Rika Muranaka looked at the series of CCTV security videos yet again, stunned at what she saw happening.
She had listened to the eyewitness report shown on cable news—bystanders watching in disbelief as two driverless vehicles, a Tesla electric car and a Cadillac Escalade equipped with a state-of-the-art autopilot function, made their way through the city of Los Angeles, meticulously winding down the streets and obeying traffic laws until coming upon the getaway vehicle of two wannabe 7-Eleven hold up men.
Then the Escalade and Tesla did what could only be described as a deliberate attack, incapacitating the getaway vehicle, a 2012 Toyota Camry, and seemingly notifying nearby patrol cars of the incident and location.
Muranaka noticed how the eyewitnesses seemed amused and entertained, unaware of what was really happening—that the first true A.I. incident in America had just happened, and it foreshadowed danger unlike anything this country had ever seen.
After hearing the eyewitness accounts, Muranaka immediately tapped into her own surveillance resources, and in no time had access to security camera footage from all over the city. She entered the aforementioned Tesla, Escalade, and Camry plate numbers into a search engine and managed to cross-reference the vehicle identifications with city-wide security camera footage in order to view the entire journey of both vehicles from the moment they self-initiated to the point of final impact with the Camry. Without even looking for evidence in the vehicle’s programming codes, Muranaka knew immediately that this was the work of Nikki Ellis and her renegade A.I. ghost roaming the deep net, PHOEBE.
Muranaka wondered if Ellis had any idea of the repercussions. The growing threat of PHOEBE to national security long ago stepped beyond hacking into information systems or eradicating personal privacy. It had even gone beyond creating micro-targeted alternative realities through social media. Of far greater concern to both the government and private sector was the unleashing of artificial intelligence ‘bots’ into the deep web where they could roam, untraceable, acting with a preprogrammed mandate to create havoc across the globe with little or no additional programming or continued human guidance.
These A.I. bots could shut down power grids, unlock alarm systems, crash markets, zero out financial assets, dump classified information onto open source platforms, launch conventional weaponry, or even start a nuclear war, all without hesitation, if some individual gave the bot that mandate, or an even worse possibility: a programming quirk within the bot itself created that mandate.
If these things were allowed to materialize, there was absolutely nothing any human being could do to stop it. A.I. bots literally could end the world as mankind knew it, and it could start by simply programming an A.I. system to stop crime across the city by any means necessary, such as what Muranaka speculated had happened here.
As Muranaka hacked into the security and surveillance systems, she took note that it appeared to be the 7-Eleven security camera that set things in motion. Not surprisingly, there was no silent alarm in the convenience store. The clerk had called 911 on her cell phone, and Muranaka speculated that perhaps it had prompted PHOEBE to act.
The scarier speculation to Muranaka was the possibility that PHOEBE was programmed to roam security systems and identify the gun and perhaps the hostile movements as an alert, which it would act upon in microseconds, tracing the movements of the Toyota Camry and sending the Tesla and Escalade to intercept simultaneously while notifying the police.
In many ways, Muranaka was impressed. The memory and computing power required to activate a search through hundreds of billions of digitized images and code to select this particular instance was mind-boggling. It must have been programmed to act in this manner or seek out this type of activity by Ellis herself. It was the only way it made sense.
This only increased Muranaka’s resolve about what must be done. Nikki Ellis must be found and PHOEBE destroyed before it was too late. But Muranaka was not naïve to her employer’s methods and politics. She knew going through Tom Miller, the head of cyber-security, would be an utter waste of time, with the urgency of the situation being lost in the politics, a delay designed for Miller to take credit for Muranaka’s discoveries.
Muranaka had witnessed Miller do this to others, both men and women, and she was not about to let it happen to her. She might be reprimanded and it could even cost Muranaka her job, but she needed to reach the decision makers. She needed to speak to Glen Turner, CEO of the company, directly before it was too late.
“He’ll see you now,” the pretty but robotic-mannered executive secretary said to Muranaka.
