“Confessions” Serial, Tech Wars 16
After they had completely recovered from the ordeal of their plastic surgery, Andrew thought back on events since they had arrived in Cape Town. Jauncey as usual had been super careful about preserving their new identities.
On the young couple’s initial visit to Dr. Eisenstadt’s clinic in the middle of Cape Town, they had emerged some hours later, both heavily bandaged around their heads. Just as well, Johannsen’s men took photos of both, but it was impossible to see their new faces. They were picked up by a grey Kia Sportage. Johannsen’s team had a car waiting, which followed the Kia through the streets of the city. Many of the streets were narrow and heavily congested. Johannsen’s team followed as best they could but eventually fell well behind the Kia which turned right and disappeared out of sight. It was no more than three or four minutes before the team tailing the couple saw the Kia at the far end of the street they had turned into. Johannsen’s men whooped excitedly as they steadily closed in on their prey.
The Kia pulled over into a parking place. The pursuers stopped and watched. They had earlier noted the number plate of the Kia. It was definitely the same vehicle but to their amazement the couple that emerged were well-dressed and elegant persons of Cape Malay heritage, who had no bandages on or around their heads.
The leader of the pursuing team struck his fist savagely on the steering wheel. “They must’ve switched after turning into this street – so they knew they were being followed and played us brilliantly. Check the license number. I bet it’s a fake!” It was. The team disconsolately headed back to their base.
Jauncey had posted a couple of observers in the street outside the clinic. After Johannsen’s team had taken off after the Kia, it became obvious that somehow the bad guys had picked up on the whereabouts of Brett and Sandy, now Andrew and Sally. But the good news was that the couple’s new identities remained a secret.Johannsen’s team kept a daily watch on the clinic and were rewarded nearly a week later by the bandaged couple arriving in a rather battered old Land Rover that was clearly a working farm vehicle. The two hurried inside while the pursuing team waited. The old Land Rover had driven off after unloading the couple. Johannesen’s team wondered what would happen next.
Two hours later, the waiting team were growing restless. The leader heard the sound of an approaching helicopter. It was not an unusual sight in Cape Town, but something made the team leader go cold. He looked up to see the chopper circling the highrise building that housed the clinic. Murphy’s law, it was one of the few buildings with a chopper landing space on the roof. Johannsen’s men watched in a fury as the chopper landed and took off again, moments later disappearing inland.
• • •
A few days later, as Andrew and Sally were relaxing on the stoep (patio), they saw a visitor arrive in a chauffeur-driven car. Jauncey quickly went to the front door to welcome the man whom Andrew had not seen before. Andy had already figured that they hadn’t travelled about six thousand miles just to continue their conversation with Jauncey. The two men disappeared into the elegant sitting room of the old Cape Dutch mansion. From the spacious room with its French doors open wide onto the stoep, Jauncey called out for Andrew and Sally to join them. In a couple of comfortable armchairs, Jauncey and the visitor looked up expectantly as the young couple entered. The visitor was a striking-looking man with a shock of white hair and intelligent penetrative eyes.
He stood as the others entered. Jauncey made the introductions. “Andy and Sally Jarvis, I’d like you to meet Peter Warren.”
All exchanged handshakes and sat down in a rough circle, as a plump, smiling woman entered carrying coffee, tea and rusks. “Good morning. Welcome to the Barnard house. Please ring the bell if you need anything else. Lunch will be served at 1:00 p.m.”
Andy and Sally had already attuned themselves to the accent of the housekeeper. Maria Jantjies belonged to a group known as the Cape Malays, descended from both the Dutch and the Malay slaves brought to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company in the 1600s. They have maintained their own distinctive culture and are predominantly Muslim. Many speak Afrikaans as their first language and when speaking English there is a distinctive lilt to their words.
After Maria left, Jauncey opened the proceedings. “I’d like to summarize the situation as I see it and then explain why I’ve invited Peter to join us today.”
Andy and Sally nodded. Peter remained silent, keenly observing the others as Jauncey began. “In a nutshell, after a family tragedy, Sally, who is in IT, uncovered what could be described as a massive industry of fraud and misinformation on the Internet. Digging deeper, she was horrified to find that key successful businessmen and women were dying from unexpected and often unexplained illnesses, bizarre accidents, purported suicides and even murders. Being a particularly bright young lady, she found certain clues linking these deaths to form a pattern of organized behavior. In a word, these people are being culled in much the same way as in Africa over-populations of elephants are being culled …”
Sally couldn’t help breaking in, “… the difference being that the culling of animals is designed to strengthen the herd by removing the weak and infirm, but in this case someone is removing the most able, thereby weakening and not strengthening the group.”
Jauncey nodded approvingly. “Exactly. Now, the reason for this get-together is that Sally and Andy were nearly killed by a bomb aimed specifically at them. We can conclude from that that Sally is getting too close to the truth … all of us here today are well aware that since the Internet was devised in the ’90s, no doubt with the best of intentions, it didn’t take long for those with criminal or twisted minds to turn it to their advantage. So often an invention has been developed for the betterment of Man only to become a dangerous tool in the hands of those with evil intentions.”
