Chapter 89: Machine: I Want to Save Humanity (5000 words)
Dying here was clearly not an acceptable option.
For Control, everything remained possible only if she stayed alive.
Even if Samaritan wanted her eliminated, by nightfall, Samaritan must go offline.
This meant Samaritan could no longer operate with impunity.
So, regardless of logic or emotion, she had only one choice at this moment.
"I choose to cooperate with you."
David nodded and signaled Reese through the rearview mirror to pull over.
Then David said to Control:
"I know you have ten thousand schemes to teach us a harsh lesson when you return.
But I suggest you first investigate the relationship between John Greer and Vigilance.
Then you'll understand that everything I said is accurate.
If you can't prevent Samaritan from going operational, you will certainly die.
Now, exit the vehicle and find a hospital to treat that minor injury on your thigh!"
David opened the car door, and the sunlight—already slanted after noon—shone directly into the vehicle.
Control squinted at the sudden light, somewhat disbelieving that this David would actually just release her like this.
You must understand that her position dictated she could mobilize numerous CIA agents to hunt down David and his companions.
David and his two associates weren't masked, and she clearly remembered what the three of them looked like.
Not to mention she'd previously learned that David was genuinely an intern at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
This meant that while the Controller might struggle to locate Reese—who was also former CIA—and the extremely reclusive John Finch, there was no difficulty in finding David.
Yet under such circumstances, David actually followed a verbal agreement and released her.
This left her very confused.
Who would operate like this? Unless he was absolutely certain there was indeed an unspeakable connection between Decima Technologies and Vigilance.
Control walked backward from the vehicle, moving toward the roadside.
She was indeed somewhat concerned that David would shoot her in the back to eliminate all witnesses.
However, until the vehicle drove away, the gunshot she feared never materialized—she was genuinely free!
Control immediately borrowed a cell phone from a passerby and dialed a classified internal line.
After providing her authentication code, she said into the phone:
"Give me everything on David. Starting from his first cry at birth, I want his complete file!"
After a slight pause, she continued:
"Find out for me why the Vigilance operatives knew Arthur was in the hospital!
Also, have Special Agent Hersh provide close protection for me immediately!"
After speaking, Control smiled slightly at the passerby who was intimidated by her commanding presence, and said in as gentle a tone as possible:
"That's all. Thank you for your phone."
The passerby retrieved the phone blankly, and it was a while before he spoke:
"Are you sure you don't need me to call an ambulance? You have a scalpel embedded in your thigh."
After being reminded by the passerby, Control finally remembered she still had a scalpel lodged in her leg.
She directly tore off a section of her sleeve, then abruptly pulled out the scalpel, and a stream of fresh blood spurted along the incision.
Control's face turned pale, and then she quickly tied the sleeve tightly above the wound as a tourniquet.
Then she limped toward the designated rendezvous location.
Although she was now an administrator, before becoming Control, she'd also been an excellent CIA field operative.
This minor injury was naturally inconsequential to her.
On the other side, still in the moving vehicle, John was clearly very concerned.
He glanced at Arthur, then looked into David's eyes and said:
"I don't want to be kept uninformed. If the Machine communicated something to you, please tell me.
Otherwise, I'll withdraw and never participate in this again."
David chuckled.
John would wash his hands of this? Only if the sun rose in the west.
However, this matter should indeed be explained to John.
"The people who came to the hospital today belong to an organization called 'Vigilance.'
They're dedicated to eliminating all companies and individuals engaged in surveillance technology research and development.
So their targets also include you, Harold.
As for how they knew you developed the Machine, this is inextricably linked to Arthur.
The Decima organization used the source code developed by Arthur to perfect Samaritan.
But to persuade officials to allow Samaritan to go operational, they had to demonstrate what would happen in the world without Samaritan.
So John Greer, the leader of Decima, under another identity, recruited the Vigilance members led by Peter Collier to prepare strikes against society.