Coalition One in downtown Los Angeles had recently become a collection of buildings, dubbed the Coalition Fortress, with the company buying more and more real estate as its interests grew. The newly named Coalition One, the tallest building in the city, still remained at the center, while other buildings were being retrofit with the latest in high security technology, military-grade equipment that not even Muranaka was allowed to access. CEO Glen Turner’s office was on the top floor of Coalition One, and it had taken Muranaka several phone calls and emails to get this one-on-one meeting with the Coalition leader.
“This way,” the executive assistant said, before she wheeled about and started toward Turner’s office.
Muranaka got to her feet and straightened out her skirt suit before following. For the first time, she realized she was nervous.
The waiting area of the CEO’s office was large, almost cavernous, and filled with earth-tone furniture, including dark wood tables and bookshelves. The only out–of-place item was the Picasso on the wall. It has the look and feel of old money, Muranaka thought.
The executive assistant reached the large doors of CEO Turner’s office, knocked twice, smiled at Muranaka without saying another word, and walked away. The oak doors then opened, and Turner, whom Muranaka had never met, greeted her with his own smile.
“Ms. Muranaka. Please come in,” Turner said.
Muranaka entered Turner’s office. The sunlight coming in from the large windows caused her to blink. She walked over to the glass, which ran floor to ceiling. The view of Los Angeles was breathtaking.
“Tom Miller says you’re our top programmer, and we are honored to have you running our new Cyber Center,” Turner said as he waved for Muranaka to have a seat.
“Thank you,” Muranaka answered as she sat on the large leather couch.
“I’m surprised you didn’t go through him with this request. He’s head of the cyber-security division,” Turner said as he sat down across from Muranaka.
“Well, like I said in my emails, this is urgent. A matter of national security, I believe. I thought it best to speak to you directly.”
“We have an open door policy here at Coalition Properties. Please continue.”
“Do you know who Nicole Ellis is?”
“I’m familiar with the name,” Turner answered.
“Then you know she’s a high-level hacker. Nicole Ellis runs an A.I. program on the deep web that’s ghosting several highly encrypted security systems. We’ve been tracking it.”
“And?”
“We’ve been tracking PHOEBE’s every move in an attempt to gain access to it for some time now. And I believe we are getting close. But some unexpected things have been happening that I felt I should bring to your attention immediately. Things that I believe force us to devote more resources and accelerate our search for Nikki Ellis herself.”
“What things?”
“I have evidence that the program intervened in the robbery of a 7-Eleven. I also believe it was the source of the American Airlines shutdown two weeks ago. People have been reporting banking irregularities across the state. Everything from debts being wiped out to unauthorized wire transfers. We’re monitoring all of it, and I’m finding evidence that it is quite possible that Ms. Ellis’ program PHOEBE was involved in several of these incidences.”
“Do you think Ms. Ellis is programming her software to specifically carry out these actions?”
“Hard to tell. But my gut tells me that she’s not. At least not directly. It would be too time intensive. Ultimately, she’s responsible, but I think it’s potentially far worse than that. I think that the program is doing it all on its own.”
“And why do you think that?”
“When the program took a swing at us in the Cyber Center, I became suspicious. PHOEBE destroyed Black Widow, at least for the moment. I’m sure you’ve read the report.”
“I have. I’ve gotten the angry phone calls from the NSA, too.”
“Did they brief you on the potential threat?”
“The NSA is a cryptic bunch. Their craft and trade are secrets. But with what you’re telling me here, I assure you I’ll look into it now. What are your immediate concerns?”
“Well let me give you the quick and dirty assessment. If PHOEBE is starting to act out on its own, it could disrupt anything in the digital world, from defense systems to banking systems. It could shut down power grids. I don’t want to sound alarmist, but left unchecked, it could potentially end civilization as we know it. We have to stop PHOEBE before it’s too late. Before no one, not Coalition Properties, not even Nikki Ellis herself can stop it.”
