“I have transferred access to you, Kari,” Fai said. She had secured access to a registry in Taiwan while Kari readied the rest of their plan.
“Just in time,” Kari said. She checked their position one last time before deciding they couldn’t wait any longer. “Time to alert our air traffic friends to the fact that their systems should protect against internal denial of service attacks.”
“You’re going to DDOS them from the inside?” David said. “That’s awesome!”
Kari grinned as she unleashed her script. David had asked about the plan a dozen times, but Kari had wanted to save the details for a more dramatic reveal.
Using her access to the Taiwanese air registry, Kari activated her code that immediately began requesting hundreds of thousands of new flights, flight changes, and reroutes each second.
Before they even know what’s happening, hundreds of millions of new records are going to flood their systems. If it doesn’t knock them over completely, they’ll be too busy trying to sort everything out to find the final flight plan change I made to our humble little plane.
Kari monitored the situation closely, until the Taiwan registry collapsed under the load of her flight changes.
Well, that works. By the time everything is up and running again, we’ll be in an auto-auto far away from the airport. They’ll eventually sort everything out and find what country we’re in, but they’ll be hard-pressed to find us from there. It should buy us a couple of weeks, at least.
“I’m showing that their system is down,” Fai said.
“Yup,” Kari said. The plane veered in the air, redirecting to their new destination. “Killed over. One of the oldest tricks in the book.”
“So we’re home free?” David asked.
“Well, we’re not exactly going home . . .” Kari said.
“I don’t know, if your parents live in London and we are going to London, doesn’t that qualify?”
David was proud of himself for figuring out where they were headed, but Kari gave him no satisfaction.
I guess it was obvious. He knew we were going overseas and he knew my parents still lived over here, still successfully hiding from Henderson. It was logical.
She was still slightly disappointed she wasn’t able to make the announcement herself.
“Fai is the only minor here, and they aren’t her parents so, no, I don’t think it technically counts.”
“Speaking of which . . .” David turned his attention from Kari and looked across the plane to where Fai was seated with impeccable posture. “Hello, Fai, I’m David Pratt. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Haven’t we already met?”
“It’s more of a formality,” David said. “You’re not human.”
“No, I am not.”
“Yet, I get the distinct impression that I’m the least intelligent person in this plane. Do you mind explaining that to me?”
“Your statement is dependent on measuring intelligence in a way that would favor my non-human mind. I don’t believe that my increased computational ability makes me more intelligent than you.”
David laughed and looked to Kari while he shook his head.
“Don’t look at me,” Kari said. “All I did was help build her body.”
“Oh my goodness! I’m sorry then, Fai!”
“Why?” Fai asked.
“Kari forgot to give you another arm. She’s brilliant, I promise, but sometimes she misses the little things.”
Kari punched David in the leg harder than she should have.
“Ouch!” David said. “I hope she didn’t teach you any of her violent tendencies.”
Kari punched him again, which sent him rolling off the bench and onto the floor of the plane with a thud.
You’re just lucky you weren’t laying the other direction!
“This version of my body was designed with the proper number of appendages. However, due to the events at the research lab, I was separated from one of my arms by an energy blast.”
Referencing the massacre at the research lab killed the lighthearted mood that had briefly filled the cabin. David cleared his throat and took a seat on the bench next to Kari again.
“That’s right . . .” David said.
Kari didn’t know what to say. She had a hard time thinking about what had happened just a few days earlier, let alone talking about it.
Of everything I’ve faced in my life, that was the worst. By far.
“Well this explains why the League of Humanity attacked the Vision research lab,” David said. “I knew it had to do something with Artificial Intelligence . . . I mean . . . Does that term offend you?”
“Why would that term offend me?” Fai asked.
“Well . . . I don’t know . . . nothing about your intelligence seems artificial. I just didn’t know if there was a different term you liked to use.”
That’s actually a good question. I’d never thought about it that way.
“I don’t have any problems with that term. It seems to be the established and accepted word for describing my species.”
“Cool,” David said.
“I’m glad I haven’t been unintentionally offending you this whole time,” Kari said.
“I assure you both my feelings are not hurt.”
“But there was something that really bothered me about the reports of the attack,” David said.
Aside from the hundreds of innocent people gunned down?
“If the League of Humanity was involved in the shootings, they must have been certain that Vision was working on AI at that location.”
“Christina tipped them off,” Kari said. “It’s the only reason I was asked to be involved in the first place. So they could set me up to take the blame when she killed John.”
“Wow.”
“I would like to interject that I agree with Kari’s analysis of the events,” Fai said.
“That’s . . . heavy,” David said. “But . . . it doesn’t answer my other question. If the League of Humanity was involved, they must have known about AI. And if they were able to shoot your arm off, Fai, they had to have seen actual AI working.”
“And?” Kari asked.
“Well, if that’s all true, when they took credit for the attack why did they not mention anything about there being a real AI? They didn’t mention it all. In fact, all they seemed to say was that anyone working on artificial intelligence would get the same treatment.”
“I don’t know . . .” Kari said. She knew David’s question was significant, but she wasn’t exactly sure why yet. After determining that Christina was behind the attacks, she had tried to put the details out of her mind.
“Furthermore, if they hit Fai with an energy blast that ripped off her arm, that doesn’t fit their profile at all. Those guys are almost medieval in their use of technology.”
“Are you suggesting that it wasn’t the League of Humanity that attacked the lab?” Kari asked.
