The Turing Option

“I don’t see—” Brian jumped to his feet and shouted. “Yes, I do see. That is not only relevant but mind-blasting. That floor was poured the day after the robbery at Megalobe!”

33 September 21, 2024

“You really threw the cat among the pigeons,” Benicoff said when Brian let him into the lab. “Your little bit of information about that slab being poured, right after the theft here at Megalobe, has the FBI running in circles, burning the midnight oil, getting court orders — the works. It has really been something to see. I don’t think anyone has been to bed since you dropped your bombshell.”

“If those black circles under your eyes mean anything, that includes you too.”

“It does — and don’t offer me any coffee. I’m beginning to sweat caffeine.” He looked at the open door, the empty workstation. “Where’s Shelly?”

“In her quarters. This morning she had a call that her father had a heart attack and they’ve rushed him to the hospital. She’s been on the phone all day. The family seems pretty close and she’s upset that she can’t get out of here. General Schorcht is taking the matter under consideration — the same consideration he has shown me when I asked for a weekend pass. A solid stone wall for openers and he’ll get back to her later, his office says. He’s a mean old sonofabitch.”

“He’s worse but I can’t think of a word for it now. As you know from the reports, things at DigitTech have calmed down a bit. It doesn’t look like any of the employees were in on the theft, although some of the lab technicians are still being questioned. Everyone else has been sent home on vacation, with the qualifier that they can’t leave Austin until the fate of the company has been decided.”

“It has. I sat in on a meeting of the board of directors here. You knew that they confirmed Kyle Rohart as Managing Director? Well now he is the new Chairman. All the assets of DigitTech have been put in the hands of the receiver. The stock is almost worthless, since the main stockholders bailed out as soon as it became clear that the company had no rights to their principal product — my AI. Have you been able to track any of them yet?”

“No — and I doubt if we ever will. Offshore companies, shell companies, the trail gets very weak, then flickers out.”

“But this is criminal — not financial! The stock in the company was dumped minutes after Thomsen was killed. That’s evidence that the killers and the stockholders are in cahoots.”

“That’s suspicion, Brian, not proof, and wouldn’t hold up in a court of law. So it’s certainly not good enough to get around the banking secrecy laws in the dozen countries involved. We’ll keep searching but I doubt if we’ll ever find out who they were. In any case they took a financial bath, getting back about a nickel on the dollar.”

“I feel for them. Anyway, it looks as though permission will be granted for Megalobe to buy up the assets of DigitTech. That will get around the tricky legal point of proving that their AI is our AI and so forth. Now my lawyer and Megalobe’s lawyers are going ten rounds again to decide if I should share in any profits from Bug-Off, since under my old contract I would just be told to bug off. Lots of fun. And what brings you here?”

“A TV hookup. Let me dial through on the lab phone and get the FBI. They’ve been working all night down there in Austin, floodlights and a hundred agents. Everything has been stripped out of the laboratory — and I mean everything — right down to the tiles on the floor. You know what comes next—”

“They crack into the slab?”

“That’s right. There is a lot of interest on everyone’s part as to what might be buried under there. Now let me set up that link.”

Brian turned on the TV as Ben went to the phone. The set had been monitoring and recording all the news programs that had mentioned the investigation. Now the DigitTech plant came up on the screen, a half mile away at least, since it quavered in the air distortion of the Texas sun. The telescopic lens zoomed even closer past the guards to the blank wall of the building.

“… speculation is rife as to exactly what is happening inside this factory. The official report simply says that a criminal investigation is under way relating to thefts earlier this year from a company in California. The explosion at this factory three days ago that killed two and wounded a third man, reputed to be a Federal agent, is part of this investigation. A full report has been promised later.”

“We can do better than that,” Ben said, then spoke into his phone. “Are you there, Dave? Yes, we’re ready to receive. Which channel? Right, ninety-one.” Brian touched the remote control and Agent Manias appeared on the screen, phone in hand.

“We read you loud and clear.”

“All right. I’ll cut you into the Austin line.”