Turner thought over Muranaka’s words. He obviously knew of Ellis and was aware of the dangers of her hacker skills. But what was new to him was the severity of the situation that Muranaka was claiming. He wondered how much of Alex Luthecker’s influence was behind this.
Turner swore to himself. He did not want to fall into this trap. He did not want to make finding Alex Luthecker a priority. He did not want to go down the rabbit hole of his predecessors. But it was beginning to appear that he would have no choice. He was going to have to hunt down Alex Luthecker and Nicole Ellis and kill them if necessary.
“So what are you recommending?” he finally asked.
“That you use Coalition Properties’ considerable resources beyond what we can do in the Cyber Center to find Nicole Ellis, and do whatever you have to in order to convince her to come in.”
Turner steepled his fingers in front of his face as he carefully considered Muranaka’s words. “Do you know who Alex Luthecker is?” Turner finally asked.
“I’ve heard of him. As I understand it, he’s some sort of cult figure. Rumored to be able to predict the future. Not something that I believe is mathematically possible. I know that the Coalition has had run-ins with him in the past, but much of that information is confidential,” Muranaka replied.
The fact of the matter was Muranaka knew exactly who Alex Luthecker was. It would be impossible to work for Coalition Properties and not know who the alleged soothsayer was and what he’d done to the firm. Muranaka would love to sit down with the infamous Alex Luthecker and test his abilities, if only to debunk them. But the thought of that was a luxury at the moment. The real threat was Nicole Ellis and PHOEBE.
“Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention,” Turner said. “Nicole Ellis and Alex Luthecker are partners. They are also notorious outlaws, and I believe where we find one, we’ll find the other. And I agree, I think we’re going to have to dedicate adequate resources to bringing them both in. So you’ll have what you need on the cyber side of things, and I will put the resources in that are necessary to actually locate Ms. Ellis herself. We’ll convince her of the urgency of the situation. And when I have her in the facility, I’ll want your help in debriefing her.”
“If they’re outlaws, shouldn’t their apprehension be handled by or at least coordinated with law enforcement?”
“Of course. As you know, we work hand-in-hand with both law enforcement and Federal agencies all the time when it comes to concerns such as national security. And I assure you, when the time comes, your help on these real issues regarding national security will not go unnoticed, Ms. Muranaka. I’m really glad you chose to take the risk to come see me directly.”
Muranaka felt herself blush at his words, and she was furious with herself over it.
Turner stood up and offered Muranaka his hand. “I’m going to give you my private number, in case you have any questions. I have a board meeting in half an hour, but I’ll be in contact.”
“I told you he’d be a problem,” Collin Smith, the longest tenured member of the Coalition Board said to Turner. “Do you think Richard Brown or James Howe were any less diligent in their efforts to deal with the Alex Luthecker problem? However, unlike you, they recognized the threat immediately. The threat that you are finally coming around to.”
“I recognize the threat. I’ve always recognized the threat. And the threat is fueled by the attention we give him.”
“So you thought ignoring him was a solution?”
“What’s your point?” Turner snapped back.
He wondered why the old man wouldn’t just die already, freeing up another seat on the board, a seat Turner could fill with someone less openly hostile to his own ambitions.
“The point is that we warned you,” Smith answered.
Turner looked over the members of the Coalition board of directors. They were all white and gray and balding with wealth on a scale the world had never seen before—and all possessed the power to match. The conference table cost more than most homes in the middle of the country. It baffled him that, despite all that these men had and controlled, they were still fearful, angry, and ultimately unhappy.
“I’ll admit, there is a danger to ignoring Luthecker, and I’ve never ignored him. But right now I think there’s a more immediate danger in ignoring his partner in crime, Nicole Ellis. Because of her threat, they both need to be found and eliminated. And, yes, I do differ with my predecessor’s assessment that Luthecker constitutes a threat or asset. I don’t see him as either. I think my predecessors misread the situation. I don’t believe Alex Luthecker or Nicole Ellis possess any ability or asset that Coalition Properties doesn’t already have.
