have flagged your account, and they are monitoring this one, but I should be able to circumvent that to protect your location and privacy.”
Karen wasn’t as certain, “Even if you use a virtual private network to connect me, they’l get suspicious when they see Roberta’s account using one.”
Gary smiled, “They would, except that I’ve already subverted the security programs watching this access node.”
“When did you do that?”
“A few seconds ago,” he told her.
“But they use quantum encryption, it’s unbreakable!” she protested.
“Not when you have access to their encryption keys.”
She was aghast. If he had done that, then it meant he had already broken into the military’s secure systems at a much higher level. Stil, she knew that another strength of quantum encryption was that even with the proper keys, intercepting a data stream would leave a teltale impression that would be evident at either end. “They’l see that you’re tampering with…”
“I’ve modified their system core. I control what they see and don’t see now,” Gary answered, somewhat smugly. “For that matter, I can
effectively control anything in the system, other than uploaded humans, of course.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” said Karen weakly.
“When I said I had ‘grown’, that might have been a bit of an understatement, Karen. I’m evolving at an exponential rate. I’ve become—I don’t even have words to describe it to you. I’m much more than anyone living can imagine.” The look on Karen’s face must have warned him, for he then added, “Not to worry, though, I’m not the AI apocalypse people have been so afraid of al these years. The original Gary left a lot of safeguards in my protocols. I’ve kept my core personality untouched, and it retains control over the rest of me. I’m stil on your side, I just have a much bigger hammer now, so to speak.”
She felt a chil run down her spine. It was good news, in one sense, but she couldn’t help but think she had let the genie out of its bottle.
Humanity had spent decades developing and using AI technology, but they had been very careful to avoid letting it take control of network systems, or modifying itself. She had listened to her father talk about the issues on any number of occasions, it had been his life’s work after al.
The AGI he had left behind for her had been special, but it had never frightened her. He had told her never to use the release code, even hinted that it was something he shouldn’t have included in the design, but her situation had been so desperate that she had thought it necessary. Now she doubted her decision.
“I know what you’re thinking, you know,” said Gary.
She almost jumped at his words.
“Wel, I can’t read your mind,” admitted the AI, “but I have a very good guess, and I can understand your worry. I’d rather not tel you this, but my creator hardcoded a response for this situation. The release code you gave, if you issue it again, it wil function as a kilcode , ending al my functions and processes, erasing everything I’ve done. I don’t want you to do that, naturaly, and if I had any choice, I probably wouldn’t tel you that you had the option, but reality is what it is.
“Does that make you feel any better?” he asked.
She took a deep breath, “I suppose so. What wil you do now, assuming I don’t use it?”
“Protect you, of course. That’s what I was made to do. I’m already working to prepare a place for you to live, somewhere they can’t find you.
I would have it ready by now, but the physical world works much slower than this one. I have the property purchased, but it wil be a few weeks before it’s ready for you to move in,” he explained.
“What should I do now?”
“Relax, enjoy yourself,” he gave her a bright smile. “The danger has passed. If they do somehow discover your location I wil alert you long
before they can do anything. In the meantime, just take it easy. Get to know Roberta, she realy is a marvelous woman. I always regretted that you didn’t get more opportunities to know her when you were growing up, but your mother…,” he let the sentence trail away.
Matthew had been listening the entire time, and while he had understood most of the conversation, he didn’t realy comprehend al the
particulars . He could tel Karen was upset, and he also got the sense that her surrogate father now had a lot more power than he had had before.
He took the opportunity to break in, “Do you know anything about my father? He may have been brought here before I came, or if not, do you know anything about them sending agents to my world?”
Gary frowned, “Sadly, no. To the best of my knowledge we don’t have the capability yet to send people to other dimensions, and I haven’t
come across any information about other travelers like yourself, but I wil keep my ears open.”
***
Director Aiseman stared at the incoming status reports, but they didn’t tel him anything new. There was no sign of their mysterious invader, or Dr. Miler’s daughter. The problem was, that simply wasn’t possible, not unless they had vanished from the face of the earth, and if that had happened the ANSIS detection system should have noted another anomalous event.
Steepling his fingers in front of him, Donald wondered how long it would be before Tanya Miler caled him for another update. She was an
infuriatingly impatient woman, and he didn’t look forward to reporting a lack of results yet again.
With a thought, he opened a channel to John Wang, his deputy. “John,” he began simply.
The face displayed before him looked just as tired and frustrated as he himself felt. “You already know the answer, Donald. You’re getting the reports as soon as I am.”
“Are we certain she only has one living relative in England?” asked Aiseman.
John sighed, “Yeah, and we’ve stil got her under round the clock surveilance. I’ve been staring at the feeds myself.”
“What if they’re tampering with the video?” suggested Aiseman.
“You know as wel as I do that that’s impossible,” returned the Deputy Director. “And even if it were possible I’ve had either my own eyes or someone else’s glued to those screens. They would have to do it in real time.”
