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  Chapter 17

  Toshiro: “Hello. Kim! Why are you calling me in the afternoon? I thought I was going to call you tonight. Anyway, I am always happy when you call me. I miss you so much.”

  Kim: “Hi Darling. I am calling you because I need you to do me a favor. I just bought a custom skateboard online, the guy painted it for me. It’s not for me, it’s for Cristina. I think she’s going to love it. He is going to be at the skate park this afternoon. Can you be there at 3 o’clock and pick it up for me?”

  Toshiro: “Sure. I was going to walk by the park anyway. I need to go to the market.”

  Kim: “Don’t tell Amanda or Cristina if you see them. This is a surprise. He wears a football jersey with number 10 on it. His name is Jim.”

  Toshiro: “Okay. Talk to you tonight. Bye honey.”

  I am sitting on the bench, watching the kids feature their new stunts. This is the same bench on which I kissed Toshiro for the first time. He followed me from Voilà! I was trying some new grab trick off the ramp. I felled flat on my face. I was a bit hurt. He ran to pick me up. He took me to the bench. We had been eyeing each other for a few weeks. But we were both afraid to make a move. He was touching my right cheek to evaluate the damage. I had a little bruise, nothing too bad. I put my hand on top of his. I landed a kiss on his lips.

  I need to come clean with him. But I want to take baby steps at it. I don’t want to scare him away. I want to prepare him for when I will have to expose the complete story to him. This may have to happen faster than I wish it would.

  I can still remember that ice cold, scary voice. “I am the sum. I am one.” Not exactly like a GPS voice. A female voice. The coldness was unbearable. An emotion so strong yet alien. It was icing my blood. I still shiver sometimes when I think about it.

  3 o’clock. I see Toshiro at the entrance of the park. He is looking around for Jim. Good luck with that, Toshiro. I am excited like a little girl. He spots me. A big smile appears on his face. He is laughing, joyful. We jump into each other’s arms.

  Toshiro: “Kim, you are a fantastic woman!”

  Kim: “Toshiro, hold me again.”

  Toshiro: “So good to see you. What a surprise. What brings you here?”

  I point at the schoolbag on the bench, with a fake annoyed student expression on my face: “Homeworks.”

  …

  We are sitting on the bench, baking in the late April sun. We are together.

  I put my phone on the bench next to my schoolbag, at some distance from me.

  Kim: “Watch this.”

  After 10 seconds, my screen wakes up. We can see Toshiro’s picture on it. Toshiro’s phone starts to ring.

  Toshiro: “Get out! What was that?”

  Kim: “Wait.”

  A few seconds elapse. Toshiro’s phone emits a beep.

  He looks it up. It’s a text from me.

  Toshiro: “It’s from you, a text. i love you. The i should be upper case.”

  Kim: “Give me a break!”

  We both laugh, but Toshiro’s laughter is expressing incredulity.

  Toshiro: “How did you do that?”

  Kim: “I was practicing on the airplane. I am getting better at it. I can remote control my phone through the app. It takes practice.”

  Toshiro: “Spooky! “

  Kim: “Don’t worry. I am not connected to Neocuris. Well not anymore. I am in local mode.”

  Toshiro: “You mean, you use the chip to make calls and send texts?”

  Kim: “Well not quite effectively yet. As you can see, I am still a bit limited when it comes to my superpowers.”

  Toshiro: “What else have you been hiding from me?”

  I pause. I don’t want to go too far. He needs time to absorb what it all means.

  Kim: “Well, the idea is I am just testing some features here. In disconnected mode. It’s kind of fun. We were anticipating some of the possibilities, but we also found some surprises.”

  We start to walk back to Voilà! He unlocks and pushes the door for me. The restaurant will reopen in a few hours for dinner. Amanda is sitting at a table, adding some numbers on a piece of paper.

  Amanda: “Kim, what a nice surprise! What are you doing here?”

  I drop by schoolbag and my board next to the table. I take a seat.

  Kim: “Homeworks.”