Andy broke in, “There still appears to be a coterie of – let’s call them villains for the moment – still intent in destroying all power and hope of the little man to improve his lot. By the way, I try to avoid using familiar political terms simply because it’s, in fact, far bigger than all of that.”
Jauncey continued, “In a nutshell, we’ve been trying to figure out just how we can fight this sick thinking. Our key soldiers, Sally and Andy, were under direct attack whilst known by their previous identities. Getting them safely under cover has been the first step but they don’t want to simply disappear. They’re determined to finally expose these baddies who have been profiting from persistently undermining the will of the people for a very long time – and get the man in the street to recognize who their real enemies are.”
“Oh dear,” Peter commented for the first time with a faked yawn, “I thought you’d uncovered something big!” The others laughed. Jauncey chose the moment to dispense teas and coffees. As he did so, Sally realized for the first time that Peter was an Englishman. She couldn’t wait to hear how he could contribute to the solution of their problem.
Jauncey handed out the coffees and tea, and handed around the plate containing the rusks. “I can recommend these rusks. They’re made from an old Cape recipe and are probably the best I’ve ever tasted.” As they munched or dunked their rusks into their coffee, Jauncey decided it was time to talk solutions, having outlined the problem. “So, why is Peter with us today?”
“To enjoy these rusks?” Andy offered.
“Hopefully, but there is another reason. One of your immediate problems, Sally and Andy, if you’re going to continue your crusade, is that the moment you reappear on the Internet, even under false names, it’s not going to take the opposition long to find you … and if their recent behavior is anything to go by … eliminate you!”
Sally felt a shiver go down her spine. The reality of what she was attempting to do had never been so clearly laid out before. What could this seemingly charming and sophisticated Englishman possibly do to help?
Jauncey continued. “So, what if there was another even more effective computing system, totally secure, that you can use without ever being traced by those outside of the system?”
“Sounds like magic,” Andy commented. Bells suddenly rang in Sally’s head. “Sounds like ExoBrain!” she added.
Jauncey nodded and waved towards Peter. “Allow me to reveal that Peter is the founder, creator and CEO of ExoTech!”
Sally was stunned. “Nothing like bringing in the big guns!” She turned to Peter apologetically. “Let me start by saying that when ExoBrain was mentioned by Jauncey a while ago, I dismissed it. Having spent years in IT and being a typical techie, I couldn’t believe that any new system was so radically different, that I should leave what I knew and explore yet another claim of being unique … although I have to admit that what little I’ve been told so far sure is impressive!”
Peter smiled and nodded. “I appreciate your frankness and if it’s any help, the hardest sell we’ve had to make since we started has been to convince the techies that we’ve got something that no one else has. Let’s face it, we’re changing the way programs are built, so why should they like us? Anyway, let’s leave technical arguments out of this for now.”
“You want to know, is ExoBrain secure? There are no absolutes in this universe, but I’ll say virtually secure. It’ll probably take quite some time before someone can figure out how to break into ExoBrain. And, even when they do, what they find may not be of much use to them. Can you continue to explore and research what you need on the Internet from ExoBrain, without being personally identified? Yes. Does ExoTech want to clean up the world of computing? Yes. How can we do that? By ExoBrain being the simplest to operate, most cost-effective system available. It thinks like a human thinks. It will sooner rather than later put all the outmoded systems out of business. We have laws and principles that we will never allow to be violated, so that the world finally has an ethical and secure method of communicating all of its needs and getting compliance. Need I go on?”
There was a long silence while Sally, Andy and even Jauncey digested what Peter had just said. Finally, Andy spoke up. “Sounds like the answer to my Maiden’s prayer [impossible wish], or I should say part of the answer. It’s vitally important that we have the means of continuing our research into what these baddies are doing but we also have to work out how to stop them. You say that you’ll eventually wipe out all the existing computing systems and install a completely ethical methodology available to the world. With respect, Peter, it may be too late if we can’t stop them or at least slow them right down while you’re achieving that.”
Peter nodded. “I take your point, but we’ve quite recently made a working model available to a select group of investors and team members. The results have in many ways exceeded even our own expectations. Once we launch, we will rapidly approach the point on an exponential curve where our rate of growth will be unstoppable. In the meantime, I need to arrange for my team to give Sally and yourself (if you want to, Jauncey) a crash course in the mechanics of ExoBrain, which we call ExoTechnology.”
“That would be great,” Sally enthused.
“Then I think you’ll find that some if not all of the ways we can stop these bastards can be achieved by using our technology and some of the ingenious ideas that the three of you will definitely come up with. That may provide the answers.”
“One more question, “Andy asked. “You’re in the process of building a huge computing empire, what’s in our quest for you?”
“Simple,” Peter replied. “The survival of the human race. I’m too involved in building and launching the ExoBrain to get myself or ExoTech involved in this aspect of the problem but there’s no point in having the world’s best computing system if there’s no one around to enjoy it!”
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.