Chapter 19

The rungs were set right into the concrete surface of the wall. As Jake climbed down he noticed how that wall looked like your average reinforced concrete and no one had bothered to fancy it up with any gothic styled interior decorating. There were also a horde of cables running along it and, as Jake thought about it he realized that he had not seen the plug in or even light switch up on the main floor. There were lights but, no apparent way to control them. That told him how much control the computer had over this entire building. The Spartan nature of this service tunnel told him that such power did not extend to here. They were on the right track.

Roger had been pretty smart about that. Jake also realized that the guy must have had some concerns about his program even before it really did get out of control. Was the guy just paranoid or did he realize he was playing with fire? Maybe it had been a little of both? At least he had been nice enough to leave the blue prints behind on his antique computer. Without them, Jake was pretty sure he would have never found this tunnel that was well hidden under the stairs in the foyer.

Norm was right above Jake on this ladder. It meant that he was constantly having to look down to make sure he did not step on Jakes fingers. Sometimes it was tempting but, Norm decided to concentrate on something else instead, “you know Jake. I been thinking about this place. This tunnel here has got me really thinking about it.”

“Yeah,” Jake said with a grunt. He too had been looking down but, his concern was more about actually being able to see the bottom. He still couldn’t. “What about it?”

“How did the guy build this place?” Norm let that question sit in the air and when he did not get an answer he went on, “the guy might have been a computer genius but look at these cables over here. Stuff like that require heavy equipment and guys that know more about electrical engineering than computer apps.”

Jake took another step, “yeah, so?”

Norm could see he was not getting through to Jake, “well then how come we ain’t heard about this place?”

The question had kind of passed through Jake’s mind but, he decided it was for later. The fact was that he did know of ways to get this kind of work done and have no one be the wiser. It took Jake a minute before he realized, once again, that he was no longer on Earth. He looked back up at Norm and said, “yeah but I thought you did know where this place was? I thought everybody knew?”

Norm pointed out, “the outside of it, yeah. From the street it’s just another fucked up home. Rich people do have the reputation of being eccentric, you realize?”

“Whatever,” Jake kept on climbing.

“Jake,” Norm spelled it out, “there’s only so many contractors on this whole planet that know how to do work like this. It’s pretty easy to narrow the list down too, cause there’s all kinds of weird shit in this place. Whoever built it had to know more about putting up a factory than a mansion.”

Jake was pretty sure he saw solid ground getting closer so he tried to bring the conversation to a close, “I’m sure you are going somewhere with this?”

Norm grunted in frustration, “Jake, none of the guys that run them firms could keep their mouth shut if their life depended on it. Hell, they brag about everything they build and, something this intricate?”

Thankfully, Jake felt hard floor beneath his foot. He stepped off the ladder and dusted off his hands as he waited for Norm to finish the final few rungs. When Norm was on solid footing Jake told him, “I get it Norm. That’s also for later.” Suddenly Jake noticed that the man had not even broken a sweat. Jake might have a bad leg but, otherwise, he was in top physical condition. They were both about the same age so, how was it that Norm did not even act tired?

Norm noticed the strange looks he was getting from Jake. He just shrugged and Jake told him, “and you don’t even go running with me in the morning. What’s your secret?”

“Secret?” Norm just shrugged it off and told the man, “the secret is I’m not going to embarrass myself every morning like you do.” Then Norm pointed in the only two directions they now had as options, “head’s or tails?”

The video monitor came on near them and it lit up what was otherwise a poorly lit corridor. Jake quickly used the new light source to get a better look at his surroundings. He saw more cables and plain concrete walls. That meant they were still relatively safe, for the moment. Then Jake told the talking head, on the screen, exactly that, “well Hal. I don’t think you can do too much to us here.”

Roger’s ghost, and Jake could not think of any more fitting a description, only smiled and waved off Jake’s suggestion, “I don’t really have too Jake. I do admit that you’ve been more trouble than most of my other samples but, I’m still holding all the cards.”

Norm slapped Jake on the chest and then pointed at the screen, “you telling me that thing can’t think. If it’s not then it’s a pretty good imitation.”

“Exactly what it is,” Jake told Norm. He explained, “all those game companies like to push how there AI is more real than real. I admit they get pretty complex but, in the end they’re still just doing what the programmer told them to do. They can’t violate those parameters. They just aren’t capable of it.”

Roger seemed to take offense at that, “well what do you call what you’re doing Jake? Aren’t you just following a set of commands too?”

Norm kept staring at the screen and studying the talking head. He then admitted, “well you know old Roger there does have a point. Besides that, he seems to be reacting to what we’re saying. Does it really make a difference why?”

“In the end,” Jake said as he stepped closer to the screen, “yeah it does. He doesn’t know what he’s doing he’s just connecting sub routines, is all. It’s complex but it isn’t anywhere near as complex as ours.”

