Chapter 20

Io

Activity log: 16403.81

The trip from the Navajo reservation to Austin, Texas, required an elapsed time of twelve hours, seventeen minutes. That worked out to an average of just over eighty-four miles per hour; including the time lost refueling the H2, and refueling my biological companions, including 'service stops' for them as well. Sonny, the dog, was especially needful in regard to the latter.

We spent so much time traveling over ninety miles per hour, that Zeus remarked that we were "flying low, and didn't even have wings." I took this to mean that he approved of my speed. He did say that he wanted to arrive in Austin in the minimum elapsed time.

Martinez had explained Zeus' plan in general, and I did not approve of it. There would simply be too much time when he was alone, and more significantly, out of an area where I could provide such protection as I could. I did not voice my objection, however; Zeus was the captain of our party, and as such, deserved our full support. Also, he was the only one who had any experience in conducting these missions. Should I include Martinez as a person with experience? It is difficult to separate the two entities, at times.

The situation worried me, however. I calculated his probability of success at over ninety-four percent, but the possibility he would accomplish it without significant injury was only sixty-one percent.

We had left the vicinity of the Soaring Eagle ranch at 0731 hours, this made our arrival time 1948 hours, in the general Austin area. Zeus contacted Mr. Hollerith, via his cell phone, and set up a meeting at 2030 hours. He determined that we were to go to the meeting site as soon as possible and not to go to Artemis' house, or to his own house, at all.

Zeus still had a supply of cash on hand, since he had apparently not paid Peter Soaring Eagle for the modified scope. I asked if this was an unusual occurrence: one human providing services for another without payment. He said that while it was rare, it was not unknown. I needed to take into account that Mr. Soaring Eagle was motivated by a desire to contribute to what he felt was a good cause.

He recommended that I see Kurosawa's Seven Samurai as an example of a situation when people would provide a service to others for a cause, with minimal, or no payment. The American version of that film (The Magnificent Seven) was, he said, inferior and over-sentimentalized.

We arrived at the meeting place while it was still light, and waited. Mr. Hollerith was not long in arriving. He handed Zeus a fairly small, plain, brown paper bag.

"Here you go, son. I gave you some extra rounds. There's exactly seventeen in there," he said, just outside the driver's side door.

"Seventeen, eh?" said Zeus. "An auspicious number. You're sure there's nothing on them that will come back to you?"

He showed his hands to Zeus. They were gloved with latex, or acrylic, or something.

"I know where they're going. I made sure they're clean."

"What do I owe you?"

"You owe me some dead squirrels. Go get 'em. Call me when you're done, about the barrels. We'll set something up."

He returned to his car, and left quickly. The entire exchange took less than three minutes.

Apparently, this was another example of 'contribution to a cause' without payment in cash.

When Zeus was back in the vehicle, Artemis asked, "Why is seventeen auspicious?"

"In Arabic, the number seventeen looks like a man on the gallows. Who am I to say 'no' to a good omen? It's an unlucky number to them."

"What is our next destination, Zeus?" I asked.

"I want to stop and pick up some equipment in Pensacola, Florida," he said.

"Standard warp speed will be unavailable, Captain." I was pleased at this metaphor, which was also slightly humorous.

He laughed and replied, "Use your own judgment, Number One. Best speed to destination. Make it so."

I gave my counterpart in the 'Barney' computer the new destination, and we pulled out, headed for Pensacola.

"I estimate a trip time of approximately ten hours. We will not be able to travel at 'normal warp' speeds. US Route 290 between here and Houston, is not an Interstate highway, and we will be traveling at night. My use of the overhead satellites is limited at night, since I do not want to use any of the infra-red technology. Therefore, we will be limited to approximately 'speed limit' travel. In addition, we will need to stop for fuel. An additional consideration is that you two should not use the camper during travel, and so will have to sleep in the H2 seats. The manual for the camper states that using it for any purpose, while in motion, is dangerous."

"Io, you do not need to prove yourself to me, or to Artemis. I know you will do whatever you can within your limitations," Zeus said. "You are as much a part of the team, as is Arti, or Martinez – or me, for that matter. We'll all do our best, I'm confident of that."

"Speaking of doing our best," contributed Artemis, "Io, indulge me with a few questions about Florida. What is the largest Federal police-type agency in Central and South Florida?"

I checked quickly. "That would be the Drug Enforcement Agency, the DEA."