“Gentlemen, we are the most powerful human organization that the world has ever seen. Two off-grid individuals may be an annoyance and create P.R. problems for us, but I don’t believe they can threaten that structure as a whole. There simply is too much momentum behind our efforts. Not to mention the global scope of our reach and sheer assets we have at our disposal. And the technology we are developing here will soon surpass any alleged abilities of either Luthecker to predict the future or Nicole Ellis to create rogue software.
“Ms. Ellis does present a real time problem, but we will have her soon, and it’ll be over. And as far as Alex Luthecker? He’s obsolete.”
Turner began to pace in front of the board members, and he saw several nodding. The Coalition CEO’s presentation skills never failed to squeeze what he wanted from his board.
“However, I will add this—they both still have an important role to play,” Turner continued, looking over the faces of his greedy, small-minded rivals.
He also knew that beyond their fearful nature, they were dangerous, and any misstep with this group of ruthless predators would mean his end at the top of the Coalition food chain.
“I believe that there are no accidents in this universe. And I believe that both Luthecker and the hacker, Nicole Ellis, represent a test for us, for our values and beliefs.” Turner circled the table, walking behind Collin Smith for effect. “Luthecker and Nicole Ellis represent a final test of both our will to see our vision enacted and our ability to convey our beliefs to the people. And in regards to Ms. Ellis and her hacking skills specifically, in our ability to secure the future through the technological developments that will usher in the next era of human development.”
“We’ve all read the reports of what Ellis did to Black Widow and what her program is doing around the world. We need to stop it,” Smith added.
“On that we agree, Collin, and I’m in the process of stopping it. But don’t mourn Black Widow too hard. That program is just the beginning of what Coalition Properties’ new Fortress complex will be capable of. And when our systems destroy PHOEBE and we eradicate Ms. Ellis and Luthecker, along with their followers and the ideals they represent, we will have, in fact, passed our most crucial test as an organization. We will become stronger because of it. But we must not lose sight of what this is—only a test.
“Our beliefs must remain resolute. We cannot succumb to the threat. We have to understand them for exactly what they are—just a simple test and nothing more. And I’ll have you know that we’re already winning. We currently have all their followers in custody.”
“Here? In the Fortress? Are you crazy? You have to let those people go,” Collin said.
“Why?”
“Because we’re not law enforcement for starters. But more importantly, do you remember what happened last time? When we attacked this exact group of people in an L.A. neighborhood with a Black Hawk helicopter? Do you remember how we lost that battle? Do you remember the lawsuits and the enormous payouts we had to make? Do you remember the congressional scrutiny? And how long it took us to recover from that P.R. nightmare? Do you remember nothing? Did you learn nothing?”
Turner felt himself get hot. “Of course I remember, and I’ve adjusted our approach. I’ve added patience and calm. And this time we are working directly with the Coalition-equipped LAPD. Look, this small band of human traffickers is heinous. They bring criminals across the border. They open us up to terrorists. They broke the law. We have proof, and the press campaign will reflect this along with their criminal past. We’ll control the narrative this time, and this is only step one,” Turner answered, before turning to the entire board and trying to get back on message.
“Now, on to what I see is the real test. As you know, we’ve expanded our real estate holdings considerably in Los Angeles,” Turner continued. “Coalition Towers is now Coalition One, which is now part of a larger matrix of buildings in downtown L.A. referred to as the Coalition Fortress. The security and surveillance systems in use to guard the Fortress represent marketable technological breakthroughs that the world has never seen before.
“Combined with our defense systems and weaponry, it is a one hundred percent controlled environment. It is one hundred percent safe, with no room for variables. It is my full belief that at the Fortress, Ms. Ellis and her software design she calls PHOEBE will meet their Waterloo, as will Mr. Luthecker. I believe it is destiny that their threat, perceived or otherwise, ends here.”
