Your output has been way over what we’d hoped. You’re doing a better job than Lisa ever did.”
“Yes.”
“But … well, we had two sponsors cancel today. There was another one who cancelled yesterday. Jacovik vodka was one of them.”
“Yes?”
“They say their sales have dropped. They think it’s because of Travels.”
“Yes?”
“We need you to step up the intensity even more. We need an even higher attention-holding-level.”
“It’s at an insane level now.”
“But they’re matching us, Saul. They’re matching us blow-by-blow. We’ve been analyzing their transmissions –
whenever their Messiah is on-screen, which is seventy-two percent of the time, the screen is entirely computer generated. The intensity level is set using the halo that’s always hanging over his head–-”
“That’s impossible. How are they setting intensity with a halo? You need movement with a precise sonic–-”
“Color pulses. Saul, they use color pulses in carefully designed sequence. The attention never wanders away from the immediate area of the halo. The voice is generated and is full of USFMC propaganda, but as far as we can tell it’s normal. Rich and pleasing, and very warm, but normal. It must be in the color pulses.”
“What is their AHL?”
“It’s matching ours.”
“I see. Okay Liddy, I can have our AHL up to about sixty-five or seventy percent by day after tomorrow.”
“Good,” Liddy said, his haggard face relieved. “Good.” He hung up.
Saul put down the handset and stepped quickly to the pool, easing himself into the hot water. He sighed, loud and long. Then he laughed. Floating in the water, relaxing, smiling at the ceiling – Saul knew why the sponsors were cancelling, why Travels viewers were not buying products. They were so glued to their televisions that they were not going to the stores. Raising it to 70% was insane and useless. Saul thought the situation was hilarious. He was going to do it anyway. It was his job.
29. ANTICHRIST THING
After spending the night in an abandoned house, Wiley and Savina hiked with their heavy packs northwest to an old highway which ran directly north and south. Every once in a while they’d run across a bent, deteriorating sign that read “99”. It had once been green, but only a few flakes were left as evidence. It was mostly rust and bullet holes.
They highway would begin out of nothingness and end the same way, then after a few hundred meters it would begin again. It was a giant dotted line of pavement. Ice plant had taken over this whole region, so that everywhere that wasn’t pavement was ice plant. A wheeled vehicle had recently passed, leaving a trail of crushed plant, and Wiley examined it, judging its width and depth.
“The tires are too wide,” he said. “It wasn’t Aaron.”
“Should we wait for him to catch up, or keep going?” Savina said.
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
“Me? You’re in charge here.”
“Nobody is in charge, Savina. Everyone’s opinion counts.”
Wiley stood staring at her, up to his ankles in the fat bulbous leaves of the ice plant. He was carrying the MSD pack, and Savina could see that even to him it was heavy. “Your judgement has been fine so far, why don’t you make some decisions,” he told her.
Savina felt funny, and she wasn’t sure about how to react.
“How about if we keep going until we reach that underpass, and then wait for him there.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The underpass in the distance was much further away than Savina had thought. It was at least 4 kilometers, and the sun was getting hot. Wiley had thought to bring a canteen, thank god, and they drained most of it on the way. The shade of the underpass was a blessed relief.
They carefully set down their packs and waited. Presently flies began to buzz around Savina, attracted by her sweat. Today was hot even in the shade, and it was still morning. “We’re going to have to find another aqueduct,” Savina said.
Wiley had been dozing. “What?” She repeated herself, and he nodded and said, “There’s a big river that crosses up ahead.”
“How far?”
“About six or seven more kilometers.”
“You’ve got to be kidding! Your canteen is almost empty.”
Wiley laughed. “It’s not like we’re crossing the Sahara.
We’ll be okay if Aaron gets here with the jeep.”
If, Savina thought. He used the word if. She remembered the ominous, floating troop plane sliding darkly past, and Wiley saying something about Aaron engaging the drone. Those are military, she thought. They don’t spray you down with harmless gases. “What if he doesn’t get back?” she said.
“Well, then I guess we have to walk.”
“No, I mean, what if they got him. You said they might kill him.”
Wiley nodded. “They might have. We’re willing to give our lives for what we’re doing, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it.”
I’m here too, she thought. Am I willing to give up my life and my baby’s for what they’re doing? I really don’t even know what they’re doing! “Is it going to be safe at the enclave?”
“As safe as anywhere,” Wiley said.
They waited. After a few hours passed and they were into the afternoon, a figure became visible to the south, a man on foot.
Wiley pulled the spotters out and looked. “It’s Aaron.”
Savina made an expression of relief, and ignoring the heat went trotting out across the ice plants to meet him. Wiley followed, leaving their packs behind. When they reached Aaron they saw that he was hurt, a large nasty burn across his right shoulder and back. “You did it,” Wiley said. “You got into a firefight.”
“Yeah, after all these years I finally saw some action,”
Aaron said.
“Want us to carry you?”
“No, it’s not as bad as it looks. I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn green on us before we make it back to the enclave.”
“You didn’t get the medical pack?”
“No. I was lucky to get away at all. The jeep’s wasted.
Everything’s gone. Did you get him?”
“Yeah, he’s over there in the pack, right there under the shade.”
“Shade looks good.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m okay as long as you’ve got him. Otherwise I’ll drop right here on the spot.” He grinned.
“We’ve got him,” Wiley said.
“I’ve gotta see him.”
They walked through the scorching heat to the relative coolness of the shade under the underpass and Wiley gave Aaron the last of their water. Aaron drank it down in little sips, eyeing the pack full of MSDs. “Can we get him on line?” he asked when the water was gone.
“No,” Wiley said, “we don’t want to risk it while we only have one copy.”
“That’s true,” Aaron said, but looked like he wanted to risk it anyway. He knelt next to the pack, staring at it, and spoke as if there was someone tied up inside. “Hello Mr. Antichrist,” he said, “your friends tried to stop us, but we got you anyway.”
“Antichrist?” Savina said. She looked from one to the other for an explanation.
“Kind of makes us the devil, doesn’t it?” Wiley said. “Aaron and I were the fathers of the thing. We were all for CoGen during the war, before we knew what the war was about. We put our heart and souls into this code, and we created something so evil it scared the hell out of us. But back then it was just a general, a war-monger. Evil, but not the Antichrist. We’re kind of the stepfather, then. Aaron and I just hope to redeem ourselves for what we’ve done.”
“Yeah, there was no way we knew what this thing could grow into,” Aaron said. He had his hand on the pack now, leaning against it. It looked like he was falling asleep. “The Antichrist AI.”
Savina had heard the term, and had seen the graffiti. “What exactly is this, then? The Antichrist AI?”
“Its the false Jesus,” Aaron said, his eyes closed. “JTV used the CoGen AI code to build their Jesus AI … it’s like they fed it the bible and then turned it loose.” He laughed. “Jesus in a box.”
“That’s all it is? JTV’s Jesus simulation?”
“That’s all?” Aaron said. “You don’t understand. It’s evil.
It is the Antichrist.”
Wiley nodded, looking at Savina. “The idiots used CoGen to build their Jesus because it’s already so smart and it’s already self-motivated, but they have no idea why CoGen is like this.
CoGen has motives and goals all its own. Until now it’s only been an advisor to humans. Now JTV has gone and renamed it Jesus Christ, and then put it in a position of ultimate power.”
“People worship it,” Aaron said. “They’ll do whatever it says.”
Savina, finally understanding, looked at the MSDs in horror.
“That’s insane!”
The two men laughed. “Yes,” Wiley said. “It is.”
30. SEDUCTION