“Yes!” David said. “I mean, I can’t be sure, but this is exactly the type of thing I’ve been studying. Critical Data Driven Analysis in regards to Public Relations and this feels like a textbook case.”
“Christina maybe ordered them to only talk about certain things?” Kari suggested.
“Those guys wouldn’t work with or trust her. Especially if she admitted she was working on AI. No . . . I don’t think it was them.”
“So what?” Kari said. “Why does it matter?”
“Well, it could be proof to use against her. Remember you’re supposed to be working on clearing your name of this mess? This could be key. Do we have any records of what happened?”
“I have a full recording of my personal experience in relation to my three bodies at the time,” Fai said.
Chapter Thirteen
“Stop it right there!” David said. “Now focus in on that badge on his shoulder.”
Fai followed David’s orders precisely and the recording of the massacre they were watching focused in on the shoulder of the nearest gunman. Replaying the horror again was sickening. David had sworn over and over watching the footage, but Kari had just remained silent, trying not to lose control of herself.
“Great, add that image to the others,” David said. “And let’s keep going.”
The video continued and Kari saw herself and John moving forward as energy blasts shot from the bloodied lobby of the research lab. Seeing herself from Fai’s perspective showed just how emotionally overwhelmed she had been. She couldn’t take it anymore; she disconnected from the session and returned her vision to the plane, which suddenly felt too small.
It had almost been over. Everything.
Kari reached for the closest throw-up bag and held it to her face as she breathed in heavily.
The prison break, fighting Joseth, those had been bad, but at least there was a reason for going through them. This was just senseless murder because of greed.
“Kari?” David asked. “Are you OK?”
“Uh . . .” Talking made her stomach turn again. “Just a little air sick.”
She felt David’s hand rub her back as she tried to calm herself down.
“You are experiencing a mild bout of post-traumatic stress,” Fai said. “Likely triggered by our review of the attack on the research lab. I admit that it has made me uncomfortable as well.”
Thanks, Fai.
“I didn’t think about that . . .” David said as he continued to rub her back. “I should have gone through it alone with Fai.”
“It’s fine,” Kari said. “I’ll be fine.”
“It’s completely OK if you aren’t,” David said. “That was something that no one should ever have to go through. It was horrible, anyone would have long-term effects from going through something like that.”
Slowly Kari’s head stopped spinning and she relaxed the bag from her mouth. Part of her wanted to analyze herself, try to figure out exactly what had triggered her panic so she could learn how to deal with it in the future. But that part wasn’t as motivated as the rest of her that wanted to forget everything about it.
“Did we get anything out of it?” Kari asked, hoping that talking about the results of their study wouldn’t trigger any extra stress.
“I think so,” David said. “Looking at the images of their badges, it doesn’t seem to match with the League of Humanity’s profile. Sure they have the symbol right, but everything is too uniform. All the people had the same printed skull contained inside a heart. But all records of the League of Humanity shows all their members with different personal variations of the same logo.”
“Doesn’t sound like enough to prove anything,” Kari said. Her stomach was calming now as she slowly returned to normal.
“Maybe not,” David said. “But I think it’s a start. If we can prove that the gunmen aren’t the League of Humanity, then it means they have to be someone else. Who else would have motives to attack? I think that is the start of a case against Christina.”
“Well, we’re going to need more than that. In the court of public opinion, Freelancer is guilty many times over,” Kari said.
“Like I said, it’s a start,” David said.
“We do have one other piece,” Fai said.
“What’s that?” Kari asked.
“As you’ve mentioned, surprisingly, my existence has been absent from all reports. For whatever reason, Christina has gone to efforts to ensure that I remain hidden.”
“That is something,” David said. “I think we could get a campaign going around that. Show the world the video, badges, and the fact that Vision has kept Fai secret. We may not get everyone on our side, but enough that there might be a real investigation.”
“I don’t know . . .” Kari said. “I’m not sure Fai is ready for what that might mean.”
“I am prepared, but I am detecting that you have reservations.”
A notification blinked in her mind informing her that they had arrived in London and that all passengers should secure themselves for the landing.
“Let’s think about it,” Kari said. “We should have some time to think things through after we land. Speaking of which, everyone needs to secure themselves.”
“Assuming there isn’t some British enforcement waiting for us,” David said.
“Well, if there is, we can think about our case after we break free again.”
“I can’t find any evidence of abnormal activity at the airport,” Fai said.
“I’ll order us an auto-auto,” Kari said as the plane bumped down on the ground with a barely noticeable jolt. No one had bothered to buckle up. Self-flying planes didn’t make mistakes.
“Can you hand me that throw-up bag?” David said.
“Why? You’re feeling sick now?”
“Of course I am!” David said.
“I don’t observe any—”
“Fai! Quiet. You’re ruining my line. I’ve been waiting for years to say this.”
“Sorry, I did not realize that.”
“Well,” Kari said, feeling vastly improved already. “Let’s hear it.”
“You only meet the parents once,” David said with a grin. “It’s a big moment that I don’t want to mess up!”
Kari couldn’t help but laugh even though she didn’t want to encourage him. Somehow, even though the plan had been to meet up with her parents, she had never thought about the details of having her boyfriend meet her parents for the first time.
“Oh, you’ll be fine,” Kari said. “You haven’t risked their lives or destroyed their beloved manual truck. I’m sure they’ll love you.”