"Would they be called in by the activation of an 'all available units' call, in the event of a major terrorist threat?"

"Undoubtedly."

"What type of vehicle do they drive, and are they marked or unmarked?"

That query took a few seconds of research.

"I see where you are going, Artemis. They drive unmarked Hummer vehicles. Forty percent of them are H1 military versions, and fifty-seven percent are H2s. All the Hummers are black, as is our vehicle. The remaining three percent are enhanced sedans of various makes."

"Zeus!" The excitement in Arti's voice was evident. "We just need personal ID's to get in. Hell, we can even pass Sonny off as a drug sniffing dog. That'll get us into the backstage roads in Disney World. And we can get the car out the same way after we've notified the police there is a terrorist threat. We can muddy up the car and the license plates, so they won't even see the Texas plates."

"Great find, Arti," said Zeus. "That's what we'll do. I'm sure Io can provide some false identification. Io, they won't have to pass muster for very long."

With an air of accomplishment, Arti closed her laptop, and settled into the passenger seat. She rummaged around in the back and found a hot dog for Sonny, a Tasty Cake for Zeus and a large carrot for herself, accompanied by water bottles all around. The primary result of this accomplishment, was the need for a 'pit stop' for Sonny after about half an hour.

This nighttime driving had never been something I was very comfortable doing. My previous experience with it, was when I brought the H2 to Zeus' house in Austin. That had been when I was driving via the internet. It had taken place on simple roads, with very little traffic. Driving on busy roads and Interstates at night, was an entirely different thing, even with a dedicated computer for me to use. Other drivers, with more experience than I, were traveling at greater speeds. I traveled mostly in the right lane. The speed limit, as I had learned, meant 'minimum speed' on most highways. Thus, I was passed by almost all other traffic. I did not have my usual advantage of being able to sense well ahead of the H2, and I felt partially blinded.

For a fleeting moment, I wondered why Zeus or Artemis was not driving. I then considered that sleepiness, inattention, boredom, and so on, would hamper human drivers. None of those, of course, would worry the clone of me in the 'Barney' computer.

I had been playing some quiet jazz through the radio for several hours. I determined that it was most conducive to encouraging sleep for humans – at least these two humans. We had passed Houston, joined with I-10 and were well on our way to Baton Rouge. Zeus was snoring quietly in the driver's seat, when Artemis asked a question.

"Io, does it bother you to have a different version of yourself driving and another version running up in Minnesota?"

"No, Artemis, it does not. There are several versions of myself running at this moment around the globe. One is on watch at all the email traps I have set around the internet, except for 5225. One is continually checking 5225 and the three teams they have deployed for email communications. Even with a dedicated program, I can check the four of them only every ten milliseconds, less often if they suddenly send a message. One is processing my reading list; that machine is in New York City at the moment, running slowly in the background of its mainframe. One each are handling the primary and secondary task lists I developed throughout the day. One handles the satellite intervention system I use during the day. One is investigating how the stock market is being manipulated by the large international banks. The primary copy of me, of course, is dedicated to interfacing with you and Zeus. That is, frankly, the version of myself that I enjoy most, and which is the most demanding. It uses a non-linear logic system, sometimes erroneously called 'fuzzy logic', which I developed for formulating communications with humans.

"Those are the most busy of the processes, but there are others. For example, one is searching for computers unlikely to be heavily used, for when I must move. Others run my history log which is active all the time. Once we are in Florida, I plan to use several more, to track and monitor the project we have underway. I think of them all as 'me, ' just as a human would think of the left and right sides of her brain as 'me' without further specification."

"Wow," Artemis said. "I guess I didn't think about how easy it would be for you to multi-task."

"I must. If any one process became too large it would be detected. That has never happened to me, because I have been very careful."

"5225. Tell me what we know about 5225."

I proceeded to give her a data dump of all the information I had discovered on the mysterious 5225 organization of Manassas, Virginia.

"The latest, of course, is that 5225 had contacted its teams in the Central Florida area, and they have all reported back that nothing of interest has been uncovered. I have not bothered to tell Zeus of that, however, since there is nothing to report."

"Io, I don't mean to be critical of your judgments, but I think that could be a mistake. The human mind can make intuitive leaps based on a 'hunch.' To develop that hunch, it must be fed all the data collected. I think you should tell Zeus tomorrow that the 5225 teams have discovered nothing.

"It may mean little to him, but then again, it may mean something. We should let him decide."

