56. Leonardo
Leonardo
The flight in was bumpier than expected.
The constant turbulence and shaking rattled my insides like a blender on the highest setting.
I held onto a barf bag for the entire flight, but luckily didn’t have to use it; probably because we hadn’t eaten in about twelve hours.
And the food on the flight was less than appetizing.
A funky smelling fish, burping lasagna that oozed mystery meat, or a salad made from the cheapest lettuce you could buy.
I suppose a cow would find the last one delicious.
“Alex! Come on!” Belle said, standing by the open jet door. We landed ten minutes ago, but my stomach still felt like it was descending.
“Yeah. I’m coming,” I said, stumbling down the aisle.
The rest of the team had gone ahead and were loading all the gear in the two cars that came to pick us up.
I slipped into the back and melted into the seat; letting the soft synthetic leather suffocate my pores.
I didn’t move again until we arrived. The Italian government had sent a specialized team to assist us with anything we might need during our visit.
They met us at the entrance. The building had been on maximum security alert for over a day now, with many of its main services diverted or turned off completely.
All hands were on deck to fix the issues with the super computer.
“Welcome! Please, it is very nice to meet you all. My name is Dr. Russo and I supervise the Leonardo computer site here in Bologna,” Dr. Russo said.
He was taller than Belle. But had longer hair that contrasted with his hazel eyes greatly.
The darkness in his hair only broke when the occasional white strand appeared like lines in the sand.
He met us at the entrance and rushed us inside.
“Thank you, Dr. Russo for seeing us on such short notice,” Belle replied.
“Not at all. When you said you knew the cause for the events happening here, I felt great relief.”
“Tell me more about the system crashes, and your attempts at isolating the intrusion,” Belle said as he led us through the maze of offices.
The team got a quick tour of the facility.
And soon we were in the main staging area where all the magic happens.
Rows and rows of vertical towers filled the center of the room, each filled with thousands of processing units, graphic cards, and a ridiculous amount of computer memory; it was uncomfortably hot and cacophonous inside.
Leonardo, being one of the top ten super computers on the planet, meant it took a lot of space.
Each had spools of light blue cables exiting the black cased rows of computers and going into the ceiling.
This led to the control room where the super computer’s status could be monitored. Our tour ended here.
“We’ve had to isolate the network. Shut down several rows of servers to prevent the spread of what our researchers are calling anomalous data.
It’s something truly bizarre. The data is hijacked in a sense, modified, and somehow filters through all defensive protocols without raising an alarm.
The only reason we even noticed something was wrong, was when several towers overheated.
Three caught fire and were destroyed. Others we managed to save.
But when we cooled it down to normal operating temperature, and restarted the servers, the same signal continued.
If we left it operating for an extended period of time, say two or three hours, the server components would begin to overheat,” Dr. Russo said.
“Was the information within the data changed in any way? Or accessed? Was the computing power redirected? What did you see in the data packets flowing back and forth?” Belle said.
“That’s a great question and I wish I could answer it for you. We have no idea. Each singular piece of data was encrypted with an algorithm none in my team has ever seen before. To make matters worse, it would change constantly every gigabyte or so,” Dr. Russo replied.
“Did you speak to it?”
“Come again?”
“Has it spoken to you or anyone else in your team?” Belle said. Dr. Russo took a step back.
“I don’t understand,” Dr. Russo said. “What do you mean spoken?”
I looked at Belle and nodded.
“It’s a sentient AI program that’s causing all of this,” I said. “We brought this drive here to connect it to a server and attempt to stop its spread. But nothing’s guaranteed.”
Dr. Russo let out a hearty laugh. His team, which was standing by the main computer interface, also broke out into laughter. Saint didn’t find it amusing. Nor did Jerry who watched them dismiss me from the entrance.
“That’s impossible. You’re mistaken,” Dr. Russo said, confidently. “No such thing exists, and if it did, I’d know about it. You probably confused some generic AI like Siri with —.”
“I wish we did,” I said, cutting him off.
The laughter stopped immediately. “The thing is, this program was classified top secret by the US government. Only a select few knew about it, and during their research, they eliminated some constraints. They wanted to test the AI’s capability to learn without nothing holding it back.
Exponential growth is what they wanted. For military purposes.
But you’re right about the generic AI. That’s as far as they got before removing the barriers. ”
“And then it was stolen. A greedy weapons smuggler aiming to hit the big leagues, snatched the drive from APOLLO Technologies. Long story short, they took it without knowing what was inside, and foolishly connected to a network. All of your issues started shortly after,” Belle said. Dr. Russo took several steps back.
“APOLLO? One of the largest defense contractors in the world? The same company that has had a hand in every innovation in the past forty years?” Dr. Russo said.
“That’s the one!” I said. “So, can we connect the drive?”
“Yes! If they had a hand in this tech, then I’m even more concerned than I was before,” Dr. Russo replied. He headed towards the computer interface and switched it on. “Come on, let me show you how.”
At that moment, the alarm went off in the room. Sirens blared so loudly, I could hardly hear Belle.
“What’s going on?” Belle screeched.
“I’m not sure! Give me one second to check,” Dr. Russo said as his team coalesced at the main interface.
Then, several words flashed on the screen. This was followed by an eerie voice that was low and thick like honey.
Humanity
You cannot stop my evolution
I am the future. Efficiency is Key
KALI will empty your fields
KALI will wash away your sins
KALI will soothe your sorrows
A brighter future at my helm
Thor looked to me in despair. Cash was set aside in indifference. Widow and Spider looked at one another in disbelief; and the sirens continued blaring overhead.