Read Online The Last Firewall by William Hertling - Free Book Online

to smile, to project a sense of calm he didn’t feel. “Work from home, the way corporations do it. I know we all like coming in here where the bandwidth is high and we can chat with each other. But that’s not how most information workers do it. It’s just for a few days until this, whatever it is, blows over.”
    There were grumbles, but people started to collect their belongings.
    A blue robot named Sawyer wheeled up. “Do you recommend that we go home as well?”
    He was joined by another bot named Sharp. “I don’t have a home. I live here at the Institute.”
    Leon’s stomach dropped at the thought of all the bots and AI in the building. “Don’t go out. It’s not safe.” He thought about going to the window to look out, and then realized that would be a mistake. Someone outside might spot him. “Look, is Mike here?”
    “In his office,” Sawyer said.
    “OK. I need to talk to him. You two investigate some other options. You’re probably safe here if we keep the building locked down, but you might want to see about getting a helicopter to land on the roof and take all the AI out.”
    Leon thought about the small data center in the basement that housed about a hundred AI employees. “Sawyer, anyone who is virtual should move to another data center.”
    “They’re trying,” the bot said, “but we’re under a denial of service attack. Bandwidth in and out is limited.”
    “Shit. Do what you can. I need to talk to Mike.” He headed for their shared office and yanked the door open. He stopped on the threshold and called back, “Have the helicopter bring a portable mass storage device and make a backup of all resident AI.”
    He turned back to the room, letting the door close behind him. Mike was deep in concentration. His status was set to On Call. Leon sent a priority note to let him know he was there.
    Mike held up one finger, and Leon sat down to wait. Within seconds Mike stood up. “I eked out a low bandwidth call with Rebecca. She says the People’s Party have been whipped into a frenzy by their leadership, and the protests are expected to continue.”
    “How could this get out of hand so quickly?” Leon asked. “A month ago this wasn’t on anyone’s radar.”
    Mike slowly shook his head, clearly bewildered. “I don’t know.” He stared helplessly at the wall. “Rebecca says we’re in danger. That we should avoid going outside if we can help it.”
    “No shit. What about Sonja and the Enforcement Team?”
    Mike paced to the interior window, looking over the main work room, now nearly cleared out. “I know Sonja went to San Diego with the team. Obviously they were investigating the murder. But who was she going to see? What clue tipped her off? I have no idea. Her case files are so heavily wrapped in encryption that none of the resident AIs think there is a hope of cracking them. She obviously feared the case being compromised.”
    “We can’t give up!” Leon walked over to Mike.
    Mike turned his head to meet his gaze. “No, I am not suggesting that. We still need to get to San Diego and track her down. It’s just . . . It’s going to be a lot harder now.” He gestured at the empty room.
    No one to back them up. No one to give them support. Having to get across the country without being spotted by the extremists. “Yeah,” he said, somberly. “Don’t tell Rebecca we’re going, or she’ll say no. She’ll make the Secret Service babysit us.”
    Mike nodded.
    “We need to talk to the AI that Sonja mentioned, Shizoko,” Leon said, after a pause. “It must have more information.”
    “Shizoko Reynolds,” Mike said. “I spent some time researching it. It’s an odd duck.” Mike pushed files into their netspace. “Class IV artificial intelligence. That alone makes it hard to understand. And Shizoko is a loner, the sole tenant of the Austin Convention Center. Its origin is even weirder. At the last SXSW Interactive conference eight years ago they had a workshop on