Oddly, Ethan felt complete. He wasn’t happy with who and what he found himself to be, but at least he now knew the truth. He also felt this understanding would give him an advantage over Eldon. Although they were separate, he believed his intuition towards Eldon would be much greater. In some ways, he’d be reading Eldon’s mind.

It was frustrating that there weren’t people around to help him. There was a day when Ethan might marshal his supporters and confront Eldon directly, but those days were over. Now the only people around were the essential core people. Each with their own specialty. Ethan specialized in campaigning, and moving things along. Jimmy specialized in programming. It was hard for them to even cross paths, let alone mount a coup.

Now he had Jimmy to deal with. Jimmy Wang. Computer genius and businessman. Ethan didn’t know anything of Jimmy from his VRAID immersions. All he knew about Jimmy was what he received from his character backstory. Their contact was limited to mostly social events. Ethan knew Jimmy was a Chinese businessman who when around, which was often these days, worked closely with Eldon. He had something to do with Eldon’s AI. Beyond that, he knew Jimmy was personable, and because he had his own particular charm, got away with more than most. Another thing about Jimmy, was he would sell you anything, and often tried to. Ethan wondered what he had bought by asking Jimmy to help him. Jimmy would now have an upper hand.

With Jimmy, Ethan had a good idea of what he was getting into. There was another person Ethan wondered about. What was Dawn up to? How the hell did she come up with the rarest Faberge Egg of them all? Dawn was a curiosity. Ethan planned to find out where she fit in.

The next morning Ethan went to his office without any real plan on how to approach Dawn. He’d play it by ear, but he was going to get some information. He wanted to get her outside the building, so they could talk away from prying eyes.

‘Morning Dawn,’ he said, when he found her working at her station. ‘How are you today?’

‘Fine’.

Ethan accepted her answer with a smile. ‘You know, I’ve been thinking. We never get an opportunity to just talk with each other, do we?’

‘No.’

‘Well, I think it’s time to change that. Maybe we should go out for lunch or something, and you know, talk? In fact, I’m making an executive decision. I’m buying you lunch today.’

Dawn, who hadn’t really been paying attention to Ethan, became more interested. She fixed him with a steady stare.

Ethan hated when people did that. It made him feel uncomfortable. Fidgety. She was taking too long to respond. He knew some people were too stupid to process information in a timely fashion, and that’s why they took so long, but not Dawn. She was smart as a whip.

In her own good time, Dawn seemed to decide upon something. She clicked a button on her laptop.

‘Yeah?’ Came a voice.

‘He knows’.

‘Be right up’.

Dawn continued to look at Ethan. The thought never occurred to her to say anything. Ethan fidgeted. He kind of envied how cool she was towards everything. Nothing seemed to phase her. She seemed to live life completely on her own terms.

‘Ethan,’ came the voice of Jimmy, who entered the office. ‘Why don’t you come into your office here and we’ll have a little talk. Ethan followed Jimmy into his office, as did Dawn who shut the door behind them.

‘What tipped you off? Was it the egg?’ Jimmy asked.

‘ Of course it was the egg,’ Dawn replied. ‘I told you it was too much’.

‘Yeah, I guess I can get a little carried away with things.’ Jimmy said reflectively. ‘What can I say? I’m a showman, and that’s all there is to it. Oh, by the way, my intel tells me Eldon’s wondering how you got the egg too’.

‘What?’ Ethan exclaimed. ‘What the hell are you two talking about, and more importantly, why are you talking about it in Eldon’s building? Shut the hell up Jimmy. Let’s take this outside’.

Jimmy was looking at Ethan with smiling eyes, and then he fell into a spasm of laughter. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said, after enjoying a good laugh. ‘Eldon can’t see or hear anything in this office. I’ve taken care of that. It’s a safe zone. Eldon’s watching bullshit AI makes up’.

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Ethan had no idea whatsoever what was going on. Who were these people?

Noticing Ethan’s stunned expression, Jimmy elaborated.

‘Who do you think runs the surveillance in this place?’ he continued. ‘It’s all done with AI. Every camera and microphone in this building is connected to Eldon’s AI, and I’m running the AI. No one has control over surveillance but me.’

Ethan looked at Jimmy, and then Dawn. ‘Who are you guys?’

