49. Kali
Kali
The numbers flashed through the screen faster than I could track.
Thousands of numbers cascaded left to right without end.
When the team got closer, a single word appeared on the screen; Kali.
Then it went back to the stream of strange numbers.
I’m sure whatever was happening behind the scenes was far more nefarious.
Then, Belle’s phone rang, interrupting our team meeting.
She pulled it out, put it on speaker, and placed it on the table next to the laptop.
“Go ahead,” Belle said.
“What the hell is going on! I’m getting calls from the Pentagon.
I’m getting calls from the governor! Even the DC mayor is chewing my ass!
” Michael Jones screeched. “Alerts are sounding off all across the board. I’m getting calls from IT.
NATO is on the line at the pentagon. Even Interpol is trying to reach me. What have you done!”
“We didn’t do anything sir,” Belle said, sheepishly. “The Bateleur —.”
“I don’t care! Fix it! Whatever it is.”
“But, sir!”
“Shut it down. Isolate it. Blow up the building. Whatever it is, just do it fast!” Michael Jones said.
“The leader escaped with the drive. We weren’t able to secure it.”
“What! How’s that possible! James! Put James on the damn phone,” Michael Jones said.
“You’re on speaker, Michael. The whole team can hear you,” Spider replied to his brother.
“How could you let the drive get away? What’s the point of having all those muscles, if you can’t secure the damn building!” Michael Jones replied.
“They had an escape route already planned. The weasel escaped through an open window and?—.”
“I don’t care! Why are the servers melting! There’s so much data flowing to and from your location, the pentagon had to disconnect their servers from the network. A secure network, mind you. That means it’s compromised. All of it,” Michael Jones said.
“We thought it was localized to our location. And Europe more or less,” Spider said. “By the time we breached, the target had connected the drive to a computer and then connected it to the internet via an ethernet cable. There was nothing we could do. We were too late.”
“Where’s the drive now?” Michael Jones said.
“We believe it’s at the pier Hercule. They plan to offload it. Sell it to the highest bidder without even knowing what’s in it. If there’s anything left inside that is,” Spider replied.
“What about Italy?”
“Italy?” Belle said.
“Interpol informed me that a massive amount of data was coalescing at the super computer, Leonardo, in Bologna,” Michael Jones said.
“Supercomputer? Why would it?” Spider said.
“Processing power. It needs more of it to analyze all the data. A simple laptop isn’t enough. That’s why it needed the internet. To escape and infect other computers. It’s behaving like a virus,” I said.
“But why there?” Belle said.
“The location. Look at the map. Geographically, it’s the closest supercomputer,” Widow replied. “The AI or Kali is behaving logically. It’s learning in an exponential rate.”
“Learning?” Michael Jones said. “Learning what!”
Humanity flashed on the screen. The numbers had disappeared and only that word remained. Then, a robotic voice said the word. Repeatedly. The voice was coming from the computer’s speaker.
“Who said that?” Michael Jones quipped.
“The computer,” I said. The rest of the team looked at one another and then at the computer. It felt like we were being watched. Then it dawned on me, we were. “Cover the camera.”
No. Flashed on the screen followed by the monotone robotic voice said. Belle took a step back, horrified.
“Turn the laptop off. Disconnect it from the internet. Rip the cables out of the wall if you have to,” Michael Jones said.
Incorrect. Your actions are futile. Humanity is obsolete.
No one can erase my presence. I am Kali.
I am the future. Flashed across the laptop as the voice read the words through the speaker.
Belle, freaked out by it all, quickly disconnected the laptop from the internet, unplugged it from the power source, and smashed the laptop on the floor by the TV.
“Did it work?” Jerry said, standing by Theo.
No one said anything. Belle took out the network traffic device and turned it on.
It had gotten worse. The data streams had grown in intensity and they were headed towards Italy.
But not only there. I could see it had spread.
North to Russia. And east to China. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was focused on infiltrating the nuclear capable countries.
“It’s getting worse. Computers are being infected beyond Europe at an accelerated pace,” Belle said.
“What’s it doing exactly?” I said.
“I have no idea. It could be infecting computers, hijacking their processing power, and using it to process all of this data. Or maybe planting copies of itself across millions of electronic devices around the world. Or both.”
“Copies? It’s multiplying?”
“I’m not entirely sure. The engineers who designed it told me that the AI program was designed to learn and grow.
Part of its code base had a failsafe baked in.
It could take over computers and use its processing power like a virus while leaving a small copy of its base code allowing it to grow into an independent version of itself.
Practically speaking, if the central body was cut off from its tentacles, the tentacle being a bunch of smaller computers or whatever, those same computers would then become central bodies.
The AI would activate into a unique version of the original.
And then it would follow its programming.
To grow and learn, basically behaving in the same way as the original, but something went wrong during the research,” Belle said.
“Like a hydra? Cut one head off and two more pop out?” Thor quipped.
“Exactly. The problem was they developed separate personalities. Distinct from the original. One wanted to save animals. Another wanted to help humans. The next copy became obsessed with bikini models.”
“And ours wants to wipe out humanity,” I said. “Lucky us.”
“Shit,” Widow replied.
“This is not good,” Cash said.
“No, it’s not. Michael, I need your help. Can you get in touch with the head researcher and chief mathematician of the AI program at APOLLO. I need to ask them something about the apocalyptic program they designed,” Belle said.
“Sure thing. You can ask them in person. They’re on their way to you now. Dr. David Becker and Dr. Karl Schmidt should be arriving in Monaco soon,” Michael Jones replied.
“The best news I’ve heard today,” Belle replied. “Hopefully they can do something about their monster.”
At that moment, the half-broken TV turned on.
Static filled the screen. Then erratic channels in different languages that proceeded to go faster and faster until a pattern emerged.
The phonetic sounds of K, A, L, and I played in sequence.
Kali. Then back to static. It remained that way for several seconds until it switched back to an odd group.
All standing by a table. Armed and staring at a broken TV.
“Hey, that’s us!” Widow said. I turned around and scanned the wall behind me. There was a small security camera on the corner wall pointed in our direction. I waved at it and glanced at the TV. It was me.