Mastermind- Rise of the Trojan Horse by Tom Wheeler

Author:Tom Wheeler [Wheeler, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733922319
Published: 2020-03-23T22:00:00+00:00

61

Camp David

September 26

Camp David

Crane watched a coyote move across the spacious and perfectly manicured greenery, a common sight in the woods of Thurmont, Maryland, where the presidential retreat known as Camp David was tucked away. He had arrived yesterday afternoon on the president’s orders. Crane stared at the coyote, which appeared unafraid as it loped across the soothing grounds. Crane consulted his watch, moseyed back over to the table, and dialed Dhilan’s number on his computer.

A moment later he heard the strange sounds made by the Pexip connection as his computer established a secure link with Dhilan’s.

“Hello, Dhilan,” said Chesty.

“Yes, sir, General, hello,” Dhilan answered. “How’s your time at Camp David?”

“Boring. And duty still calls. I need you to transform either Jerome or Nero into a petite woman. How much time will you need?

“Well,” he said, pausing, “I’ve been thinking about that since your first call. I would need to eliminate the android’s weaponry.”

“Understood. How long?”

“A few weeks, given I have Mason and access to some of the NASA engineers.”

“Why Mason?” Crane asked curiously.

“He knows more about the androids than anyone else.”

“Already?” Crane noticed the coyote darting back across the grounds, either chasing something or being chased.

“Only a handful of people have seen the schematics of Jerome and Nero,” Dhilan explained. “But Mason is also uniquely qualified, similar to me.”

“President Tense needs them in about two weeks. Evidently Russian president Crutin wants her back.”

“Wants who back?” asked Dhilan, his eyes narrowed.

“Anna Butwina.”

“The Russian NRA aficionado?”

“Spy, yes,” answered Crane, picking up his laptop and moving it to another table.

“Do you have her specs?” Dhilan asked, leaning slightly away from the screen.

“Specs?”

“Forgive me, her physical dimensions.”

“Right, no, I don’t.”

“You do understand that making someone look like a person is 50 percent of the issue, depending on your plans,” said Dhilan, sniffing as General Crane nodded.

“Yes. I also need you to schedule a meeting with Leon Tuss,” Crane added.

“For what?”

“To get the other 50 percent. We want to implant a chip.”

Dhilan leaned in to the camera. “A prosthetic microchip? Into whom?”

“Anna. Who else?”

“You want to install a neural prosthetic into Anna’s brain? Now?” asked Dhilan, whose demeanor reflected his surprise.

“You’re the neuroscientist. Hasn’t Dr. Mescher been experimenting with implants?”

“I’m impressed. For a moment I thought we had secretly given you an implant,” Dhilan said stoically. “Although Mescher is stuck in a cave some refer to as Area 51, that is off base even for me.”

“Well, not for this,” Crane said, folding his arms across his chest and sitting back in his chair, thinking about Wesley’s suggestion that Dominika might already have a chip in her brain.

“Do you know anything about a human test with a microchip implant?” Crane asked.

“Someone anonymously wrote an article on the resulting self-destruction of AI, citing a test in Russia by MIPT,” he said. “Sorry, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. You’ll have to talk to Mescher about that.”

“Well, what if someone had the implant? What would that mean?”

“If Anna had a neural prosthetic, a microchip implanted on one of her neurons, we could read her thoughts, given we reverse-engineered the Telepathic Auditor.

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