There was no doubt in Logan’s mind that Jody had become more powerful in the years since the collapse. Not only in its speed and reasoning abilities, but the AI had developed its own personality and sense of humor as well. It was apparent that it had achieved a humanlike sapience, and what worried him about it was Jody’s newfound independence.
Logan took his seat behind the monitor in the control room. The dogs had followed him in. Magic lay down on the floor and stretched out for a nap. Juno sat on his haunches by Logan’s feet, looking up at him expectantly, tail gently smacking the floor.
He reached into an overhead cabinet and found two of Harmony’s homemade dog biscuits. He fed one to Juno. Magic was roused by the younger dog’s joyful crunching, and she raised her head and gazed at Logan. He tossed her the second biscuit, and she caught it in mid-air.
He clicked on Jody and set his Intelliphone on the tabletop. “I have a phone line open to Aurelio Zaragoza. They have generators set up at the treatment plant. The server is powered up and ready to be activated.”
“I’ll attempt to hack in.” Jody went to work, and after less than a minute passed: “I’m in.”
“The plant’s website domain is still active?”
“No, the plant’s electronics have a link to the mainline, so I went in through the New Cali water supply network.”
“Oh. I was wondering how you’d pull it off.” Logan turned on the Intelliphone speaker and addressed Zaragoza: “Jody just activated the equipment.”
“Yes, I see,” he replied. “The control panel lights have come on.”
“We’ll proceed with opening the branch line and activate the pumping stations if you’re ready.”
“Sí, señor. Bring it on.”
A few moments passed and Jody said: “The Phoenix branch line valve is open at the Havasu diversion station and the pumping apparatus activated.”
“The branch line is two hundred miles long, so it’ll take about a day and a half for the initial flow to arrive,” added Logan.
“I’ll have people standing watch at all times, so we’ll be ready,” responded Zaragoza
“Excellent.”
“I’ll talk to you again soon, Logan.” Zaragoza clicked off.
□□□
The resourceful Mexicans found a storage yard loaded with abandoned tankers and after some hot wiring and mechanical work, they began moving water from the treatment plant to Los Ríos Gemelos. It was no longer necessary for Logan’s crew to haul agua to the settlement, but he’d still need to collect payment from Cortes, so they’d travel out there once a month.
Three weeks after Jody opened the branch line, Logan and Myles set out for the settlement in the echo-pulse cruiser. Lyric and Cribley accompanied them on their bikes. They could travel much faster without the trucks and as a result, it was a more relaxed journey with time for recreation. Cribley’s hostile attitude towards Lyric was in the past now. They were becoming friends and having fun along the way, racing and jumping their high-performance cycles.
When they reached Los Ríos Gemelos, Logan met with Cortes privately in his office.
“The additional water has helped us with our plans.”
“Glad to hear it, Leandro.”
“Have you found a new customer for your deliveries?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I have a proposal for you, mi amigo.” Leandro lit a cigar and continued: “We’ve started work on a new base of operations near the Havasu diversion station. It’s a strategic location, because it’s partway between here and New Cali, and we’re in need of water.”
“That’s 150 miles from the Big Abandonado. We could do a round trip in one day.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“How big will the new settlement be?”
“It’ll be more of a camp than a town. A military depot with a training center for new recruits. We tried drilling boreholes but were unable to come up with groundwater, so we’ll be dependent on an outside source. We can set up quite a bit of storage but won’t need full 200,000-gallon deliveries at first.”
“We’ll bring you custom orders then. How ever much you need.”
“Perfect. Our alliance is invaluable, Logan, and I predict it will lead to prosperity for all in the future.”
□□□
Aurelio Zaragoza stood on a rocky point above the new military base with a pair of binoculars. He could see the Havasu diversion station clearly and follow both the route of the mainline and the Phoenix branch line for several miles. A strategic location indeed. It put them much closer to New Cali, within striking distance.
