Marilyn was upset.
Emilio, as any good politician was able to take a blow. "Anybody who still doubts Marilyn is a living creature has obviously never seen her this way,” he joked. “Remember, her reaction in Round 14. Let's hope she regains her senses before the game, time is short. One thing is sure, we hit a nerve. That phone plays a key role in what comes next, I feel it. Let's move away from the topic for now.” He pointed to a guy outside of the field of view. “Get Trent on a plane to Berlin now, by now I mean now. Bring everyone we saw in that frame, I want that ball and the phone in his possession at all times. No chances."
He looked at the room, the detective who had introduced Trent spoke in his microphone, "Georges, her creator has control and can switch her out in the broadcast, that's always a good thing to watch."
"Yes," whispered Emilio to himself.
"Did you see how once he took control? Sophie was in the background. An impressive level of control by the man."
“Her father,” Emilio forced himself to refocus and return to the live show and his audience of esteemed guests. He felt there were there for a reason and he was curious to find out.
"The mission commander is alive, that is a strange twist of events. It complicates things. He did confirm an entire race of aliens on mars want Marilyn gone." With a click, Emilio changed the slide, and the Glass Slipper appeared — the ship on mars victim of strange turbulence. "Let's go back to this presentation. We still have about half an hour before the game, we need to speed things up. This is the Glass Slipper; it is, for the time being, grounded." On the picture the staff was pretending to be guests ready to launch. "These are images from last week, from the day before Sophie landed. These are the actual drone images offered to the guests. Take a look." The transparent vessel attached to the top of Mons Tharsis launched and flew until it hit turbulence. "Unlike what movies try to suggest, mars has almost no air, no sandstorms and rocks don't fly around in its faint gravity. The martian atmosphere is at rest and its wind almost non-existent. To get turbulence, you need density or velocity changes. Experts agree, there cannot be any turbulence. The Glider encountered strong turbulence high in the sky, from Marilyn or these new neighbors of hers." The video resumed and stopped on one of the men, Gerard, the trip's critic.
"We now believe this prior turbulence was a diversion created by Marilyn to avoid a flyover of the Glider over the door. More precisely, to prevent one of the passengers from seeing the door that we just talked about." Gerard appeared to be talking to a voice in his ear. "This man's eyesight, a gift the man has would have let him see the door directly in the Valles." The video showed Gerard looking up at the screen. On it was playing an old movie. "At least, that's our theory. We are preparing a new mission to the door. Obviously, we now need to adjust in light of today's new facts."
The President paused the presentation. "The Sixth Attraction will happen on November 21, three weeks from now. That much seems to be known, and I do not doubt it. From Marilyn's reaction to this story, I often wonder if she picked the date of her game last year because she knew of the arrival of the Sixth Attraction or if the Sixth Attraction is timed with the finale of the competition. Either way, the timing is no coincidence. The girl's birthday also coincides with that day. The timing here is important."
"We already have uncovered six deadly plots around the world. We dispatched them quickly. The terrorist group in Burma trying to blow up a nuke given by the Chinese. A Russian test of a fusion bomb did not want to destroy the world knowingly, but it planned a 500 megaton fusion blast, which many believe will start a chain reaction igniting the atmosphere. The test was planned on November 21. Now that we know the date, its much easier. Canadians also were transporting nanites. I am unclear what those are, but they can't touch living cells without yet another chain reaction. There is also the META plan.
"Once we realized that all these plans had a commonality, the date, they were easier to uncover." Emilio returned his attention to the room, and with a flick of the wrist, the flow of images resumed. "We are three weeks away from the finale. Marilyn is playing with these Rho waves; she just admitted as much. The waves have an unexplained purpose.”
The students were taking notes.
"Next," the image of mercury came up, "this rock. My mind has recently changed. I am unclear why, but I saw, don't ask me how, that we need to visit mercury. In the game later today, Marilyn promised to provide further explanation. Mercury is now farther away than mars. Time was short, and I had to act quickly. Since we could not use the light drive, I had to improvise. If you recall, the splitting of photons on the plates inside the light drives is at the heart of ripping holes to the Purple between the worlds."
Images changed behind Emilio. "With the light drive, it takes two weeks to reach mars. We have days at most to reach mercury and if we find something there, get it back to us or mars before the finale. I remain unclear why it must happen, but the rescue mission has begun." The use of the word rescue made the scientists in the room uneasy. They all looked up at the images behind the President.
"As you will hear, I implemented very extreme measures. I have no clue if they will land me in prison, history will judge. At best the mission is a one-way flight. The craft will not crash on mercury, it will vaporize at its contact; that is how fast we have to get there."
"The electromagnetic interference is so powerful, it fries most electronic equipment. The radiation levels are deadly. We can't expect much to work and I had a hunch, a strange one." The crowd shifted. "I hope you all trust me enough to wait for tonight's game before you reach a conclusion. I am sure Marilyn will showcase this with fantastic details."
The group in the room was utterly astonished by this entire series of events. A little more than a week ago, players were landing on mars for a simple game. Everyone back then would be excited by a slow walk on the red rock. No one had anticipated the turn of events. Any of it. The events taking place, if true, were utterly inconceivable. They also unfolded at very uncomfortably fast pace.
