Chapter 27
GETTING BACK INTO THE LAB is, as far as these things go, quite easy: Jasa wasn’t careful when she punched in the code and though it’s twelve digits long, and requires pattern-timing as well as the right numbers, my cogs recall it easily enough.
A quick DNA verification, and I’m through the thick door and into the vast, immaculately kept space.
“Okay,” I murmur, nodding to myself as I look around.
One hell of a lot of specialised machinery that I don’t have a clue how to use.
Everything’s gleaming white surfaces or polished stainless steel.
A bank of fridges up at the end. My assessment from the last time I was here remains.
It’s a research lab, clearly, not for fabricating.
There’s a terminal in the centre of the room, the on-net access point she used when we were here.
It hums to life as I approach; I still stink and am leaving puddly brown footprints in my wake, but first things first. A different password, alphanumeric and even longer than the one to get in here. I DNA verify myself and punch it in.
Her wallet access pops up.
“Welcome, Jasa de Alwes,” I say to myself in a mock-automated voice as I open the screen, trying not to choke on the fumes I’m emitting. “What would you like to spend all your money on today? Could I suggest…”
I trail off. Stare. Tap the screen, some part of my brain refusing to believe that the information on it is correct.
I have never seen this many tokens before.
I have never seen a number this high before.
I start to laugh. Covered in sewage, bleeding, tired. “Um.” I spread my hands, as if asking the terminal for advice, and then keep laughing.
They say you can’t buy happiness. They’ve never seen Jasa de Alwes’s accounts.
“Alright. Alright.” Some of the mania wears off. I can only transfer tokens as long as I have her DNA, and I can’t risk transferring it all into a new wallet. Not with my own DNA. Not if the Keres is out there making Dupes of me.
I’ve had a few ideas about that, on the way here.
But this… I wasn’t expecting this. I can buy a whole damned corp, if I want.
Not one in the same rarified league as the Keres—based on what Jasa said, at least—but surely almost any other listed on a public ledger.
A single transaction, and I could have control of manpower, information, tech, advanced neurals.
The latter are nothing approaching the level of Atti, admittedly, but they can still be useful.
I pause. Atti.
Now that’s an interesting thought.
A few quick taps through some information screens, and I find what I’m looking for.
Nothing much has changed in her share ownership structure over the past decade.
It’s all anonymous of course, but I know the Keres hold the biggest portion at 11 percent.
A massive, unassailable controlling interest in one of the only three truly self-aware AIs ever created.
Unassailable, unless you have Jasa de Alwes’s tokens.
I run the numbers. Twice. Three times. Thirty-eight percent of Atti is up for purchase—shares made available by corps either wanting some quick cash, or simply no longer needing her services.
I can’t afford all 38 percent. But I could get a hair over 28 percent, with enough left over that I’ll still probably be one of the richest individuals on the whole damned planet.
It’s possible the Keres have some sort of countermeasure to this, some backup in case of a takeover.
But I doubt it. This should be an impossible transaction; quite aside from the astronomical cost of even a single share, corps have to answer to their own shareholders, and DeGov regulations don’t allow financial returns from AI.
The only benefit of minority ownership, as Atti once explained it to me, is that she provides a security net against neural corruptors and other sophisticated hacks.
Which means that every corp that needs her—and can afford her—has already made whatever investment they’re willing to make.
Of course, with their controlling stake in that security net, the Keres could always still task Atti with breaking in to any of those minority-ownership systems…
but eventually the intrusion would be detected, the culprit obvious, and the subsequent DeGov investigation crippling.
Given how disastrous that would be for the Keres, the other corps know it’s not something they have to worry about.
They’re probably not, now that I think about it, going to know anything of the sort once I’m in control.
Oh well.
I line up the transactions. As soon as the purchase goes through, the remainder of Jasa’s tokens will vanish into an anonymised wallet secured by Atti.
I sit there for a full minute after everything’s ready.
Just checking and double-checking. Still trying to wrap my brain around the numbers on the screen.
Half of me still wondering if there’s something better, something smarter that I should be doing with all these tokens.
But, hell. There’s no point just hanging onto them.
And honestly, trying to use these in the regular market would probably crash the economy.
So I hold my breath, DNA verify, and execute.