They’d build a watchtower on the high point, and post sentries in eight-hour shifts. If any unknown actors approached the diversion station, an alert would be sounded, and the perpetrators dealt with swiftly. He’d come up with a wind resistant design and start work on the structure as soon as possible.
The new base, Campamento Avanzado, was hidden behind the rocky ridge he stood upon. It could not be seen from the pipelines. Below him, on the concealed flat, soldiers were busy erecting modular tents. The temporary structures had rigid walls and canvas floors. Plenty strong for the elements and they could be quickly disassembled and moved.
It was a rugged desert environment with gritty soil and bare rock mountain ranges rising up in the near distance. No natural shade in sight, but the sturdy modular tents would give them adequate shelter.
Other soldiers were installing a row of high-capacity water tanks. Soon Zaragoza would call Logan and ask him to make a delivery. Myles had said he’d sell them food products as well. Conducting business with the pair would be instrumental to the success of their ultimate mission.
As he walked back down the steep trail, he watched his drill sergeants, Rivera and Rojas, as they led a group of fresh recruits through an exercise regime. Beyond them, a line of jeeps and ATVs were parked in the tortilla-colored dust. The surreptitious army grew larger and stronger by the day.
The cost of the venture was administered by Cortes, and Zaragoza had no idea how much had already been spent. The Comisario said not to worry, that his investors had deep pockets and knew they would be rewarded in the end. And more recruits were streaming in from Mexico daily.
□□□
It wasn’t Tiffany Fahlgren’s resume that landed her the position as Benton Alshami’s executive assistant. Though she did have a degree in business administration, a high school dropout could have done her job. Because everything in New Cali was automated. It was her good looks that nailed it.
Tiffany’s boss was a member of the Melrose Committee and the city government’s Chief Financial Officer. He owned the penthouse level of the 99-story Helios Arcology, the most prominent structure in the ultra-wealthy hills north of downtown. The building was one of the tallest in New Cali, and had an immense horizontal footprint as well, over one million square feet. The finish floors on the penthouse level were crafted from imported marble. The eight-foot-tall doors were three-inch-thick bird’s eye maple, and the walls and ceilings paneled in a variety of expensive hardwoods.
With an increased base elevation and 99 stories, the top floors of the building were often higher than the peak of the omnipresent smog cloud, and it created a dreamlike perspective. On some days, Tiffany had a sunny, blue-sky view from her desk. She seemed to be floating above the dense cloud of yellowish-brown crud beneath her. Until she took the elevator to the parking garage and descended back into the toxic miasma.
She sat in her penthouse level office, bored out of her mind. She’d already spent an excessive amount of time on her social media site, painted her toenails tangerine, and listened to enough loud dance music to give her a headache. She had to spend at least a few hours in the office every day to justify receipt of her oversized paycheck, but the automated system did all the work, so what could she do next?
She checked Alshami’s business email and found a statement from the Tianlong Industrial Corporation, the company that owned the desalination plants in the Zhonghua Pacific Terminal. Though the bookkeeping was handled by an automated accounting program, the officious Chinese still sent text invoices that Tiffany normally discarded unread. In her boredom, she opened the email and skimmed it. She was about to click delete but stopped when she reached the bottom line and read the amount billed. Damn, New Cali is spending that much on water every month? That’s a lot of money!
Tiffany decided to compare it to past months to see if there had been a change. She opened the automated accounting program and found the volume of water delivered had increased in the past few months. It was a substantial escalation. Why was New Cali using more water? The population of the city was in freefall because of the widespread use of humanoid replicants. Had the inflow from natural sources declined? Something wasn’t adding up.
She tried to access the water supply program in the NMS to research the issue but was stopped cold with an access denied message. Did she need security clearance?
Tiffany called Wesley Fazzino, a New Cali city government IT expert. She knew him socially from a local nightspot. “Hi Wes, I have a question to ask you.”
“Shoot, Tiff.”
“I tried to access the water supply program in the NMS but I’m getting an access denied message. Do I need an additional security clearance?”
“You shouldn’t…Let me try and see what happens.”
“Okay.”
