The Long Road (Surviving the Fall 6)

Dr. Evans shrugged. “Hard to say for certain but based on how much they love collecting data I bet they have—well, had—some pretty wild learning algorithms.”

“Hey, guys?” Jane interrupted again. “Can I get some English words thrown in here and there?”

Dr. Evans looked over at Jane as Rick responded. “A learning algorithm would be like a computer that can learn from what it sees. You input data and it learns and adjusts itself based on that data.” Rick looked back at Dr. Evans. “The stuff we had in the private sector was truly wild. I shudder to imagine what the feds have had locked away.”

“That’s what I think happened.” Dr. Evans shifted in his seat to address both Rick and Jane at the same time. “I think they took our base and then integrated their advanced learning machine algorithms and pointed them at every computer system they could.”

“And thus Damocles was born.”

“Maybe.” Dr. Evans shrugged. “I’m not sure it was that fast, though. I think that perhaps they started with the intent to use it as a spying technique. A way to infiltrate systems quickly and covertly no matter what those systems were built on. Then someone recognized other potentials and weaponized it.”

“I’m going to guess that a few folks have tried shutting it down to no avail, eh?”

Dr. Evans nodded solemnly. “The version that was let loose was—and I’m not being hyperbolic here—the worst, most dangerous version of the program imaginable. There were no restrictions placed on it whatsoever.”

“Why would they even have something like that in their system? And who would steal it and let it loose?”

“They were probably running testing simulations. Whoever let it be exposed to a networked system in that state—or any other, quite frankly—needs to be shot in the head if they’re still alive.” Dr. Evans reached into his satchel, pulled out a metal water bottle and took a long drink. “As to who would steal it I doubt we’ll ever know. A foreign government? A teenager with too much time on their hands? Or maybe the software jumped out on its own. That doesn’t really matter anymore, though. What matters is stopping it.”

“Why? It seems like things have kind of slowed down here lately, right?” Jane glanced between the two men as she looked for a confirmation.

“That,” Dr. Evans said as he nervously cleaned his glasses again, “is precisely what worries me so much at this particular moment in time.”

“Why is that?” Rick had a feeling that he wouldn’t like Dr. Evans’ answer and he was correct.

“Damocles, from the start, was built to slowly ramp up its attempts to assimilate within a system in a steadily increasing fashion. When I was on Air Force One I was given all the data they had on the changes to Damocles and I’m afraid that design characteristic was significantly increased and improved upon.”

“So the virus ramps up its attacks? Is that what you mean?”

“More than that. Each new level of attack seems to bring something else. It’s designed to disrupt key parts of a particular target on a vast range of scales. It could be used to attack a company or a country. Damocles scales based on what’s required to complete its tasks at hand. On a country scale—like we see right now—it’s going after key sectors of the economy and infrastructure, like with the vehicles and phone networks and drilling operations. The stock market was one of the first things to get hit.” Dr. Evans wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. His face was red from talking so quickly and passionately and he sat back in his chair to take a few deep breaths.

“So this little lull here probably isn’t a lull?”

“I doubt it very much. You’ll notice that we aren’t at nuclear war. Yet. I suspect measures that extreme were left as a measure of last resort to be executed only when all other measures had been carried out. Given this lull, though, it may be that Damocles is evaluating what to do next and deciding whether or not those final measures should be executed.”

“Dr. Evans,” Jane interjected, “you make this thing sound like it’s alive. Like a robot or something.”

“No, no, no.” Dr. Evans shook his head firmly. “It’s most certainly not sentient, if that’s what you’re implying. We’re decades or more away from anything of that nature. No, Damocles is an extremely sophisticated piece of software with a huge number of choices it can make based on an equally large number of inputs it takes in. It’s complicated beyond belief but it has no thoughts of its own. It is following its directives to the letter.”

“That’s good.” Rick sighed. “But still doesn’t help us very much.”

“I know. When I was on Air Force One I was in the beginning stages of figuring out some potential solutions to shutting Damocles down in a way that wouldn’t require frying every computer on the planet. The inability to communicate with anyone else who is informed on the topic and the crash both hampered my work.”

Rick saw where Dr. Evans was going and nodded. “Let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”

Chapter 8

Outside Ellisville, VA

“Are you sure they’ll be okay?” Dianne found herself asking Jason the same question for the fourth time as they drove down the dirt road. She hadn’t expected to feel so nervous about leaving her children at the house for half the day but as they headed out she had felt a twinge of pain in her heart for doing what she felt like was abandoning them.

“D. Come on now.” Jason kept his eyes on the road as he talked. “You’ve done a hell of a job training Mark and I’m pretty sure Jacob could handle himself in a pinch, too. Sarah’s a better shot than I am. They’ll all be fine for the day. I promise.”

Dianne snorted and laughed. “I hope she’s a better shot than you. Otherwise it’d be her I’d have to worry about, not the gang.”

“Hey now, just give me a place to sit or lie down and watch me go to work. I’ll be able to handle myself just fine.”

“I know, I know. I’m just teasing.” Dianne smiled at Jason before looking out at the road ahead of them. “It’s funny how normal things look right here.”