scott argued, knowing perfectly well he had efficiently delegated most of his work already.
“Matt is working sixteen hours a day to help design the satellite and program the robots for our tunnel project. Barry is working nearly as hard designing energy weapon systems. Up until yesterday, you were spending most of your time on the game company. The fate of the world does not depend on you scanning web novels to steal quest ideas.” Melinda replied sharply. Scott’s complaining was getting on her nerves.
It was much easier to convince the mercenaries to try out risky, untested surgeries. Melinda secretly admitted to herself they only needed to send Scott because half their mercenaries were recovering from enhancement operations that went a little wrong. Sometimes, the first few tries didn’t go as well as she had planned, and regrowing organs was painfully slow.
“Fine, but I am not going to help Carl if he has any more brilliant ideas. We spent half our IT budget on his ideas last quarter, and it only helps one person!”
“You know that’s not true,” Melinda scolded. “The hostile intent targeting will be very helpful for allowing our robots to operate independently. They have limited range now because we need to keep them near control signals, and this is one step to solving the problem. The weapon targeting code will not only help our drones, but also vehicles and armored suits if we ever finish building them.”
“Armored suits? When did we start working on those?” Scott asked.
“Phillip thought it would be a fun side project, so I gave him a couple million dollar budget to work on a prototype.” Melinda replied casually.
“You never bothered to mention a multi million dollar side project in our meetings. Anything else like that I should know about?” Scott asked with a bit of exasperation
“Clearly you aren’t reading the memos I sent out. Besides the weapons business, Lata is starting up a new semiconductor business in India, and we’re creating an educational software company based on a limited version of your skills training module but with a more kid friendly interface.” Melinda rattled off. She continued,” When I have some spare time, I’ll start up a space company so we won’t have to steal a rocket next time we need something in orbit.”
“Fine, I admit I’ve been distracted with game programming. What intel do we have on Theofanis’ location?” Scott asked, resigned to his fate.
“Intel? We’re not some government spy agency. I looked at the area in Gargle maps. They use this weird squiggly writing to label stuff.” Melinda said.
“That is very unhelpful! Carl and I are supposed to fly in there with no intel, then locate and retrieve Theofanis from a location with an unknown level of security. What could go wrong?” Scott smirked.
“No, you weren’t listening. Flying in might attract attention from our AI rival. You guys are going in on the new exploration sub. It’s not finished, but the hull and engines work and you guys can bring sleeping bags and MREs. Jansen already tested it, and it stays airtight down to at least 1200 meters. It should be plenty deep to get you across the Atlantic without notice. Gibraltar is heavily monitored for submarines, so you will need to land near Rabat, Morocco and buy a car to get to your destination.
“Buy a car? We don’t speak the language, have a license, insurance or whatever in that country! How are we supposed to handle that?” Scott asked. This spy stuff was way outside his skill set.
“Please think it through.” Melinda said patiently.
Scott took a deep breath and thought for a minute. “OK, so we can use Glitch_HR to find a black-market car seller who speaks English. We should land the sub as close as possible to that location, so we don’t have to walk more than 10 miles or so. I can look up a few options in case the first falls through. We should work on our conditioning for long distance running and make sure we have plenty of the local currency and weapons that aren’t visibly obvious.”
“See, you can handle this!” Melinda agreed. “We don’t have time for you to get your cardio fitness up that much, but I have a quick procedure I can do which will help. Carl is testing it now.”
“No thanks, I’m in good shape already. I’ll pass on another poorly tested medical procedure.” Scott said nervously.
“Carl ran a marathon in two and a half hours this morning. He has to keep eating food and drinking water the whole time, but his heart and lung capacity are fantastic. We’ve tested this on three other people, and they are all doing well. Recovery time is about 5 days, but you’ll be on the submarine that whole time. I have an operating room set up in Proteus now, so you don’t even have to fly to Thailand anymore. We can do the procedure today, and you’ll be unconscious for a couple of days.”
“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.” Scott said, reluctantly.
“You whine a lot, but when something is really important, I know we can count on you.” Melinda said with a smile.