A few moments passed and he came back on. “That’s odd, I’m getting the same message. Let me see if my tech specialist override breaks the ice.” Tiffany could hear him working on his keyboard in the background and then: “It won’t let me in. The system is blocking access to water supply on a universal basis.”
“How come?”
“I don’t know but hold on. I might be able to get to the back end through the FTP program.” She heard more rapid keyboard work, then: “Same thing. The administrator has an impenetrable barrier in place.”
“Who’s the administrator?”
“It’s automated. There’s almost no human interaction with the NMS beyond operators such as us.”
“So, the program itself won’t let anyone in? That seems weird. Why would a computer program shut off authorized access?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Could it be some type of rogue AI?”
After a few moments of silence, Fazzino replied: “I’ll look into it and get back to you.”
□□□
Fazzino was perplexed. When he attempted to investigate the apparent glitch, he hit a brick wall. He successfully visited several other sections of the NMS and was able to navigate through the sites normally, but when he returned to the water supply program, he encountered the same access denied message. He couldn’t get near it.
He located the software for an advanced anti-virus program, designed for situations where a hacker has invaded a system and denied access to legitimate operators. He loaded the disc in his processor and attempted to upload the software to the NMS general directory. But when he clicked on it, he lost his connection. An error message came up on the screen that simply said: Prohibited Action.
Fazzino’s bewilderment turned to alarm. He activated his personal laptop, a powerful, close to new machine. He carefully logged onto the system with his official credentials and went through the two-step authentication. After successfully accessing the Network Management System, he once again attempted to upload the advanced anti-virus program to the general directory, but he hit the same roadblock. He lost his connection to the NMS, and the same prohibited action error message appeared on the laptop’s screen.
Fazzino called his supervisor, Cheryl Toohill. A New Cali executive administrator, she knew little about computer science beyond pointing and clicking on her social media account. She’d acquired her position through personal connections. Fazzino attempted to explain the problem to her, and when he was through, she said: “So, what are you trying to tell me, Wesley? There’s some type of bug in the city network?”
“This appears to be more serious than a simple bug, Ms. Toohill.”
“Then what is it? What’s going on?”
“It looks to me like a malicious hacker infiltrated the NMS and has gained control of administrative actions.”
“A malicious hacker?” she said with disbelief. “It’s a secure system.”
“No system is 100% secure, no matter how many firewalls are in place. There’s always a chance that a system as big as ours can be compromised. Though the probability may be extremely small.”
“And how much damage can a hacker do?”
“I’m not sure. As I explained to you, it’s blocking me out. I can’t analyze the system because it won’t let me near any administrative functions.”
“So, now what?”
“I’d like to contact the police department’s cyber-crimes unit, but I need your authorization to make the call.”
“All right, make the call, but we need to keep knowledge of the problem low profile. Impress that upon the police department, please. I don’t want to start a panic.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
□□□
It was another humdrum day for Nic Brooner. He sat at his desk with the drapes closed and all the lights on. The smog was so bad, it blocked a significant portion of the natural sunlight. He’d turned on his headlights to make it downtown.
Brooner was disgusted by big fat Heigle. He’d spent significant time and resources on two investigations and been shot down on both. Mostly because they were unauthorized, and he’d been operating outside the lines. So now he was back to the mundane. Interviewing shoplifters and driving under the influence suspects before they went to their bail hearings. The Tommy Cops made the arrests, and Brooner shuffled the paperwork.
The desk phone rang. He checked his caller ID and saw it was Fujikawa. “Morning, Art.”
“Hey there, Nic. I have something important to talk to you about and want to buy you lunch.”
“Sounds great. I could use a break from the tomb.”
“I thought we could go to that same sandwich shop.”
“Let’s do it.”
Fujikawa came by his office at noon. They took the elevator to the parking garage. Fujikawa offered to drive, but he commuted in a small personal car, so Brooner insisted on taking the big V-8 roller with his department supplied gas card.
