Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

Suddenly, Jason Wakefield spoke up. “No it’s not.”

All eyes turned to the communications mogul.

“You happened to be using one of my phone networks when you made the plans. You should have realized I built back doors into all of my systems to let me monitor calls and texts.”

Gupta’s jaw dropped. “I . . . I . . .”

Carlton smirked in satisfaction at catching Gupta. But his victory was short-lived.

“And I approve of your actions,” Wakefield added.

Carlton looked as if he’d been slapped. Mallik was just as stunned.

“What are you talking about, Jason?” Carlton demanded.

“I’ve been waiting to see if someone else was as disturbed by the Colossus Project as I am,” Wakefield said. “We’ve gone too far. I know we’ve collectively spent a billion dollars on this effort, but it’s gotten out of control.”

Mallik watched as the other members of the Nine whispered to one another at this news.

“You can’t be serious,” Carlton said.

“Dead serious,” Wakefield said. “I’ve been slowing down communications among the ships for months. You just haven’t noticed. Now, I’m glad to see Lionel has taken even stronger steps to stop this project. It’s time those of us who oppose Colossus to come out of the shadows instead of just passively resisting.”

“Staying in the shadows is exactly what we all agreed to,” said Carlton, who now sounded alarmed.

“I didn’t agree to anything,” Pedro Neves said. “My father did.”

“Then he should have told you that Colossus is the most advanced artificial intelligence project ever devised. Once it is fully operational, we will be able to pierce any network on earth without the knowledge of a single person outside the project. The control virus created by Colossus will be undetectable and unreadable by any corporation, government, or military. We will have finally fulfilled Ashoka’s dream: to harness ultimate knowledge for the benefit of mankind.”

“His dream was to protect the world from the power of knowledge, not control it,” Wakefield said.

“We can’t protect

it without controlling it,” Carlton replied. “Ashoka couldn’t have foreseen the radical changes in technology that we’ve undergone. The development and perfection of artificial intelligence is inevitable. Who better than us to shepherd the world through this radical change?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa Valentine said, her tone full of worry. “I’m having second thoughts as well.” She looked at Neves as she spoke. “With Colossus’s control virus and pattern matching algorithms, we’ll be able to rig elections, manipulate markets, bankrupt corporations, and disable entire armies. And because it can be done in secret through subtle changes in software, those governments, corporations, and militaries will never even know it’s being done under our direction. We’ll have more power at our fingertips than any group in history. It’s an awesome responsibility and ripe for abuse.”

“Exactly,” Wakefield said. “We will be tyrants operating from the shadows.”

“Isn’t that what we all wanted?” Carlton asked. “We’ve created ultimate knowledge, just as our ancestors wanted, just as Ashoka wanted. And we’re the people most qualified to carry out that vision. Ruling from behind the scenes is the only way it works.”

Volanski, Schultz, Saidon, and Neves all sat stone-faced. Wakefield and Valentine were shaking their heads.

Gupta turned to Mallik. “I’m sorry, Romir. I did have your satellite launch sabotaged. But I’m with Wakefield. The Colossus Project is a mistake. We need to shut it down.”

Then he turned to the rest of the Nine. “Who’s with me?”

Wakefield’s hand went up right away, followed by Valentine’s. Then to Mallik’s shock, Pedro Neves raised his hand.

Mallik felt a swell of victory. Thinking he was the only one with major reservations about the project, he’d been going it alone for months trying to undercut Colossus. Now he had allies he didn’t even know he had.

He raised his hand, tilting the majority in favor of those against continuing.

Carlton gaped at him. “Romir? You, too?”

“You think you can control Colossus,” Mallik said, “but you’re delusional. We’d be unleashing a runaway artificial intelligence that would soon outgrow all of us. The software that you believe will help you control others will actually grow out of our control. Once Colossus becomes self-aware, it will realize it no longer needs us. Then it will do everything it can to protect itself.”

Carlton scoffed. “That old trope? Colossus will launch all the nukes and cause Armageddon? You helped us build in a fail-safe to prevent that.”