  Amanda: “Ah, I see. Well maybe you can help Cristina with her homeworks. She is at home, she is preparing for an exam. I will give her a call. She will be happy to see you. You know that you are her superhero, don’t you?”

  Toshiro: “Right said, Amanda.”

  Toshiro is looking at me, sporting a grin, shaking his head. He walks into the kitchen with his bag from the market.

  Chapter 18

  Second Monday of May now. The weather in Portland is turning very nice. I want to take Cristina to the office before she heads over to Los Angeles. We had a great weekend. I took Cristina and Amanda to a whale watching tour on Saturday. We climbed Mount St-Helens on Sunday and we took a peek at the volcano. Gorgeous landscapes and waterfalls!

  Cristina brought her skateboard. We spent some time at the skate park together. She showed me some of the new tricks kids teach each others in Los Angeles nowadays.

  I walk into the office with Cristina. Pro has updated the security to meet the Neocuris standards. We have to register her as a guest. The agent takes a picture. Cristina has to produce her ID. She puts her student card on the desk for the agent. He takes a look at the picture on the card, then at Cristina. The agent looks at me with a smile, registering that I am taking my little sister to the workplace for a tour.

  We start to walk around a bit.

  Kim: “This is where I work. It is kind of in the middle of a transition right now between New Forensics, being relocated in New York City, and Neocuris Pro.”

  Cristina: “Wow! Cool. What are all those books?”

  Kim: “Some talk about computer security, others talk about hackers. And also software development. This is a campus where people create new software. And tools to maintain and to protect the software. We also need to protect the information associated with the patients and customers who trust us.”

  Cristina: “This looks like an exciting place to work at!”

  Kim: “I want to introduce you to some of my friends. Anima will take you for a tour. I need to sit down with Eric and Kevin in the conference room. An hour maximum.”

  Anima is now joining us in the hall.

  Anima: “You must be Cristina? My name is Anima. I work with your sister. She is amazing. She told me you are even smarter than her. Let me take you around.”

  I walk into the conference room. Eric and Kevin are sitting already. They look serious.

  Eric: “Welcome back Kim. We missed you. How you’ve been? Making progress with the study material?”

  Kim: “Hi Eric. Yes, the break was needed. And I enjoy the book, very anecdotal, lots of insightful information in it. It feels almost like reading and enjoying multiple short stories, while I am learning at the same time. Bianca was right about it.”

  Kevin: “Hi Kim. Good to see you. I am just coming back myself from Canada, I was in Montreal for the weekend. I want to bring the family here soon for vacation. So much to explore. As soon as school is over, I fly the whole party down here. They have been asking about you again.”

  Eric: “We did not want to bother you while you were in San Francisco, but we had to deal with a few things while you were away.”

  Kevin: “I and Eric we were both contacted. Just some sort of introduction. Similar to the one you got. I am the sum. I am one.”

  Eric: “Yes, pretty freaky. That thing, he, scared me for a second or two.”

  Kim: “What do you mean ‘he’? I thought I sensed a female presence when the thing signaled me.”

  Kevin: “Oh boy!”

  Eric: “Kamal is still working day and night with the 3 teams. They have been playing cat and mouse since you left with the new bot. That thing is smar
ter than we thought at first. It is kind of self-tuning, it appears. The teams can spot irregular patterns of activity, but it is like a fleeting ghost in the machine.”

  Kevin: “Despite the ghost analogy part, it is in there for sure. It leaves traces behind. But it is constantly on the move, reinventing itself in different systems. We believe it is also redundant.”

  Kim: “Has anything happened? Anything bad?”

  Eric: “No. Not really. We are just very concerned about what’s going on. We don’t know what to do anymore. And by the way, the police found some evidence that the doctor the thing identified for us is dirty. That he was associated with the last attack.”

  Kevin: “We are losing the control over to this entity. We don’t know if it is friend or foe. So far it looks like this thing is on a mission to protect the vault and the patients. Maybe even to improve the vault. It is a learning entity. We spotted patterns that make us feel that it is analyzing, even testing some hypothesis by simulating real traffic.”