"Now, some good news to lighten the mood. I guess that's needed at this time." Behind him the picture of a giant virus appeared. "As if the actions of two types of aliens wasn't sufficient, we have here on earth the META virus. This bug was designed several decades ago by a man named Takeda. He created this complex virus around the date Marilyn was born in the MIT servers. Doctor Takeda, who should be dead by now, was recently rescued in Austria. His body is probably also regenerated. We believe a single man, a monster, burnt down this residence in which he was withering away. I am sure the image seems familiar, that is because it was part of Round 26. This is where the Mother in Law of Marilyn resided when she played a banker's wife in old Chicago. This original building is in Austria."
Everyone in the room was unable to process. Each word was filled with significance and there simply was no time to unravel these threads. "The META virus is at the heart of another governmental coverup. Sophie will be proud of me for washing so much dirty laundry in public. This virus does not kill as most of you think: it stops cell aging. The science is once again complex, but it does so by snapping open the shape of human DNA. Once the DNA is open, many side effects appear." Images flashed above Emilio's shoulder. The man was now talking cell biology. "The META virus does not kill or even grant immortality; it only stops a handful of cellular reproductive steps. A body infected by the virus cannot sustain itself. The virus slows cell replication which was perfect to halt cancer reproduction - pausing the growth of most cancers. But this sucks if you want a full head of hair."
On the screen appeared a picture of Nicholas Schmidbauer. "This man and a dozen of other very rich fucks are the reason why Takeda designed this virus." Emilio never used profanities. His words made the audience gasp. "Those guys not only infected themselves on purpose to avoid death but formed a secret society called the Visconti. Their recent role was to infect and kill random people to manage the public perception of this bug to hide its true benefits. We have known about them for decades but they are very careful, and I could not prove their efforts to infect and kill innocents."
Stolen novel; please report.
"I alone had to act very recently. I secured evidence from a good friend the Visconti was building in secrecy an underground Ark to survive once our race goes extinct and the earth becomes unlivable. At least that was my guess as to what is next. Their leader is the CEO of Blackberry, and his miserable ass is on his way to mercury as a personal gift to the mission leader we just spoke of. You all remember him in Round 25 of the game. This Ark was annihilated earlier today. There is no lifeboat for anyone. Nick can bring charges against me for kidnapping if he ever wants or comes back from mercury."
There were no words to describe the expressions of the people in the auditorium. Simple minds could not grasp the magnitude of the events. Emilio went to sit in the chair next to Francois. Without a pause, the President continued. "We are far from halfway into my presentation, pace yourselves. Next, on the continuum comes Marilyn. She was born two decades ago from the mind of Georges Vouvelakis, her creator, now residing with her on mars. As far as we know, Georges told the truth as to her birth. The story was broadcasted a week ago on CNN. There are more questions than answers when we think about Marilyn. I can confirm she did save the human race in 2067 from nuclear war. She was exiled in nothing more than humanity's most shameful hour.
"A species which hurts the hand that just saved it from the Stone Age deserves only extinction. I want you to look at these faces." Faces scrolled on the screen. "These people cast the deciding vote cast to expel Marilyn from earth. They each were in full knowledge the fact this digital creature had just saved our race. But these morons put personal interest above all else. I would ask for retribution, but I almost get the sense Marilyn planned all of this. I take comfort in knowing these people must live with public shame. It's hard in this context to see Marilyn as an adversary of our species. Even if Liam were to ask me to unplug her to save our race, I frankly would not do it. She has already saved the life of everyone in this room. I would think long and hard before blaming her for the Sixth Attraction. I have my differences with the artificial intelligence, but absent contrary indications, she helped put me in power, and if that were not the case, nothing would stand in the way of The Visconti."
In the auditorium, luminosity dropped. The monitor next to the chamber read 23:07, and the oversized numbers were counting down to zero. Emilio figured he needed five or ten minutes to hook up to the device, so time was running short. The presentation resumed. It was a video of a road accident. Everyone in the room was familiar with these images. Most cringed and looked away. It was the night in Indiana when Sophie became an orphan.
"Sophie was two when the Electoral competition began. A year and a half ago, as Marilyn was shipping her root processors to mars, this happened. A girl, ten years of age, miraculously survived this crash." The images spared no detail. "Her father also survived this crash and the burning wreck of the ambulance bringing him to the hospital. Sophie was unscratched. Her father was declared clinically dead, yet, Sophie has anchored him to our world. He remains and is about to steal my job. The man is a brilliant player and a wonderful father.
"We now know Sophie's mind generates waves found in very small quantity inside the normal human brain. Professor Lalancette, earth's expert on Rho waves, confirms their existence but also propositions their strangest property. With distance from an emission source, the waves do not decrease in intensity as does every propagated wave; they increase in power. This is a violation of the law of the conservation of energy.
