Chapter 113
Bradshaw’s demo was even more devastating than Poe had imagined.
For something so bland, it was truly horrifying.
He didn’t know how the Red Chamber guys would react to it and he was tempted to call Towler and tell him he’d changed his mind about the guns.
He thought they might be needed after all. It was too over-the-top.
‘We’re living in Bizarro World,’ he said. ‘Black is white and up is down.’
‘My software uses machine learning and artificial intelligence, including but not limited to artificial neural networks like variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks. It eliminates all known ways of identifying a video as having been digitally manipulated, such as irregular patterns of lighting, reflections in the eye, vocal mannerisms, that kind of thing. Lots of other stuff you won’t understand. ’
Poe looked at Estelle. ‘I didn’t understand any of it. Did you?’
‘She may as well have been talking Klingon.’
‘Which I am fluent in,’ Bradshaw said.
‘And Alastor Locke didn’t ask for this software?’ Poe asked.
‘He didn’t.’
‘Then why did you …?’
‘Because synthetic media is the next cyber battleground, Poe. It’s already being used in disinformation campaigns and to undermine democracy, and it’s getting more and more sophisticated.
Alastor Locke wanted a future-proof detection tool.
To do that I developed next-gen synthetic media software so I had something to test it against. My detection tool is one hundred per cent accurate in identifying everybody else’s manipulated content but still struggles to detect the synthetic media I’ve developed. ’
‘What are you saying?’
‘I’m saying that the detection tool that can identify the Red Chamber package as synthetic won’t exist for ten years.’
‘So to all intents and purposes this is real?’
‘Yes, Poe.’
Poe said nothing. He wondered if this was the right call. This thing, this Pandora’s box, existed in a vacuum right now, but if he brought it to the exchange, it would become known. A thing to covet. Did he have the right to introduce it to the world? Did anyone?
Bradshaw saw his tortured expression. Her mouth dropped. ‘Did I do something wrong, Poe? Only you asked me to—’
‘You’ve done nothing wrong, Tilly. Nothing at all. But Alastor Locke can never get his hands on this. You know that, right? He can have your detection tool when it’s ready, but he can’t have your program.’
‘Are you worried that if we show this to the Red Chamber, we’ll start something we can’t control?’ Estelle asked. ‘We light the match that starts the forest fire?’
Poe nodded. ‘What if they call my bluff?’
‘Then we use it.’
‘Then what?’
‘Then we let the chips fall. The Red Chamber will likely be finished. And I won’t shed a single tear, Poe. And nor should you.’
‘I wouldn’t. But that’s not what’s worrying me.’
‘What is?’
‘What happens after the Red Chamber are finished. After we’ve taken the lid off Pandora’s box?’
‘Beyond our own predicament, you mean?’
Poe nodded.
Estelle considered this. ‘I don’t care,’ she said.
‘Getting Esmerée back is what’s important.
’ She paused for a second. ‘But … I’m too emotionally involved.
You need to decide, Poe. If you really don’t want to use this, then we’ll find another way.
Maybe give Matt carte blanche. Tell him and the rest of his special forces chums to storm the castle. We’ll think about tomorrow tomorrow.’
Poe took his time answering. He couldn’t control the future.
No one could, and those who tried were insane.
But right now, the swimming pool of global politics could do without another shark being thrown into the shallow end.
And that was what Bradshaw’s program was – a shark.
And not just any shark. It wasn’t even a great white.
It was a shark that could make itself look like a lifeguard.
The more Poe thought about it, the more he thought Bradshaw’s program was the most dangerous thing he’d ever seen.
It needed to disappear for good. On the other hand, Esmerée was a fifteen-year-old girl.
She liked sausage flats and black coffee and she made him laugh.
Estelle liked her. Bradshaw liked her. Edgar liked her.
And that was because despite her alien hand and her foul mouth, she was eminently likeable.
She was also innocent, a pawn in Océane and Vincent du Buk’s twisted game of chess.
He had two choices: do nothing, or save the girl and damn the world to the live action remake of George Orwell’s 1984.
Which wasn’t really a choice at all. He said, ‘As Esmerée might say, you bet your ass we’re going to use it, Estelle.
Tilly’s program is dreadful, but at this exact moment it’s our kind of dreadful. ’
He turned to Bradshaw. ‘When can we expect their next call, Tilly?’
‘Assuming it’s exactly forty-eight hours after their first call, we can expect it in twenty-one hours.’
Poe nodded in approval. From getting the initial phone call, they’d worked fast and they’d worked smart.
After the honey link had been established, Bradshaw had found Océane in eight minutes.
Poe and Towler hadn’t bothered with umming and aahing; they’d got in the car and driven south.
Worked out what to do on the way down. They’d stopped for fuel and red lights but not much else.
And as soon as they’d persuaded Océane it was in her own best interests to come back north with them, they’d set off again.
And because they’d been so fast, they’d bought a little bit of time.
Time for Bradshaw to build the twenty-first-century equivalent of an atomic bomb.
Time for Towler and his knuckle-draggers to rehearse whatever it was they were rehearsing. The only thing Poe was unsure of was …
‘What should we do with Susan Hawksworth?’ Estelle asked.
… that.
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘We can’t leave her chained to your radiator.’
‘Why not? Need I remind you she’s the reason the Red Chamber have Esmerée?’
‘I’m aware of that, Poe. But she is going to need to use the toilet. She is going to need food and water. Is there no one you can call? No one who can look after her until this is over?’
Poe shook his head. ‘She needs to be here when the phone rings. She’s the only one who can tell us what we might expect.
She’s told us what will probably happen, but until we know the handover location, we haven’t read the fine print.
’ He glanced in the direction of his office.
‘She stays here. We’ll feed and water her, and you guys can take her to the toilet, but she isn’t leaving Cowie House until we have Esmerée back. ’
‘Can I have the documentation you got from Océane Blue, please, Poe?’ Bradshaw said.
‘Some of what you emailed me was a little blurry.’ She flicked her wrist, checked the time.
‘If you give me a couple of hours, I’ll have the final presentation ready for you.
We’ll fine-tune it so it’s more user-friendly, then I’ll set it up on some tablets you can take with you to the exchange. ’
‘What do you want to do until then, Poe?’ Estelle asked.
He rolled his shoulders and yawned. ‘I need to eat, then I need to sleep.’
Bradshaw turned back to her laptop. ‘You sound like a grizzly bear,’ she said.