They reached the sandwich shop and placed their orders at the front counter. Taking seats at a quiet table near the back, they made small talk until the Fast-Food Herbie rolled out of the kitchen with their orders. Brooner had a turkey sub, and Fujikawa’s sandwich was another ham and Swiss on rye.
“You have something important to talk to me about?” said Brooner.
“Yeah,” replied Fujikawa. He looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation before he proceeded. “I’m going to let you in on some confidential information, but I need your word that you’ll keep it to yourself.”
“Of course. What’s going on, Art?”
“In your water diversion investigation, you asked me if it was possible for a hacker to alter data in the NMS.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Well, I received a call from an IT man in the city administration, Wesley Fazzino.” He paused to take another bite of his sandwich and nodded in appreciation. Then he continued: “Fazzino discovered a problem in the NMS after Benton Alshami’s assistant told him she couldn’t access the water supply system. She was getting an access denied message. When he looked into it, he found the automated administrator has a universal block in place, meaning no one can get in.”
Brooner’s eyes lit up. “Water supply, eh Art?”
“Uh huh. And that’s not all. When he tried to upload an anti-virus program to the general directory, the NMS killed his connection and left a prohibited action message on the screen.”
“Sounds like a hacker. Am I right?”
“Yes. I ran several tests after I received the call and it doesn’t look good. It appears an outside entity has infiltrated the NMS and taken control of at least some of the automated administrators.”
“What happens now?”
“I’ve launched an official investigation according to department policy. Once it’s completed, I’ll submit it to my superior for review.”
“You have to jump through the hoops while the hacker stays in business?”
“Same department protocol that you need to navigate, Nic. It’s not like I’m in hot pursuit of an armed robber. But this is far more serious than a violent felony. If a malicious hacker is as deeply embedded as it appears, we’ll have a hell of a time recovering the system. All the hardware will need to be sanitized and reprogrammed.”
“How long will that take?”
“Unknown. Could be months.”
Both men remained silent and deep in thought as they continued eating. Finally, Brooner said: “If someone had listened to me, maybe the hacker wouldn’t have gone as far.”
“Good point. But you know, when Heigle called me, I had to give him accurate information. A hacker infiltrating a system as big as ours is no easy feat. It’s more than the exception to the rule, it’s close to impossible, and that’s what I told the Captain.”
“You were playing by the rules, I get that, but the drone surveillance video at the treatment plant, Art. And I flew into the canyon with Alice Voto, and the temperature of the branch line indicated water was flowing through it.”
“I know it. And here’s more: Alshami’s assistant wanted to check the water supply section because she discovered an increase in billing from the desalination plants. The NMS has been buying more water from the Chinese.”
“That proves it then. I’ve been right all along. We need more water from the Chinese to cover what Writt and Deloof are stealing. The story Suzy Hongo gave me in the lock-up was the truth.”
□□□
Brooner was incensed. He almost went upstairs to confront Heigle but thought better of it. Like Fujikawa, he couldn’t afford to lose his job, because new ones weren’t that easy to come by. But he’d discovered a serious crime, on his own, and the captain had thrown him out. That’s what had him so ticked off.
There was still one piece of missing evidence that would prove his case beyond a shadow of a doubt. He’d never made it inside the diversion station to shoot video. Fujikawa said the mimic panel inside would be lit up in green if the branch line was active.
Brooner came up with a new plan. He climbed in his roller and headed east. The traffic was a nightmare as usual. Tommy Cops swarmed the crowded boulevards and on almost every block, they had another car pulled over with their ticket books out. That’s why the traffic was moving so slow.
When he reached the Chrome Pagoda, he parked on a side street and walked to the door. Inside, the place was close to empty except for a handful of hard drinkers. Flame Belloni stood behind the main bar and smiled when she saw him come in. “Brooner,” she said as he took a seat. “What’ll you have?”
He pointed towards the beer bottles chilling on ice in a tub behind the bar. “Let me have one of those cold longnecks.”
“Drinking on the job?” She opened one of the bottles and set it down on a disposable coaster in front of him.
