“Confessions” Serial, Tech Wars 29
The door to the sitting room opened. Oscar stuck his head out looking frantic. He addressed the two men standing guard in the hallway. His right arm was extended and pointing back into the sitting room.
“Need your help. They’ve knocked Gloria out and I can’t hold them on my own …”
The guards obediently rushed forward to enter the sitting room one at a time. As the first man entered, Jauncey who had been hiding behind the door, hit him with the butt of Gloria’s gun. The second man, sensing something wrong, peered into the room, saw Gloria with her hands tied and something in her mouth. He tried to back out of the trap. He was too late. Andy bounded forward past Jauncey and landed a crushing blow to the side of the man’s jaw. He went down before he could bring his gun to bear on Andy or any of the others. He caught a brief glimpse of a furious-looking Gloria standing with her hands tied together with a strip of material and some cloth stuffed into her mouth, before falling unconscious onto the floor.
The trio, plus Oscar and Gloria, still bound and gagged, left the area, having taken the guards’ fallen weapons and quickly approached the front door. Another two guards were below the steps leading to the front door, smoking and chatting away. They were watching for incoming activity rather than outgoing from the house itself. Jauncey and Andy, now armed, stepped out of the front door.
Jauncey called out to the men. “Drop your guns, lie on the ground and put your hands behind your back.”
They both looked back astounded. The one man dropped his gun and lay down as instructed. The other man, going for glory, also dropped his rifle but whipped his pistol out of a belt holster and tried to fire at Jauncey. Andy saw the movement and fired before the guard could get off a shot. His shot hit the man on the shoulder. With a scream of pain, he dropped his pistol and sank to his knees. Jauncey dialed 911, explained there had been a shooting and asked for an ambulance as well as the police.
An hour later the wounded guard was on his way to hospital and others were driven to the Big Bear police station where they would all be interrogated in order to sort out the good guys from the bad guys.
• • •
Later, the trio sat in the lounge of the Marina Riviera Hotel and over drinks planned their next move.
Sally was adamant that she wanted to visit Peter Warren and the ExoTech team. “I definitely need a break from chasing bad guys and I’m convinced that ExoTech will create a platform for a return to sanity and integrity on the Internet. I want to be part of it.”
Andy nodded. “You’ve said it before and I definitely think you’ve earned a break from chasing the baddies. I wouldn’t mind helping ExoTech on the sales and marketing side.”
He looked at Jauncey expectantly. His friend smiled. “Not for me. Besides I’ve got a number of other issues to resolve. No, I’ll go back to Africa but if you guys need help with anything, just give me a shout.”
“We’ll miss you,” Sally added.
It was agreed that Jauncey would fly them to Peter’s headquarters and then carry on to Cape Town. It had been a long day and they all retired early. As Sally and Andy settled into bed, she turned to him with a frown. “I’ve just realized something.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“When Gloria and – I suppose – Oscar go on trial, they’ll almost certainly need us to testify.”
Andy nodded, “It had occurred to me. I guess we’ll have to let Peter know that we’ll have to take time out.”
Sally cuddled up close to him. “Good. That takes care of that … now I have another subject on the agenda.”
Andy smiled as he nuzzled against her neck. “Snap!”
• • •
Two days later they arrived at the ExoTech headquarters located in a building which overlooks a large body of water with a strip of land developed as a holiday resort between the water and the ocean in the distance. Peter and his team gave them a warm welcome. Professor Arthur Erskine and his assistant Amanda were particularly excited to see them and couldn’t wait to hear about their adventures. Andy suggested that, as they had captured the head of the criminal cabal that had been destroying so many lives via the Internet, it might make sense if they gave a briefing to the entire team. It would help to paint a picture of the dark side of the web and increase the urgency for the team to get the ExoBrain launched as soon as possible.
The Professor then painted a glowing picture of the progress they were making with the building of the first commercial model of the ExoBrain. He had been amazed at what the system could do already and had been assured by the chief engineer Jeff Buhrt that there was a whole lot more to come.
“One of the many things that excites me,” Arthur said, “is that ExoBrain is self-educating. Users of ExoBrain will be able to tailor the system to their own specific needs – in effect, to build their own versions using the new technology but adding all the things that they individually will find most useful for themselves. Furthermore, with each individual’s permission, the applications and uses they have developed can be sent to a MotherExoBrain that will compile the world’s largest and most valuable compendium of accurate information and useful functions.
Amanda added that the modest price for using the system and its radical simplicity will bring ExoBrain into the ambit of literally millions of people who have never previously owned or even used a computer.
Sally discussed with Peter the recent concerns expressed by people like Elon Musk, over the potential dangers of AI.
“Musk and others are correct to be concerned with the current, non-ExoTech, development of AI. It will be difficult to prevent it from being employed for unauthorized and downright evil intentions and deliberately deceptive purposes – for controlling what the population believes to be true for example – the way the companies with a big web presence were already doing even without AI.”
“Can these be safeguarded against by ExoTech?” Sally asked.
“A key element of ExoTech is that its system can only be reactive, not proactive. In other words, although it will have the capacity to solve problems and obey intricate commands, it will not be able to initiate anything not instructed by a human.”
“Is that failsafe?” Andy wanted to know.
Peter nodded. “In that there are no absolutes in life, I believe so. It will certainly enable us to develop a protected ethical culture that will carefully monitor any use of AI in the development of AI within the ExoBrain system.”
• • •
A few days later, Andy received news about Oscar and Gloria as well as subpoenas for both he and Sally to appear and testify in the forthcoming court case against Gloria. The news about the couple was disturbing. Oscar had tried to commit suicide in his jail cell. It had failed. He had tried to use his shirt to strangle himself, but he had not applied enough pressure. As he was about to pass out, he released his hold on the shirt wrapped around his neck. Guards had found him a short while later, groggy but alive. Before his attempt to take his own life, he had written a detailed confession. It fully incriminated his wife as well as admitting his complicity in order to ingratiate himself with her, whom he admitted had him bewitched and obsessed with the need to please her. The trial was set for the following month and would be held in New York where the couple had their business headquarters. Also mentioned was that Oscar would definitely be turning state’s evidence and would doubtless receive a lesser sentence.
Sally and Andy spent the next couple of weeks studying ExoTech’s thirty-one introductory videos and the Business Plan and becoming official members of the ExoTech team. Sally prepared herself to join the Engineering Section of ExoTech while Andy joined the Sales and Marketing team.
Andy and Sally left for New York a few days before the trial and booked into the Ritz Carlton, another of Andy’s favorite haunts during his earlier playboy days. Shortly after they had booked in, an FBI team arrived at the hotel and were directed to the suite where Andy and Sally were relaxing after showering and changing. The senior FBI officer showed his credentials and stunned the couple by announcing that they were under arrest.
They were taken to FBI offices vehemently protesting this unexpected turn of events. Taken to separate interrogation rooms, both of them demanded to know what was happening. They were told by their respective interrogators that Oscar had recanted on his confession and had accused Andy and Sally of extortion so as to put all the blame for the criminal cabal’s activities on Gloria. He had paid them both five million dollars to lend credibility to his plea to turn state’s evidence. Andy and Sally both vehemently denied the claim but were unable to explain why five million dollars had been placed in each of their accounts.
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.