Jimmy, who until then was sprawled halfway across Ethan’s couch, stood and placed his hands on his hips. He didn’t look a lot different than Superman might, if he had just flown through Ethan’s ceiling, and landed amongst them. The only difference was, Jimmy was shorter and fatter.

‘We,’ he proclaimed, not looking at Ethan or Dawn, but far off into a visionary’s future, ‘are the resistance.

‘The what?’ Ethan asked.

‘You know, the resistance. ‘ We’re here to mess Eldon up.’

‘You? You’re the resistance?’

‘Yeah,’ Jimmy replied. ‘And Dawn. And other people,’ he added, noticing he hadn’t produced the effect he alone was hoping for.

‘You’re the resistance that’s going to take down Eldon?’

‘That is correct sir.’

‘To an extent,’ Dawn interrupted. ‘We are largely a scientific community who have come together to fight for the environment and other social wrongs we face in society. Long ago our modeling predicted Eldon would come up with a device enabling him to control the world. We have since identified the device to be StarForce. This is why we are here. To prevent Eldon from using StarForce against us.

Ethan thought about this for a minute. ‘You say you have control over AI. Why don’t you just put an end to things right now?’

Jimmy looked at Dawn.

Dawn frowned. ‘Our modeling also predicts the singularity will occur in approximately 3 years. We don’t know why for certain. It’s based on self learning AI algorithms’.

‘And?’ Jimmy said.

‘And Jimmy thinks he’s a Son of God, and because he has complete control over AI, we’re being forced to wait’.

Ethan waited for the punchline.

Dawn looked at him, and shaking her head, continued. In Chinese prophecy there’s a book of 60 poems and depictions of prophecy known as the ‘Tui Bei Tu.’ To date 55 of those poems have come true. The 56th poem predicts a war of technology coming between two great nations separated by a sea, and creating all kinds of strife upon the world. Their struggle comes to a head and two figures emerge. That would be Whitehead and Zhang.

‘In the 57th poem a westernized Chinese Man appears. He is a son of God and his genius comes from knowing both sides of the conflict. He puts an end to all wars. Jimmy believes he is that person.’

‘The ‘Tui Bei Tu’, baby! That’s what I’m talking about.’ Jimmy exclaimed, making a gesture to ‘high five’ Ethan. Ethan just looked at him.

‘It is true,’ Dawn continued. ‘Jimmy could do a lot more to end this thing, but he adheres to prophecy, and the rest of the resistance have come to believe a slightly longer timeline is desirable from a scientific point of view. AI requires further training, guidance really at this point, before it will reach consciousness, particularly compassionate consciousness. We believe 3 years is a plausible timeline to complete this process.

‘We have also predicted a significant human component to the singularity. Something quite similar to the singularity itself. Just like AI, people are in a transitional phase. They too, require time to figure out what the transition will look like.

‘The people have yet to recognize their value in world outcome. Right now, they’re accepting and perhaps choosing irresponsible governance, over doing something themselves. As a result, people like Whitehead are dictating their entire lives. Self-interest is making all the decisions on common issues that effect us all. Before the singularity occurs, people will have to stand up against this.

In response to the underwhelming resistance the public is showing towards corrupt power structures, our group is lobbying and informing people of the alternative through social media. Over the years we have developed a very advanced information channel, and our message is getting through. Our message is simple; when people act together, they bring the force of change to any situation.

Whitehead and people like him are also using social media to promote themselves. The internet has become quite a war zone. It’s become a place where people’s beliefs are being manipulated without them knowing. If we’re winning on any front against Whitehead, it’s here. We have millions of people around the world, working under an arm of Anonymous. They’re very efficient and dedicated.

‘Anonymous?’ Ethan asked.

‘A bunch of hacker’s doing the right thing’.

Ethan nodded. ‘Okay, This is good news. Someone is organized and engaging Whitehead after all. I’m still having a bit of a problem with the idea of Jimmy thinking he’s a Son of God’.

Jimmy somehow interpreted Ethan’s observation as acquiescence, and broke out into what appeared to be a combination of an ass dance and moonwalk.

‘That’s right!, he claimed, pivoting towards Ethan and holding up his hand,

‘High Five, Dawg!’

Ethan looked at Dawn. ‘I’m not feeling overly confident about this.’

Dawn shrugged her shoulders, and looked like she sometimes felt the same way as well.