  Eric: “Kamal says that at this point, the only thing we could do is to shut down the whole network. But obviously, we cannot do that. Some patients may die or suffer. I have a bad feeling that this thing is fully aware of this state of affairs.”

  Kevin: “You have been off the grid for a while. Are you considering going back to active mode?”

  Kim: “Actually, I have been experimenting a lot with the app. I am getting better at interfacing with the app. Through the app. I was able to teach myself a few tricks. I and reach the other apps on my phone. For example I can initiate a call if the number is in the list of recent callers or recent outgoing calls. I can even type a text. Toshiro does not appreciate me showing off those tricks though. He calls them spooky.”

  Kevin: “Yeah, I have been starting to experience something like that too, maybe. I made a lot of pocket calls recently. Carolyn has been complaining about those. She listens to me walking outside or talking, the sound muffled from inside my pocket. Maybe that’s the explanation.”

  Eric: “How is Toshiro doing? He could not come this time?”

  Kim: “Well, since Amanda is here, he is holding the fort now. They cannot both be away from the restaurant at the same time. Not yet.”

  Kim: “I have to go back to Social now to say goodbye to Amanda and Cristina. But I will be back after lunch.”

  Kevin: “That is fine, take your time. Isn’t your sister here with you? Won’t you introduce her to us?”

  Kim: “Sure. She is with Anima now. Let me go get them.”

  I open the door of the conference room. Anima and Cristina are walking down the hall. I wave at them.

  Kim: “Kevin, this is my little sister Cristina. Eric, you know Cristina already.”

  Kevin: “Nice to meet you Cristina. You look like your big sister a lot. Are you also skateboarding?”

  Cristina: “Yes sir. There is a skate park near my home in Los Angeles. I meet my friends there every day.”

  Kevin: “Nice to meet you Cristina. Will you be back here in June after school? I can introduce you to my daughters, Sophie and Isabelle. And my son, Jonathan. I am planning to get them down here as soon as school is over for vacation. So much to explore around here. I have not been out a lot yet, only work.”

  Cristina: “If Kim invites me back, maybe.”

  Kim: “You can come back visit me anytime you want Cristina. And I want you to meet Carolyn. She’s Kevin’s wife. She is very nice.”

  Eric: “Well, have a safe trip back to Los Angeles Cristina.”

  Kim: “I’ll be back this afternoon.”

  Chapter 19

  2 pm. We are back in the conference room. Anima, Kevin, Eric and Kamal got in here before me. Everybody is serious, even tense. This feels more like a war room.

  Eric: “Kim, have a seat. We have a few things to show to you. Kamal, can you kick this off?”

  Kamal is projecting to the screen over wireless. He gets up. He moves closer to the screen, ready to operate it with his fingers.

  Kamal: “This is the new advanced dashboard. It is 3 dimensional, with advanced real time statistics and metrics. A lot of color coding. And also it supports full drill down and zooming.”

  I can see a lot of information. Pop-up boxes appear and disappear in the corners, with real-time statistics and metrics.

  Kamal: “Kim, pick up a country.”

  Kim: “The United States.”

  Kamal moves 2 fingers apart over North America. We now see a zoom on the United States, with Alaska and Hawaii floating to the left.

  Kamal: “Now, pick a city.”

  Kim: “San Francisco. No wait, Los Angeles.”

  Kamal repeats the finger movement over the West Coast. He repeats one more time over Los Angeles. We see Santa Monica to the north, Long Beach to the south, Pasadena towards the mountains. We also see a different screen now, with new color coded circles, pop-up boxes in the corners with additional color coded information. The screen is busy, but I guess some analyst with a trained eye can makes sense of all this.

  Kamal zooms into a random area on the 3D map. Irvine comes up, we can start to make out the streets, I see an airport and the large boulevards. We see a dot moving on the highway. The moving dot takes an exit. There is a pop-up now in the upper left corner with a title: Intervention Time. A clock is ticking in the pop-up, with statistics being updated. The box flashes green, clock is stopped. Another pop-up shows up in lower right corner with averages and more color coded information.

  Kevin: “Neocuris patient. Medical support just arrived.”