“I won’t see this company step on its own dick again,” Smith said. “And as I’ve said all along, I don’t think you treat this situation seriously. How do you know Luthecker won’t see this coming? We’ve never gotten them all in the same place together in the past, how are you going to do it this time? How are you going to get Luthecker, Ellis, and PHOEBE, all in the same place, at the same time, where we can destroy them?”
“I’m working on it. But I’ll get them all here, don’t you worry. Alex Luthecker, Nicole Ellis, and everything that they stand for will meet their rightful end.”
Muranaka collapsed on the couch of her small Santa Monica apartment and closed her eyes. Her meeting with Coalition CEO Glen Turner went better than expected, and she was very happy to be dealing with the CEO directly now.
But the heightened expenditure of energy required to be “on” for the meeting, combined with the anxiety of having to present her case to the head of the company, had left her completely exhausted, in addition to the added apprehension of having the opportunity and assets to pursue exactly what she wanted.
Muranaka had joined Coalition Properties right around the time Nicole Ellis and PHOEBE started being a thorn in the Coalition’s side. Because of the timing, Muranaka had been chasing Nicole Ellis and the rogue hacker’s accomplishments for the entirety of her professional life, and the younger Japanese programmer had resented it. Having her life defined reactively by those who came before her was something she’d been dealing with since birth.
Muranaka grew up as the youngest of three children, the only daughter in a patriarchal Japanese household. To Muranaka’s father, her older brother could do no wrong, while Rika was constantly criticized. No matter how well she did in any endeavor, she would never be good enough. So Rika handled the constant criticism by excelling in everything.
She graduated at the top of her class, which led to having her pick of multiple jobs and being able to negotiate a starting salary far higher than either of her older brother’s had out of graduate school. She worked longer hours than her colleagues. She’d had a hand in developing Black Widow. In every metric, Muranaka was winning. But no matter what she did, someone always overshadowed her accomplishments. She was at the top of her game, yet she always felt like she was losing.
At home, it was to her less competent older brothers. In the field, it was to Nicole Ellis and her program PHOEBE. With her long hours, her personal life was nonexistent. With family, with profession, Muranaka couldn’t win. It was particularly frustrating because she felt she was destined for so much more in life.
But with the current crisis, Muranaka thought she could break free from this pattern. Perhaps by helping bring the world’s most notorious hacker and her criminal conman Alex Luthecker to justice, Muranaka could finally step free from the shadows. Perhaps when it was Rika Muranaka, not Nicole Ellis who made the headlines, Muranaka would finally find the validation she deserved.
Muranaka decided that this would be the goal. She would work extra hard to find Ellis, not just crack Ellis’ program. And she had extra tools at her disposal now. She had Glen Turner’s favor at the moment, and she would capitalize on all of it.
Invigorated by the possibilities, Muranaka got up from the couch, sat at the kitchen table, and opened her laptop. She found that she had several email reminders waiting for her, a handful that were not work related, and she decided to take care of those first. She recognized two of the emails, one from St Jude’s Cancer Center for kids and another from the Humane Society.
Muranaka, a single woman who was well paid but not necessarily materialistic, didn’t spend her money on many things beyond clothes and dinners out. She had always spent the bulk of her disposable income on two things—vacations to remote locations and causes she believed in. The first item was months away, but in her email were monthly reminder alerts for charitable donations to her two favorite causes—St. Jude’s Cancer Center for kids, and the Humane Society for animals.
For Muranaka, children and animals were deserving of help, but human adults were more suspect. Donating to these two organizations made Muranaka feel like she was making the world a better place, at least in some small way, particularly when life at work was overwhelming. She quickly donated five hundred dollars to each via PayPal and felt satisfied. Now back to the task at hand, dealing with PHOEBE and Nicole Ellis.
Muranaka quickly logged onto Tor, her deep web search engine, and began her pursuit of PHOEBE one more time. She would search all night if she had to, she told herself. And when she was done, PHOEBE and Nicole Ellis would never know what hit them.