“I think I can trust you not to tell.” He fished a large denomination bill out of his wallet and slid it across the bar. “Keep the change.”
“Thanks, Brooner.” She stuffed the big bill in the front pocket of her tight jeans. “Here to see Eddie?”
“Yep. You wanna let him know?”
She picked up a landline receiver, keyed a couple of numbers, and covered her mouth with her hand as she spoke. Then she set the receiver down in the cradle and addressed Brooner. “Kenny Xian will take you back.” It was a familiar routine.
Before long, he was sitting in Eddie Chao’s windowless office, face to face with the Dai Lo. Kenny Xian stood behind his chair. Xian was a black belt in Taekwondo and could swiftly crush anyone who made a hostile move towards the boss. But Brooner and Chao were friends, though you couldn’t always tell from their conversations.
“So, what the fuck, Brooner?”
“What do you mean what the fuck, Eddie?”
“I mean, what the fuck happened to my replicant? The last time you were here, I gave you a freshly refurbished robot, and it showed up back here with its memory scrubbed.”
“Someone took offense to its stupidity I guess Eddie. Maybe your tech man’s not as sharp as you think.”
“Yeah, well, no physical damage so it wasn’t that big a problem. Everything came out okay. What are you doing out here this time?”
“That password breaker you sold me didn’t work for dogshit.”
“Did I give you a warranty, Brooner? Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”
“But I wasn’t able to finish the job, so this time I need a couple of goons. Live humans, not replicants.”
“What’s the job?”
“Break into a vacant building and shoot sixty seconds of video.”
“Sounds like a job for a robot.”
“Not this time. It’s a remote location and I don’t need another replicant screwing things up.”
“Live men cost money. What’s in it for me?”
“Give me two men and I’ll make sure no Tommy Cops come within a hundred yards of the Chrome Pagoda for six months.”
“Make it two hundred yards and a year.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Eddie.”
“Nothing comes easy.”
“Yeah, okay. But no losers. I need a couple of sharp hombres.”
□□□
Brooner called Alice Voto and explained the mission. He wanted her to fly into Boulder Canyon again and this time he was planning on breaking into the diversion station.
“Sounds awfully risky, Nic.”
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
“But if you’re breaking into the building, I can’t take the chance of having my bird identified at the scene. Zach and I still do business in New Cali.”
“Could you land somewhere other than the helipad at the diversion station?”
She thought about it for a few moments and then said: “Yeah, there’s a bigger pad, close to the old dam site. It’s a better spot, but it’s probably a mile and a half to the station.”
“We’ll hike in then.”
“How many in your crew?”
“Me and two others.”
“I’ll do it, but you’ll owe me big time.”
“No sweat, Alice.”
He met Joey Shen and Flavio Di Trolio at the Chrome Pagoda. Di Trolio complained about the early hour and said he’d yet to eat breakfast, so Brooner stopped at a dive restaurant on the way out of town.
It was a long drive to the Voto compound, and Di Trolio fell asleep in the backseat and began snoring loudly. Helluva hitman thought Brooner. He tried to make conversation with Shen, but it didn’t go far, because he only spoke so much English and Brooner didn’t speak Chinese, so he tuned the radio to a talk station and turned up the volume instead.
After arriving at the Voto compound, they boarded the helicopter and set out for Boulder Canyon. Two hours later, Alice was landing the aircraft on the pad she’d mentioned. It was within sight of the demolished dam, and from there, it was about a mile and a half hike to the diversion station.
Voto stayed with the aircraft while Brooner followed the mainline upstream with Di Trolio and Shen.
“Any snakes out here?” Di Trolio said as they walked.
“Rattlers,” responded Brooner. “But it’s rare to see one.”
“All I need is to get bit by a fucking rattlesnake.”
“Just watch your step then.”
“What happens if I get bit?”
“If it’s a Mohave Green, you’ll probably die.”
“Holy shit!” said Di Trolio and he began cautiously tip toeing down the trail. “What did Eddie get me into this time!” He was overweight and perspiring profusely.