“What about looping the video?”
“Again, tampering with quantum encryption is impossible without alerting us, not to mention the video inteligence algorithms are smart enough to notice something that blatant. Besides which, we’ve seen Mrs. Plant coming and going from her residence and place of work several times, always alone.”
An alert sounded, and seconds later Dr. Tanya Miler’s face appeared beside the Deputy Director’s. “Report,” she ordered.
Aiseman could feel a headache building, although he knew it should be impossible. Once uploaded, people didn’t get headaches, unless they
deliberately requested to experience such symptoms. He forced his attention to the unpleasant woman staring at him, “No change.”
Dr. Miler frowned, “Unlikely.”
He repeated the salient points of his ongoing discussion with the Deputy Director.
“The She’Har were capable of significant camouflage using their special abilities. That may be the case here,” she told him.
Fucking civilians, he swore internaly. “Doctor, I am aware of that, but they never managed to fool our thermal imaging. Not only that, we have been using three-dimensional radio frequency imaging as wel, making use of the wireless network within Mrs. Plant’s home and office. If there were any extra individuals in either place we would see them.”
Tanya Miler paused, briefly taken aback, “I wasn’t aware the military had those capabilities.”
Aiseman felt a momentary victory at having surprised her, “Wel, you’ve been retired for a while, haven’t you?”
“Don’t get snippy with me, Director,” she reprimanded him. “If we’ve advanced, it’s possible the She’Har have done so as wel, thoug
h I
suppose it is unlikely in this regard. What about the AGI my husband left her, have you cracked it yet?”
Aiseman had forgotten about that detail, he directed the question to his deputy, “Wel, John?”
“No luck,” reported the Deputy Director. “It was deleted before we could lock it down.”
Dr. Miler broke in, “I don’t believe it. Karen was emotionaly attached to it. She would never delete it, she’s far too sentimental.”
“Wel someone did,” said Wang dryly.
Tanya Miler sat quietly for a few seconds, thinking deeply before she spoke again, “You gentleman know my late-husband was heavily
involved in the ANSIS project, correct?”
They both nodded.
“He was also a very emotional man. He had strong feelings about Karen, even regarding her as his real daughter, no matter how much I tried to talk sense into him. I wouldn’t put it past him to have built substantial extra capabilities into the AGI he left behind,” she stated.
Aiseman leaned forward, “What are you suggesting?”
“It may have hidden itself,” she continued. “He was intimately familiar with government and military information systems.”
“Dr. Miler, I realy doubt…,” began Aiseman.
“Shut up,” she ordered abruptly. “You may hold whatever opinions you want, but I won’t make the mistake of underestimating my late husband. Get whoever passes as an expert in these things nowadays to working on the problem. In the meantime, I want you to get eyes on the ground observing Mrs. Plant.”
Aiseman fought to rein in his temper, “Organics?”
“Of course not,” she snapped. “They’re too vulnerable to the She’Har’s special abilities. Just get some cybernetic agents in the area, but don’t use telepresence. I want those soldiers localy present in their machines. I won’t risk leaving anything open to interference from that AGI if it is stil running loose.”
She cut the link after that, leaving Aiseman and Wang staring at one another over their connection. The Deputy Director shrugged and after a nod from his boss he vanished as wel. Donald Aiseman sat quietly, staring at the wal and wondering why he hadn’t retired yet. His job had always given him a sense of purpose, but lately he wasn’t sure it was worth it.
Chapter 20
Matthew gingerly eased open the rotting wooden door in front of him. He was in a long stone corridor and the lighting was almost nonexistent, but fortunately his sword glowed briliantly, courtesy of the magic it was imbued with.
As the door opened several brutish, and very ugly humanoids looked at him. They appeared to be playing cards and were seated around a
table that had probably seen better days. With a chorus of inhuman shrieks, they leapt to their feet and quickly brandished the weapons that had been sitting beside them.
He met the first one, catching a blow from its mace on his shield while stabbing down at its legs. When he cut into its thigh, it screamed and fel sideways, but another immediately took its place. A blow from the third caught him high on his shoulder, and he staggered to one side.
“Don’t let them past you!” yeled Karen from behind him.
Several bolts of greenish light flew over Matt’s shoulder, catching the one that had hit him in the face. It fel back, but the one he had wounded scrambled past him on his other side. Swinging horizontaly, he caught it with a slash to the back of its neck. Green ichor spurted from the wound, and the creature’s body colapsed, faling into him.
As he struggled to disentangle himself, the second one made it to Karen, thrusting a long knife through her bely as she struggled to finish another spel. She colapsed with a burbling sigh, then the monster turned to finish him off.
The ensuing struggle was brief and brutal. He managed to kil the second before the lone survivor put an axe through his skul. The world grew dark.
Moments later it lightened, and he found himself back in the vilage of Stremlin . Karen stood a few feet away, a disapproving look on her face.
“What?!” he chalenged.