"Little is known of these waves aside from how Sophie's waves were channeled by the computer to steal a communication portal called the Dot. Liam, the previous owner of the Dot, does not seem to hold this theft over Marilyn's head. That could be either calming or terrifying. Sophie, this wonderful girl, used her waves last night to visit what can only be described as the Multiverse itself. We all felt the pulse of energy even from down here on earth.
"To our benefit, thanks to Marilyn, we saw a ballet of images, each stranger than the next. The passage to the Underworld lasted less than a second, yet Marilyn broadcasted about an hour of images. Everything that surrounds that girl is exceptional and illogical. We live in a world where only some crazies believe in magic, yet she appears to have powers. She is called the Attractor by Liam, a term she hates to use.
"Sophie is... " He was unable to find the right word. "Sophie..." This time he was unable to find the right verb to use. Emilio looked a Francois, at the crowd, he needed to say something, but as a confession, he was unable to find the right sequence of words. He took several long breaths, grabbed the water and drank then a tear came to his eyes. He choked.
"You know what?" he began. "I don't have kids. Never had. She is the closest thing I have to family. I know that is going to sound strange, but since everyone shares this feeling, I will say it. My heart belongs to her. I don't want to win this damn game just because I fear that might hurt Laurent and in turn hurt her. My counsel tells me her waves allow her to bond with us on a deep level and that's why we feel this. I know how strange that sounds, but I know everyone in this room feels the same way." Everyone in the assembly nodded. "This is somehow a needed part of the Sixth Attraction. She calms us like music played to bring livestock to their doom."
Emilio looked at his watch and continued. "As if what we talked about wasn't crazy enough, this is where things get weird." Images changed above his head. "Marilyn explained how she uses the number Pi as a value to measure how the Multiverse changes. We think here this bend is related to what we call the God Bias. Tonight, thirty-two finalists, including myself," he pointed at the tube, "will play Round 28. There are at most six rounds left to play. The players will be connected to the pods. The pods," he got up, walked to the device sharing the stage and put his hand on it, "appear to be a direct neurological link into the computer. Sophie, unlike us, does not need any connection. It looks like the girl can pretty much do what she wants. We are dumbfounded here as to how scientifically this can be explained."
The scientists were mentally exhausted by the complexity of this end-of-day briefing.
A picture of the President's face appeared on the screen. He looked up. "Me? I guess its an honor to be considered an integral part of this story." He was prepared for what he needed to say next. He took a sip of the cup of water. "Aside from my role as President and being a player in the Electoral 2072 competition, my brain seems to be wired uniquely. The same way an Olympic skier sees in his mind a course as he launches himself, my mind continuously looks ahead. With time I got better at it. Growing up, I had no clue others did not wrestle with the same demons. Up to my victory of the Electoral 2062 game, my gift mostly felt to me like a curse. I see myself die a hundred times a day. When I fall in love, I see hundreds of nasty breakups. Driving a car is nearly impossible for me, the road keeps shifting on me. I don't like talking about this, but it explains why I am a bachelor. I can't love because I can't turn off the nasty breakups.
"If you have my gift, anything reliably certain is soothing. Watching the Olympics is great to me, I see the race, a couple of futures but in all the same person wins. Do I make any sense?" Everyone in the room was polite and therefore silent. The President walked to the front of the stage and looked around. "In my mind, when I look around I see myself asking each of you a question. I don't know the answer you would give, but I get a general feeling if I need to ask the question. The same happens in the Electoral game." He looked at a girl in the back row. "What's your name?" he asked one student.
She blushed and stood up. She pulled down her skirt over the thick wool stockings. She made her way to the microphone. She grabbed it, tapped. "My name is Slovanka." Her thick Ukrainian accent matched her image.
"Ask your question." She blushed. "No, really, ask your question."
"It is not flattering."
"Please, go ahead."
"Very well, under the rules of Electoral, if you do have a gift for sight into alternate futures, doesn't that mean you should be disqualified?" There it was. Political opponents of the President had been crying foul play for a decade. To them, the rules were clear; no contestant was allowed an edge over the others at the time of inscription. "Why are you still playing?" Everyone in the room cringed.
"The trillion-dollar question," began the President. "I do owe everyone an explanation. From a technical standpoint, Electoral's rules are very artfully crafted. It is as if she was knowing about my difference, yet she wanted me to stay in the game. The rules say that no one can 'use external help' or something along those lines. My gift is not external; it's personal.
He looked at the young student back in her seat and concluded, "You don't want to deprive these kind folks of a finale between Laurent and me? Like me, his handicap or something internal seems to be helping. He now also has this little kid from the Purple inside his head. If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would not pick myself as favorite."
There was finally an answer to the most important question surrounding the President. Emilio was the world’s most eligible bachelor, but he had never been seen dating a man or a woman. "In these last two days, my visions seemed to have shifted. First, of the dozens of alternate futures I see, some are simply black. Next, I can't tell you why, but I saw visions, one of mercury. Marilyn told me she would open tonight's game with my vision." A picture flashed of a launcher. "Tonight you will see why I sent a man, a killer, to do a mission there. I hope some of it makes sense; although I don't see how, at this point. Not even to me, not completely." Emilio lowered his microphone as if he were ready to conclude his presentation and take questions.