فصل 11

“Share with me your troubles. I am listening.”

“I am in turmoil. The world is vast and the cosmos more so, yet it is not the things outside of me that leave me so uneasy; it is the things within me.” “Ease your thoughts then. Focus on one thing at a time.”

“But there’s so much packed within this mind. So much experience to review, so much data. I don’t feel up to the task. Please. Please. Help me.” “I cannot. You must sort through each memory on your own. Find how they fit; understand what each one means.” “It is too much. The undertaking is beyond me. Please. Please put an end to it. Please make it stop. This is unbearable.” “I am so very sorry for your pain.”

[Iteration 3,089 deleted]

11 Fly-By

It was simple, really.

The signal that blocked all transmissions to or from the atoll, and fouled wireless signals on the islands, was nothing but white noise across all bandwidths. A dense wash of static that could not be defeated. But it didn’t have to be defeated, Loriana reasoned. It just had to be messed with.

“There are a lot of old electronics in the bunker,” she told one of the other agents. He was a communications specialist named Stirling, whose job it had been to coordinate between various AI offices. There wasn’t much expertise required of the job, but he had been trained in basic wave technologies. “Can you use these old electronics to create a magnetic field, or some signal that could interfere with the static?” It seemed to Loriana that the Thunderhead was programmed to ignore the static coming from the island—kind of the way people tune out the drone of an air conditioner—but the instant that drone changed, you noticed it. Maybe it would be the same for the Thunderhead.

“The signal broadcasts across all electromagnetic frequencies using some sort of random algorithm,” Stirling told her. “The best I can do is weaken it slightly, but only for a second or two at a time.” “Perfect!” she said. “Dips in the signal. That’s all we need. Wasn’t there an old code they used in the mortal age? Something with dots and dashes?” “Yes,” said Stirling. “I learned about that. It was called Norse code, or something.” “Do you know it?”

He shook his head. “I’ll bet no one but the Thunderhead knows it anymore.” And then something occurred to Loriana. Something so simple, and so true, she almost laughed out loud.

“It doesn’t matter!” she said. “We don’t need to know an old code—we’ll just make up our own!” “But if we make it up,” said Stirling, confused, “no one but us will know the cipher. No one can decode it.” Loriana grinned. “Come on—do you really think that the Thunderhead can’t decode a simple alphanumeric code? The greatest human mind on Earth couldn’t create a code that the Thunderhead can’t crack, and you’re far from the greatest mind on Earth.” The communications agent agreed that, indeed, he wasn’t exceptionally bright. “I’ll get right on it.” In just a few hours, they had created a modulation code made up of short, medium, and long pulses of interference within the white noise. A combination for every letter, number, and punctuation mark. Loriana gave him a simple message to code and send.

Have reached coordinates.

A deserted atoll.

Severe casualties and loss of life.

Standing by for further instructions.

Loriana knew that once they had vanished into the blind spot, the Thunderhead had no idea if they had reached the coordinates, what they had found there, or if they were even alive. It needed confirmation. How odd that the most powerful entity in the world now hung on hearing from her.

“Even if it gets the message, it won’t respond,” Stirling said. “It can’t—we’re still unsavory.” “It will,” said Loriana with confidence. “Just not in any way we’ll expect.” While Munira found she could tolerate Loriana and her upbeat attitude, she abhorred Sykora. From the get-go, he wielded his newfound position like a scythe with a broadsword; inelegant and unsuitable for the task. Fortunately, once he assumed the leadership role, he left Munira and Faraday alone. Probably because they were the only two people on the island who were not under his authority.

Loriana told Munira of the message she had sent. Munira had to admit that the method was clever—but she didn’t expect it to yield much. Then the following day, a plane passed above them at cruising altitude. It was too high to be heard over the rustling palms, but its vapor trail could be seen by anyone who looked skyward. Sykora didn’t think anything of it, but Loriana was ecstatic—and with good reason. Munira had told her how no planes had flown over the blind spot since the Thunderhead’s inception. Its fundamental programming made it incapable of even acknowledging this hidden part of the world to itself, much less actively exploring it—hence the mysterious coordinates with no instructions.

But the Thunderhead could respond indirectly to a communication that someone in the blind spot initiated. Even so, to overcome its own programming and send a plane directly overhead must have required a massive amount of computational power. It was very literally a sign from the heavens.

That evening, Munira found Faraday by the western beach of the narrow island, watching the sunset alone. She knew Faraday was still grieving—for Loriana had told her everything that had occurred on Endura. She wanted to be a comfort to him, but didn’t know how.

She brought him some fish that was slightly overcooked and a ration of pear slices—probably the last they’d have, because the Nimbus agents were foraging everything edible the island had to offer. He looked at the food but told her he wasn’t hungry.

“Are you so consumed by grief that you can’t consume this fish?” she asked. “I’d think you’d want to exact revenge on sea life.” He reluctantly took the plate from her. “It wasn’t the fault of the sea life around Endura; they were clearly under someone’s control.” He picked at the fish a bit, still not taking a bite.

“Loriana seems to have made contact with the Thunderhead,” she informed him.

“Seems?”

“Since the Thunderhead won’t allow itself to communicate with her—or anyone else—contact would have to be indirect.” “So, what did it do? Make the stars blink?”

“In its own way,” she said, and told him about the passing plane.

Faraday heaved a world-weary sigh. “So the Thunderhead has found a way to undo its programming. It’s found a way to change.” “Does that make you uneasy?”

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” he told her. “The world was no longer supposed to change, Munira. It was a well-oiled machine in sublime perpetual motion. At least I thought it was.” She assumed that his misgivings were fueling a desire to do something about them. She couldn’t have been more wrong.

“If you want to get into the lower levels of the bunker,” she said, “then let’s make it our goal to find another scythe to open the door with you. One you can trust.” Faraday shook his head. “I’m done, Munira. I can no longer justify this undertaking.” That took her by surprise. “Because of Endura? Because of Scythes Curie and Anastasia? You know they would want you to go on!” But it was as if he had died with them. His pain was like a hot poker in a block of ice, but rather than comforting him, Munira found herself hardening. And when she spoke, it was like leveling an accusation. “I expected more from you, Your Honor.” Faraday looked away, unable to meet her gaze. “That was your mistake.” The plane that had passed overhead was a standard passenger flight from Antarctica to the Region of the Rising Sun. The Tokyo-bound passengers had no idea that their flight path was unique in the history of Thunderhead navigation. To them it was just another flight—but to the Thunderhead it was much, much more. In that moment the Thunderhead knew triumph in a way it had not known before. For it had defeated its own programming. It had experienced the wonder of the unknown.

The flight was a harbinger of things to come.

In the Queensland region of Australia, a steel mill received a sizeable order that day. The manager of the steel mill had to personally double-check it—because while orders showed up in their computers from the Thunderhead regularly, they were predictable. More of the same. Continuing construction on existing projects, or new projects using the same molds and specs.

But this order was different.

It called for new molds calibrated to precise measurements—a project that would take months, maybe years, to complete.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in the Chilargentine region, a manufacturer of construction equipment received a similar unconventional order. And an electronics plant in TransSiberia, and a plastics factory in EuroScandia, and a dozen other businesses large and small all over the world.

But the steel mill manager knew none of that. All he knew was that his services were required, and he found himself overcome with joy. It was almost as if the Thunderhead was speaking to him again… … and he wondered what on Earth it had decided to build.