  Kamal pinches the screen with a twist, then spread the fingers over approximately where the dot is stopped. The perspective is now switched to city view, we can make out the sky line.

  Kim: “Wow! This is way better than the dashboards you showed me before. Congratulations Kamal! Nice job.”

  Everybody is silent in the room. All eyes on me. What’s going on? I can feel my smile turn into something else. My mind is running.

  Kim: “Kamal, don’t tell me…”

  Kamal is shaking his head up and down, slowly.

  Kamal: “I have nothing to do with this. My team has nothing to do with this. Neocuris and New Forensics teams either. They actually asked me about who’s done it.”

  Kevin: “It either came with the upgrade, or the bot assembled it afterwards. It was added as an optional dashboard into the command center recently.”

  The meeting is over. I go to the break room with Anima.

  Anima: “Kim, it’s so good to have you back.”

  Kim: “Same here Anima. I missed you guys.”

  Kim: “Anima, what do you think about all this?”

  Anima: “I believe the entity is on a mission. It also came preconfigured with some very good algorithms and advanced analytics capabilities. But we did not design this entity. We don’t know if flaws or bugs could appear down the road. We have no assurance whatsoever that it is the right thing to do to let this entity rule the vault. We can only guess about its real intentions, if it has intentions, or some sort of master plan.”

  Kim: “Wow! I guess we did not see that one coming.”

  Anima: “Yes, you are right. Kamal says the security teams are being blamed now for the situation. But at the same time, the Neocuris network has been spreading fast. New hires have all been subjected to a comprehensive screening process. Opportunities have emerged for the bad guys. And when there is an opportunity, there is a bad guy. Or the temptation to become a bad guy. Insider threat is difficult to eliminate completely.”

  We pause for a few seconds. I can see that Anima is tense, like everybody else at the office.

  Kim: “Anima, it feels so good to be with you again. Why don’t you join me at Social tonight. I know you are vegan, and I think you will appreciate Leon’s cuisine.”

  Anima: “Well, I am not exactly vegan, but yes it is easier to say vegan. It is a little bit more complicated than that. But yes I can eat vegan. I accept your invitation.”

&
nbsp; Chapter 20

  7 pm. I push the door open and let Anima enter first. We dispose of our phones. I sent a text to Toshiro to let him know we are in Social just before we got in. I wanted him to know that I will step out at 9 pm to receive his call, or a text if he cannot yet call me at that time. He is probably busy by now.

  Sarah: “Hi Kim. I see you have company.”

  Kim: “Yes, Sarah, this is Anima, from the office.”

  Sarah: “Nice to meet you Anima. Kim told me about how great a person you are. I am so glad to finally meet you.”

  Anima: “Hi Sarah. And thank you for the warm welcome. Kim also said a lot of good things about you. I was also looking forward to meet you.”

  Sarah: “Let me walk you to your table.”

  Leon waves at me. We can see him turn around. He opens a cupboard, and he grabs some ingredients. He turns back to look at us with a smile. He winks. One never gets a second chance to make a good first impression.

  Sarah invites herself to sit at our table while we are waiting for the first helping. Eric drops by as well. He takes a seat.

  Sarah: “Kim, it was so wonderful to get to meet your mother and your little sister Cristina. Cristina looks a lot like you. She is just like you probably were at her age.”

  Eric has a grin on his face. I know what he is thinking.

  The small plates Leon is fixing for us are amazing. We can sense his progress as a chef. Maybe the exchanges with Toshiro are also motivating him to experiment further. He is inspired tonight.

  I have a great time with Anima. I think she is relaxing now. She needed a break. The atmosphere is so tense at the office. She is a wonderful, loving person. I am getting to know her better every day.

  Anima: “Kim, it is 9 pm. Don’t you want to check if Toshiro tried to call you?”

  Kim: “Oh, yeah, that’s right. Silly me, I lost track of time. I guess that is what happens when one is in good company. I’ll be back in 5 minutes.”

  I grab my phone from the plastic bag. I get outside Social. I wait for my phone to pick up a signal. I am getting 3 bars now, let’s wait a few minutes.