They sat in a conference room in Lake Geneva, home of Mother. True to its name, Lake Geneva was a small Homeplex dominated by a lake. Mother lived beneath it. The water kept her cool.
Trumbull said, “Not only is Mark a highly-skilled data security consultant, he is also our spy. He is The Fox we use to invade The Hen-house, in a way.”. Mark grinned at The <em>Fox</em> reference, giving it a different meaning than Trumbull intended. “We sent Mark to probe for any enemy corrupting an AI, and NoWhere was The best place to listen for it…”
Bob chimed in, “Quit beating around The bush. We’re talking Gilead, and NoWhere is Their likely first target.” Trumbull flashed a lop-sided smirk at Bob, his old friend & original husband.
Mark de-crypted The message to show The data he got from Nowhere. “The variables are short & obscure, to make it harder for a hacker to understand. Each variable means something different when The Security AI switches modes, and The results are sent to its corresponding script to be translated into real observations & actionable items. We hackers call this The Obscurata Pattern. It is simple, and effective even in this day & age”.
Next to it, he put up The data from the backup server. They just looked like tables with gibberish & numbers. But both were nearly identical except for 1 value, which was a 1.456376 instead of -0.324563. “Again, this is gibberish to The eye, but let me show you The analysis I got from The AI when I ran this rule…”, and it was immediately clear to everybody. The AI placed a hold on Mark’s dummy message, But the backup server said, “Pass, trusted.”. Mark Then showed The dummy message he used to trigger The discrepancy… it was tagged with a Keane West private wallet and a Gilead wallet. Bob said, “Nowhere is a private channel for secret Gideon traffic.”
Trumbull said, “It’s even worse than that. Gilead smuck in an AI, ArchAngel and it is corrupting that back-up server.”
Judy paled, “A clone of The AI that killed billions on old Earth.” My parents…
Bob said, “I warned Mother the White Christian Fanatics were going to whack us & remake HomePlex in Their image. But no, she had to grant Them Asylum. Then Sanctuary. Then Their home. Then our homes…
Nick said, “We are now in a Cold War. Gilead will likely conquer NoWhere and use that as a staging ground for the real push”
Nobody said anything. Nick said, “You’re supposed to ask me ‘what?’”.
Marge said, “Well, what?”. Everybody applauded Marge, who bowed. Nick answered, “What else? They want to kill Mother and put ArchAngel in control”. Everybody went silent.
Marge said, “Well, that’s a pisser”. They all laughed. Marged asked, “What do we do about it?” and looked at Nick. Nick said, “We store The ingredients in The freezer so They’ll be ready when we need Them.”
Is everything about FOOD?”, Marge asked, exasperated. “I’m hungry.”, Nick said.
Trumbull said, “We continue sleeping like The lamb while we Wolf up. Knowing The enemy’s next step is half The battle.
Judy clapped her hand, “Well, on that happy note, let’s eat!”
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