Shen was unafraid and in the lead, carrying one of the disposable water bottles Brooner had handed out. He had a slight build and was in better shape than the Italian. There were ocassional rough spots on the winding trail but most of it was level.
Brooner carried a lightweight backpack. When they were within sight of the diversion station, he stopped and pulled it off. He opened the pack and pulled out a plastic container. Inside was a mound of moldable C-4 explosive and a blasting cap with a length of fuse attached.
“Okay, Joey,” he said to Shen, “when you get to the door, press the C-4 onto the metal that the latch is made out of. Spread it out, it’ll stick—”
“What happens if the shit goes off when he’s messing with it?” said Di Trolio, interrupting Brooner.
“It won’t. It needs to be ignited with the blasting cap.” Brooner showed the cap to Shen. “Once the C-4 is in place, press the blasting cap into it and let the fuse dangle. Then when you’re ready, ignite the fuse with this lighter—”
“And run like a motherfucker,” said Di Trolio.
“It’ll take about 60 seconds to reach the cap, so you’ll have plenty of time to take cover.”
“Got it, Nic,” said Shen. “No problem.”
“Flavio,” said Brooner. He handed him a compact video camera. “Once the door is blown open, use this camera to shoot video inside the station. Sweep the interior and make sure to get a good close-up of the mimic panel. It’ll be lit up with green LEDs. We need to see the green lights.”
“Easy enough,” said Di Trolio. “Take video of the green lights.”
“Yup and sweep the whole interior. Shoot it all. Get it done and hightail it back here.”
“And what do you do?”
“I’m staying right here. I need to stay in touch with Alice in the chopper.” That’s what Brooner said, but in truth he didn’t want to risk being picked up by a surveillance camera. Because Shen and Di Trolio were about to commit felony breaking and entering.
Shen and Di Trolio walked towards the station. Brooner took cover behind a waist high boulder, squatting down and peering over the top. It was about a hundred yards to the building.
When they reached the station, Shen went to the door and began carefully applying the mound of C-4 to the latch hardware. Di Trolio stopped short and cautiously watched him work from a distance.
Without warning, an attack drone appeared. It had taken off from a nearby hiding place. Brooner was stunned. It was a fast drone, and it made a beeline for Shen. When it arrived at the door, it ejected a swarm of nanobots. They penetrated his body quickly, and he was devoured by the rapidly expanding cloud.
Di Trolio turned away from the building and began running towards Brooner, but he stumbled on a rock and fell to the ground. The drone soared towards him and when it reached his location, it ejected a new swarm of killer nanobots. Within fifteen seconds, his entire body had disintegrated into ash.
Brooner took off, running towards the chopper. At first, he didn’t know if the drone had spotted him too, but after a few minutes of sprinting, he realized he was in the clear. He pulled his Intelliphone out of his pocket and keyed Alice’s number. “Alice,” he said, struggling to catch his breath. “I ran into a problem.”
“What is it?”
“An attack drone. It hit Shen and Di Trolio with bot swarms.”
“Are they down?”
“Uh huh. Disintegrated. Nothing left of either one.”
“Can you make it back?”
“Yeah, I don’t think it spotted me…I’m on my way. Light up the bird, I’ll be there in no time.”
Brooner sprinted towards the helipad. When he arrived, he climbed in the front passenger seat and soon as he had his seat belt fastened, Voto took off. She gained altitude rapidly.
Once they cleared the canyon rim, Voto turned towards Brooner. “Are you going to report the homicides?”
“I can’t, Alice. It was an unauthorized mission. I hired two felons to break into city property.”
“Who owns the attack drone?”
“The same crew stealing the water. Who else could it be?”
“I pray to God no one connects my aircraft to the scene of the crime.”
“There’s no evidence, so don’t worry about it. Both of them were vaporized and you did nothing wrong.”
Brooner had failed again. He’d taken a chance with a rogue operation and lost out. His biggest concern now was how he’d explain Shen and Di Trolio’s deaths to Eddie Chao.
To be continued…