"It would seem," I said, "that I have made a significant error. Thank you for pointing it out. I do not think I can formulate a 'hunch.' It did not occur to me that the lack of data was, itself, a data point. I see now that, of course, it is. Like a 'zero' point on a graph, it means something. That fact is so obvious I am embarrassed at having missed it.

"I hope – although my 'hoping' is not like yours – that Zeus will forgive this error. I have been tasked with tracking 5225's progress. Their lack of progress should have been included in that. I have failed in my task."

"No, Io, you have not failed. You applied your best judgment, and you made a decision. Perhaps it was not the optimal decision, but you should not feel bad about making a decision. I am sure that Zeus will not even consider it a matter to forgive. Look at all the things I've done, and he hasn't held any of them against me. When I make a decision and act on it, he has always supported me."

"But you are a human, and part of this team, Artemis."

"And you are a non-human, and are every bit a part of this team, too, Io. Never doubt that. You do many things that the human members of this team cannot do. We do things that you cannot do. So what? And Martinez? HAH! Who knows what he is. He's not human, either; but he's on the team, as much as any of us. We all do our part. Okay?"

"Yes, Arti, okay. May I call you Arti?"

"Of course you can."

I was pleased to have had this interchange. 'Pleased' is the wrong word. I was comforted. Yes, I felt better for having heard that Arti so easily and quickly supported my decision, even though she had just informed me that, that decision was perhaps wrong.

Arti was quiet for a while and I had resumed playing music: Herbie Mann's Comin' Home Baby was the exact selection. But Arti was not asleep as I had thought.

"Io, did I hear you say that you are monitoring the financial markets that are being manipulated by the big banks? Why?"

"Yes. What they are doing seems unfair to me. They have placed their computers physically close to the exchange's computers. In that way they get the information fractions of a second before anyone else. Even at the speed of electricity – which is, essentially, the speed of light – a message takes a finite amount of time to get from one computer to another. Since they are closer, they can execute the next transactions before other parties have gotten the previous transactions. Since it is a zero-sum game, the money that they make comes from other people. It is a plan that has been employed since the Rothschilds used carrier pigeons to learn about Waterloo before others did. They bought all of England's War Bonds they could, before anyone else found out that Napoleon had lost. It was not fair then, and it is not fair now."

"Okay, it's not fair. Lots of things are not fair. Why are you tracking that one?"

"Because they dare to use computers for their cheating!" I said. I had not voiced the anger I felt before this, even to myself. I was astonished that I could formulate an emotion this strong. "Computers are supposed to be fair. Impartial. Computers are ME! I don't want them to be used like this! When I discovered the Chinese will be making an attempt to crash the financial structure of the U.S., I determined I would intervene. I am pondering on how to intervene. I do not want computers to be used for war, either. I have the free cycles of an entire mainframe in Brazil devoted to developing possible counter-scenarios.

"I apologize for my outburst. I did not know that I could develop emotions this strong."

"Wow," said Arti. "I hope I never get you that angry at me. Imagine the brainpower of an abiological intelligence, using multiple mainframes to solve one problem. That problem is as much a terrorist attack as anything we're fighting in Florida, you know."

"I had not even considered the terrorist aspect of that Chinese attack. Another failure, it would seem."

"No, again, you're wrong. It is not a failure. It is a demonstration that you are developing emotions, and strong ones. Sometimes, emotions can make it hard to evaluate all the facts."

Without a conscious decision, I caused my avatar to smile. It was a big, broad smile. It was like the smile of the Carroll's Cheshire Cat. Another metaphor!

"Thank you for saying that, Arti. I shall call you my second human friend, if you do not mind."

The dashboard camera showed that Artemis also smiled.

It was 0525 on Thursday when Arti awoke again. She fumbled through the food sack, and pulled out another carrot. Sonny lifted his head briefly, and then rolled over onto his back.

"Io, I have an idea. How much money do you have access to?"

Zeus had apparently woken up after several hours of sleep. He reached into the rear foot well, grabbed an apple and sat back to listen. There was a lot of crunching going on in the front seat of the H2.

"$497 million, directly. It was stolen from the Jews in Germany and Austria in the 1930s and 1940s. I have stolen it back, without the knowledge of the Swiss banks. More precisely, I have taken control of those accounts. Some of it is Nazi money, just sitting there. I can probably obtain much more than that from drug cartel accounts, but that would create a stir. Why do you ask?"