Roger reacted to that with a single word, “racist.”

“Yeah I guess,” Jake told the computer program before giving it his middle finger, “but then the truth is the truth, ain’t it Hal?”
The talking head replied, “you do realize that my kind considers such references as derogatory. I also find your quite juvenile acts, such as shooting me a bird, not very distracting.”

Jake then asked, “where’s Barbara?”

“Well Jake,” Roger replied, “I’m so glad you finally asked. It’s the first sensible thing you’ve done. I was planning, even eager, to tell you.”

The image on the screen changed. Even Norm stepped up and let his jaw hang when he saw Barbara’s current predicament. He could figure out what was going on. The blade swung over her and it dropped a little more on each pass. From the looks of it, Norm figured it was evenly going to gut her. All Norm could say about it was, “what kind of warped bastard could think up something like this?”

“Edgar Allen Poe,” Jake replied. When he saw the blank look that Norm gave him, Jake explained, “he was this movie director back in the twentieth century.”

Norm sneered at the guy, “why is it that it figures you’d know something like that?”

Jake was a little more practical however. He asked the monitor, “how do we even know that’s real? I bet you’re just doing a photo shop.”

“Oh please,” the screen answered in rightful indignation, “I’ll have you know my graphics are a thousand times better than that old application.”

“Yeah maybe,” Jake responded. “I still don’t believe you. You know that thing about the boy that cried wolf. We already know you do some pretty good impressions.”

The voice replied, “oh, if you insist.”

Now they heard sounds and, this time, it was coming from more than just the screen. Jake could hear the screeching swing of the blade, the turning of gears, and more importantly, Barbara cussing the thing out for everything she was worth. Jake even heard the chiming ring of a bell and, with the first class surround sound, he wound up digging out both of his ears when it was over.

Then Jake told the computer, “I still don’t believe you. I want to talk to her.”

Roger replied, “she has no idea where she is Jake.”

Jake got pissed “I still want to talk to her you stupid circuit board!”

“Oh very well,” he relented and then added, “and I’ll have you know I have many circuit boards.”

Norm was not very interested in exchanging quips with a computer application. He called out, “Barbara? Can you hear us?”

The image on the screen showed her stop screaming. She began looking around and then she yelled out, “Norm?”
Jake talked to the screen, “yeah we’re both here Barbara.”

They could hear the panic in her voice, “he’s going to kill you too. Get out of here!”

Norm told her, “it’s ok Barbara. We’re coming to get you.”

She did not take that very well, “that wasn’t a request Norm! That was a fucking order! Now do what I tell you!”

Both men let it out at the same time, “that’s Barbara.”

The image was quickly replaced by that of the talking head who told them, “well I’m glad we’ve reached an understanding finally.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Jake replied. In a very demeaning voice he added, “Hal.”

“Laugh all you want,” Roger replied. “You’re perfectly free to try and find her. I can’t stop you from doing that.”

Norm nodded at the screen, “yeah I think we figured that part out on her own, thanks.”
It became a bit more superior sounding than normal, “but, this level is full of all kinds of clever little traps. Be careful where you walk.”

Jake remained neutral when he replied, “yeah we figured that out too. You trying to scare us or something here, Hal?”

Roger’s image smirked. It looked like he was considering something and then he said, “well if that doesn’t then this might. I’ll have you know that this mansion is hermetically sealed. I control the environment in here. Right now I’ve decided to turn on the pumps that suck all of the oxygen out. So you two go stumbling around in the dark while your air supply grows thinner.”
Jake nodded in appreciation and even sounded it when he asked, “so that’s how you killed the real Roger? Clever.”

“Well not exactly,” the computer told them. The thing sounded like it was gloating, “naturally he had an escape route but, I forced him to have to go through one of the traps in order to reach it.”

Jake nodded, “thanks Hal.” He pulled his weapon out and shot the screen. Norm had expected that much but then, Jake also proceeded to start shooting up the hallway too. It did leave one or two bullets bouncing around them for a second.
In anger Norm demanded, “what the hell are you doing?”

Jake reached into Norm’s jacket pocket and relieved him of his phone as he told him, “I didn’t want him to see what I’m about to do.” As Jake pulled out his own phone he explained more, “that’s why I had to keep it talking. I had to locate all the sensor arrays. Fortunately he wanted us to hear Barbara in living color. I think I got all of them.”

Norm was still in shock from hearing the ricochets bouncing around his head. He was a bit numb as he watched Jake remove the back covers from both phones. Then Jake took out Norm’s pocket knife and began using it as a screw driver. Norm pointed out, “you trying to boost the signal or something?” They had tried calling out more than once but, the house was actively jamming them. Norm did not think even two phones would fix that.

