AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There are elements in the Pentagon who are gaming going to war over this.”
War. With China. The ultimate nightmare. Because Pierce knew that it wasn’t a given that we’d win. And what was left of the US after war would be devastation and chaos.
“It would be a huge tragedy because there’s more,” she said, and tapped on the key pad. “Deepfakes are produced using an iterative process. I’m very interested in imagery and I developed an app to deep dive. I was able to peel away the layers and get to the original video, which is this.”
Again she tapped a button and the screen came alive. It was the same scene, only it wasn’t PLA soldiers but Western soldiers. Wearing uniforms with a black and gold symbol on their shoulders. They watched in silence. Pierce hadn’t seen this before. Knowing those were soldiers on our side, viciously killing American scientists made him heartsick.
“Those are operators working for the Sommers Group,” Pierce said, stunned, and Black nodded. Well, duh. Black knew that logo as well as he did. But he was taken completely aback. The Sommers Group was a well-known security company, smaller than Black Inc. and ASI, but very successful, even if they had a rep for hiring cowboy operators and for skirting the line of legality.
But this? Wholesale slaughter?
“So we are looking at what? American operators viciously attacking an American research group? Why? It doesn’t make sense. I won’t insult you by asking if you’re sure,” Black said to Riley.
“Oh yeah,” She didn’t look insulted, she looked sad. “I’m sure. But it’s going to be very hard to prove. And they are sweeping up after themselves. I showed this video to my boss, Henry Yu, and–” her throat constricted. It took her a moment to find her voice again. “And they killed him. A quarter of an hour after he said he was kicking this upstairs, he was dead. He kicked it, but someone kicked back, hard.”
Fuck. He knew it was bad, but this was sounding worse by the minute.
“Wait.” Black frowned. “Your boss was killed?”
Riley nodded, straight white-blonde hair swinging. Her eyes were shiny. “Right in the building. I don’t know how they did it or how they got away with it. And the bad thing is, for the moment, all the proof I have of the creation of the deepfake is on a thumb drive I gave Henry. I don’t think it was found on his body, so we can be sure that the thumb drive has been destroyed or has been hidden somewhere way beyond our reach.”
Pierce touched her arm and was gratified when she leaned into him. God. Any comfort he could give, he would. “Can you replicate that thumb drive?”
He was sure she’d say yes. He’d rarely heard the Geniuses—Felicity, Hope and Emma—say no, they couldn’t do something. It was alwaysyes, I’ll move mountains to do it.So he was surprised when she shook her head. “I can’t. Or rather I could if I had my computer. But I don’t. It’s in my apartment.”
Black indicated Pierce’s laptop, the best money could buy. “This won’t do it?”
She shook her head again, but this time had aget realexpression on her face. “No. It just doesn’t have the power. Or the programs.”
“Can we get it for you? Can we—I don’t know—link two computers together, double the computing power?”
She sighed. “It’s not a question of computing power, or storage. It’s more a question of programming. My computer has a couple of programs on it that this one doesn’t have.” She held up a hand. “And I don’t have the originals to load. But let’s skip over that and—” Riley stopped, mouth open, staring at the TV on the wall. Both Pierce and Black turned.
Riley’s face was on the screen. Riley switched on the sound.
The news anchor was reading from a sheet.“… Robinson, an employee of the National Surveillance Office in Chantilly, Virginia, is wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Henry Yu, a senior official of the NSO. The National Surveillance Office is the government agency that originally released the infamous tape of a platoon of Chinese soldiers brutally attacking a group of American scientists studying viruses in a remote region of the Democratic Republic of Congo two days ago. The video has created deep tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.
“Henry Yu was found dead in his office of a gunshot wound to the head. However, our sources have confirmed that the angle of the shot was difficult to square with a suicide and the gun was held in Yu’s right hand, when records show he was left-handed.
“Moreover, elements within the NSO confirmed that Riley Robinson and Henry Yu were having an illicit affair.”
Pierce heard Riley taking in a shocked breath.
“The prevailing theory is that Ms. Robinson, a computer imaging expert working for the NSO, was working with Mr. Yu, trying to keep the video from leaking and incriminating Chinese military, and shot Mr. Yu for reasons unknown. A falling-out among spies. Stay tuned for more on The News Today at 6.”
A flurry of martial music, the news logo breaking up and reassembling in vivid colors, and the program ended.
Pierce clicked the TV off.
Riley was bone-white and shaking. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth. She looked more shocked than she had when running away from men with guns.
“I—” Her mouth opened and closed.
Whoever was orchestrating this was a genius, because if she was somehow a threat to some power, she was now not only the object of a womanhunt of professional soldiers, but also of law enforcement.
Pierce sent up a big thanks to Hope and Emma for getting him involved, because Riley was otherwise a dead woman walking. He knew from his friends back in Portland that she was super smart, genius-level. And really nice and a good friend.
But that didn’t give you street smarts. Didn’t ensure that you could stay alive with a lot of men with guns hunting you. Without him, without Jacob Black’s backing and the safe house, she’d have been dead by now.