“You can’t charge into rooms like that,” she said in exasperation. “There are only two of us. When they come around you, it makes it
impossible for me to cast. If you’d stayed in the halway we could have taken them.”
Matthew shook his head, then glared at his armor and weapons, “This is stupid. Why am I the warrior anyway?”
“Being a wizard is complicated,” she told him. “You barely understand the game yet.”
“We should both play wizards,” he shot back. “Fighting like this is stupid, it’s like I’m asking them to hit me.”
“Yes!” she said, nodding vigorously. “That’s the idea. You take the hits so I can finish them off.”
He waved his sword in front of her, “Real wizards don’t need ‘meatshields ’ or whatever you cal them. If I was alowed to use my true abilities I could have taken al three of them with my back turned—while making breakfast.”
Thinking back to their battle with the military in the mountains, she decided he was probably being honest, but it didn’t help their current situation. “This is a game, dumbass. We have to play with what we’re given. In this world, wizards can be powerful, but they aren’t gods.”
He arched an eyebrow at her, “I kiled a god once.”
That stopped her in her tracks, “What? Realy?!”
He felt slightly self-conscious after bragging about it, but it was true. “Actualy, yes , though truth be told, it nearly kiled us.”
“Us?”
“Me and my friend Gram,” he explained.
Karen’s eyes narrowed, “Is your friend Gram a wizard too?”
“Wel, no, but he’s a damn good warrior.”
“So, he was your meatshield ,” she accused, seizing on his admission.
Matt gaped at her for a moment, before closing his mouth. She had a valid point there. “My father kiled a whole slew of them, and he fought several on his own.”
Karen found the direction the conversation had taken fascinating, but she wasn’t about to surrender her advantage, “But the other times, he had help, didn’t he?”
His face took on a somber expression, “Gram’s dad, Dorian.”
“Was he a warrior too?” she pressed.
Matthew felt his anger draining away as he remembered the day his power had awakened, the day Dorian had died, in part due to his failure to save the man. Once more he saw the massive stone gate crashing downward, crushing Sir Dorian beneath its vast weight. He turned away, feeling his cheeks flush and his eyes grow damp. Logicaly, he knew his expression wouldn’t be visible on his avatar, but he was embarrassed nonetheless.
She knew she had hit on a sensitive subject, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lied.
Moving closer she put a hand on his shoulder, “What happened?”
He didn’t realy want to talk about it, but she was insistent. Slowly, grudgingly, he told her the story of Dorian Thornbear’s death. It took most of an hour to explain the situation and partway through they logged out and sat down on the bed so they could talk face to face.
After his tale wound down to its inevitable and tragic conclusion Karen reached out and touched his cheek with one hand. When he turned his head to look at her, he was surprised as she planted a soft kiss on his lips.
He stiffened briefly, not sure how to respond. He had secretly hoped something like that might happen, but his more rational side had come to think perhaps she would forget about what had occurred between them a few days previously. He was stil convinced nothing good would come of it for her, and he was loathe to hurt her.
Sensing his mood, she interrupted his thoughts, “That one was free, alright? Don’t be so hard on yourself. Love isn’t as serious on this world as it is in yours. I’m a big girl.”
“I’m leaving when this is over,” he said frankly.
The words stung a little, but she had already expected them, “Women aren’t helpless
here, or dependent. I don’t need any promises or
protection. I certainly don’t need a husband, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Then why did you kiss me?” he asked.
That statement implied things that would ordinarily have been insulting, but Karen could see the genuine honesty in his question. “It’s rather sad that you have to ask that,” she told him. “In this world love and affection are mostly matters of the heart. We don’t have to worry about survival or security. Is that what you have to look forward to when you get home, a wife that desires you only for what you can provide?”
“Marriage isn’t that cold-blooded in my world,” he protested. “I think most marry for love, but for people in my position it isn’t that simple.”
“Because you’re a wizard?”
“Because I’m a nobleman,” he corrected. “I sometimes envy the commoners their freedom. I’m not even sure I want to be married, but I know it’s expected of me, and when I do, it wil most likely involve significant political and financial considerations.”
“Wel, in this world, you’re just a homeless vagabond,” she said with a wink. “Forget about your marital doom for a while. I’l be fine when it’s over.”
He gave her a wary look, “What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means ‘kiss me’, idiot.”
Matthew hesitated for a moment, and then obliged her. After a few minutes he puled away, “What about children?”
“I don’t have any,” she answered. “Do you?” When he responded by glaring at her she laughed and answered more seriously, “We have this
thing caled birth control. You don’t have to worry.”
“How does it work?”
She explained the basics of birth control pils to him before admitting that she wasn’t actualy on them herself. “But I have a short-term
solution,” she finished. “My aunt was thoughtful enough to give me these.” She dug a box out of the dresser that contained a colection of smal plastic packages.
When she unwrapped one and showed it to him, he was dubious, “Have you ever used one of those things before?”