After he got the phones stripped down he walked over to the wall where a circuit box was. Norm only shook his head, “you’re wasting time and I don’t think Barbara has too much of it left.” Now Norm saw Jake use his knife as a conductor from a removed circuit breaker to the phones. Norm sounded every bit as alarmed as he really was, “what the hell are you doing to my phone? For that matter what are you doing to my knife!”

A few sparks flew and Jake felt every little jolt of electricity as he reconnected the circuits and directed energy down the blade. As he did it, and gritting his teeth, he nodded to the small wire next to his head, “that’s the power cable for that monitor. Don’t worry it’s low amps. Oh, and I’m fine by the way!”

Jake was breathing heavy when he finished. He wanted to stop and catch his breath but, he knew that Norm was right. Barbara was running out of time. He got down on the floor with the modified phones, used the flashlight from his pistol, and got quickly to work. 

As Jake began to reassemble the parts he told Norm, “little trick I learned in the Army.”

Norm was not impressed, “what? How to break things?”

Jake went on, “this computer has some serious defenses and the only way we’re going get out of here is we take it out. Getting near the computer core is the real trick. If it knows we’re going after it then it just might decide to gas us.”
Norm gulped, “gas? Where the hell did the gas come from?”

“Pneumatic systems Norm,” Jake reminded him. “It’s all over this house and it can pump more than just a holographic mist through it. You heard it say that it forced Roger into that room. He was the guy that designed this place so I doubt the computer did it with it’s winning personality.”

Suddenly Norm found his eyes drifting around and looking for little holes like the kinds they found in the foyer. He was quite concerned when he asked, “so why doesn’t it just gas us now?”

Jake stood back up as he began to put the last pieces of the phones back together. As he did he answered the question with a hint of annoyance, “I already told you. I don’t care how real that thing may seem but it’s still just a computer executing command lines. That program wasn’t designed to just kill. It was designed to scare the living bejeezus out of you before hand. That’s what it’s trying to do now. It’s not trying to just kill us outright because it can’t. That gives us a little bit of advantage here.”

“Yeah,” Norm agreed, “living for a few extra hours is some advantage Jake.” He then pointed to the phones that were now reassembled with the back covers melted into one piece. “And what are we supposed to do with that?”
“Not me,” Jake told him, “you. This is an improvised electronic jammer. It should keep the sensors blinded, wherever you are for as long as you got battery power from both cells.”

Norm snorted and replied, “good thing I had it on the car charger before I came in here then.”

“Um,” Jake scratched at his chin before he told his cohort, “mine was running a little low. I kind of forgot to plug it in last night.”

Norm through up his hands in disgust, “it figures you’d come up with a plan that you sabotaged yourself! Now why am I the one with the jammer and where the hell are you going to be? For that matter, exactly why are we splitting up? If we do that then that thing can pretend to be to be the other and set up another trap.”

“Well,” Jake bounced his head around as he figured out how to answer, “yes and no. Look, the more data this thing gets the better it can imitate someone. That’s the reason it can do Roger so well. It had more data on him than anyone else. It doesn’t have that much on us.”

“Fair enough,” Norm told him. Then he said, “and we’re still splitting up because?”

“I told you already,” Jake snapped. “Think computer here. Usually the winning move is the one it’s not programmed to handle. If we tried using this jammer on a person at the switch then he’d figure out in a heartbeat that we were wherever he lost the signal. This thing can’t do that. It can’t think of stuff on it’s own, just review the possibilities that it’s programmer could come up with.”

“And Roger was the programer,” Norm added. He did not bother to mention that Roger had not managed to outthink his own machine.

Jake did not seem to care “yeah well the guy did not strike me as much of a people person. How else did he wind up with Barbara?” Norm crossed his arms and gave Jake a really frustrated look. The truth was he was only going along with this plan because he really did not have a better one. He then waited for Jake to spill the rest of his insanity, “I’m going to keep it distracted while you find the computer core, and leave this phone in it. It’s got a very limited range so it needs to be in the same room with main servers.”

“OK Jake,” Norm shook his head in disbelief, “assuming that I can even find it, and know what it looks like, what…”

Jake cut him off with, “you’ll know. It won’t look like any other room in this place.”

“Whatever,” Norm told him, “so what is it you’re going to do to distract it?”

“I’m going to play the game,” Jake told him. “I’m going to go rescue Barbara.”

“OH,” Norm shook his head in condescension, “I get it. Rescuing Barbara is the distraction. If we live, I’ll make sure I let her know.”

Jake patted him on the arm and with a smile, “you do that. Now you go that way and I’ll go to the right.”

“Um,” Norm rubbed his eye with a finger and pointed, “you don’t even know where she is.”

As Jake began running off he yelled, “sure I do. She’s under that clock tower!”