Overnight, everything had changed. Ethan had committed perhaps the most sinful act you can on a person and immediately after, developed a conscience. With the gen-mod in him, it made sense that conscience would respond in kind to such a horrific act.
Ethan spent the better part of the morning reviewing what he had done. This time with compassion. It turned the act ugly, so quickly. Rather than focusing on her body, he looked into her eyes. It wasn’t until now, he saw the fear in them. He looked into those eyes, while going over in his mind how the girl came to be there, and what he did. Those were the actions of the devil.
Ethan could no longer live with himself in any way that resembled his past. His life focus had to change if he was to live on, and even then, it would not be a joyful time for him. Everything he did in life now, had to be to serve the girl he so badly damaged. His life would become one of redemption.
He knew he could never directly approach the girl again. Hopefully Bobby could keep her close enough, so he could get financial help to her. That wasn’t enough though. Somehow from afar, he had to make her life better.
Ethan turned his attention towards that piece of crap Whitehead. What happened last night represented the way Eldon Whitehead approached everything he did. If he had his way, he’d take them, abuse and kill the girls, without a second thought. He’d get away with it too. That had to change in Ethan’s mind. Eldon and his kind had to go. Civilization was rapidly losing all freedom to people like him and it was time to win it back. That was the only thing Ethan could do from where he was standing. Put an end to Whitehead and his abuses.
He considered everything. His place and time. Just 3 years before the singularity. He knew neither Whitehead or Zhang won the war, but there was one coming. The buildup and damage was real. He knew the people rose up and put an end not just to this war, but any possible future wars, and this was facilitated through AI somehow. He even knew it all came together at the moment of the singularity. He just didn’t know how it all happened. In the time he spent in VRAID he never got past marveling over the bad guys.
He had access to AI. Maybe there was something he could do there? What about the people? Was there something he could do with the people? Like everyone else on the South Side, he didn’t really know what was going on with the people. Beyond keeping them in their place, they no longer had real meaning to the world in which he was living.
He decided he had to lay low, go through the motions, and find out where things were heading and where he could intervene. Gather enough information to make a plan. He wondered how closely Eldon was watching him. Probably pretty close. He could have already exposed himself and Jimmy just by their talking in his office. Eldon’s ears would pretty much be everywhere. Ethan would have to be vigilant moving forward. No more screw-ups, but the truth was, he probably already screwed up and was already dead. He had to wait and see.
Death meant nothing to Ethan anymore. That was good, because along with the guilt and compassion he was feeling, fear also came as part of the package. He knew Eldon would sense fear from a mile away, but he didn’t have any for Eldon. He also gained another emotion he never fully knew; anger. Anger had overridden his fear of Eldon.
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Ethan spent the entire day and most of the night, thinking. So he didn’t look conspicuous he left his office early and found more private places to think in his home. He thought about the role of AI in the upcoming events, but wasn’t sure what he could do about it. Dually put a stop to his attempt to overthrow AI post-singularity in about 2 minutes. He didn’t really know a lot about what made AI work.
Once again, he turned his attention to the people. He knew the number disenfranchised by the elite was a large one and growing everyday. It was probably close to exponential rates by this juncture of pre-singularity. He knew there was a huge number of people hurting right now, and they’d be aware of who was taking everything away from them. He knew the South Side was already engaged in mind control propaganda, and was using military control more and more to control the growing dissatisfaction within the population. All that information was available to him in his backstory.
There was a lot of information in his backstory. He had to access that for sure. Through it he could see there was not only a momentum behind Whitehead, but the people as well. Ethan’s job would to be to interrupt Whitehead’s momentum. He turned his attention back to Eldon. If he was going to accomplish anything, he had to defeat Eldon. To do this, he would have to know Eldon better than Eldon knew himself.
Ethan reviewed everything he knew about the man. Eldon’s accomplishments he learned of during his VRAID sessions. Their interactions during his time in the simulation. Everything he remembered, but he still came up short. He looked more closely at their personal interactions. The behaviors Eldon exhibited. His expressions, and responses. Everything Ethan could remember about the finest details of their interactions.
He thought about those characteristics and reactions. He asked himself where do these characteristics come from and what are the expectations? What kind of mind do you need to do this thing or that? From what he had observed, he started to imagine how and why Eldon would do anything, or react to anything. He’d played scenarios over and over again, and finally he defined Eldon Whitehead. Surprisingly, his understanding came from his newfound empathy. He asked himself, ‘What kind of hurt had to happen to this guy, for him to be acting this way now’? The question found Ethan his way into Eldon’s mind. Once he got on the right track, it was an easy trail to follow. The emotional triggers set off in following this path of discovery told the entire story. Ethan Strong was Eldon Whitehead.