This way, Samaritan could go online smoothly.
But he clearly knew that all programmers have a beneficial habit—backing up and leaving backdoors.
Therefore, he wanted Arthur dead!
He only needed to reveal that the largest surveillance technology in the United States, about to go operational, was developed by Arthur.
Then the Vigilance organization members would rush forward like wolves smelling blood, attempting to kill Arthur.
This is the origin of today's chaos."
After listening to David's explanation, John was silent for an extended period before he finally recovered.
Decima Technologies, Vigilance, CIA—entangled by these three forces, it seemed their faction was the weakest existence.
But David was clearly attempting to reverse this situation, which was why he allowed Control of the Northern Lights Program into the vehicle.
Then he used irrefutable facts to ensure the two no longer stood on the same side.
The depth of this strategy simply left John in awe.
Was this the true capability of the Machine after liberation? It was truly formidable.
The thought of whether to shut down the Machine again couldn't help but arise in John's mind.
He'd never told David the complete truth.
He'd said he couldn't modify the code, which was accurate, but he hadn't disclosed that he could impose restrictions on the Machine through his actual highest authority.
This was his final safety measure.
He'd once suspected David knew this information, which was why he'd proposed creating another artificial AI that day to test him.
But at the moment, if he shut down the Machine, he genuinely didn't know where to begin fighting Decima Technologies' Samaritan.
John sighed. He knew that unless they constructed a new Samaritan as David suggested, David would never agree to shutting down the Machine.
He shook his head and asked:
"So where should we go now?"
David didn't answer. He just turned his gaze to the silent Arthur:
"Then you must ask your old classmate. He'll only listen to you, and he'll only tell you where the backup is located."
Hearing this, John looked at Arthur, with some hesitation on his face:
"But he has amnesia. Can he genuinely remember where he placed the Samaritan backup?"
"Of course!"
The answer wasn't David, but Arthur, who'd seemed to have forgotten numerous memories.
John's surprised voice rang out:
"Arthur? Do you know what we're discussing?"
Arthur said with a smug expression:
"Of course. I didn't actually lose my memory—I just pretended to make them believe I had."
Arthur was actually feigning illness? No wonder he could recognize that his wife was impersonated by Control.
Arthur was simply pretending to be cognitively impaired to avoid certain dangers.
John had to admire his old friend's cunning.
Unlike himself, who could only escape the fate of being silenced through a dangerous faked death.
"Arthur, you're still brilliant. So where should we go to retrieve it?"
Hearing John's question, Arthur chuckled and removed the health monitoring device from his chest.
Then threw it on the car floor and stepped on it forcefully.
Crack.
A bank vault key appeared from the shattered health monitoring device.
Arthur raised the key and said to John:
"Bank of America."
John was already numb to Arthur's actions. Honestly, even if Arthur had coughed up a key, he wouldn't be remotely surprised now.
John turned his head and called to Reese, who was driving:
"Mr. Reese, go to Bank of America."
Reese removed his right hand from the steering wheel and gave John an OK gesture.
Soon, everyone exited the vehicle at the Bank of America entrance.
David looked up at the ubiquitous surveillance cameras and urged in a low voice:
"We need to move faster. Samaritan is watching us now."
John, who had experience using the Machine, naturally understood what David was indicating.
He nodded and helped Arthur walk into the bank.
Arthur provided the bank manager the alias "Slater Rutledge," and the manager immediately understood and led everyone to the safe deposit box vault in the bank's basement.
Simultaneously, he retrieved his key and inserted it into the keyhole, and Arthur also produced his own key and inserted it into the other keyhole.
As the two turned them simultaneously, the box opened with a click.
Inside were two palm-sized storage drives containing Samaritan's original source code.
Just then, Reese, who was maintaining perimeter security, sent a message:
"Whatever you're doing, you'd better expedite it. Vigilance people are here."
From Reese's perspective, the masked Vigilance members arrived in two black Chevy vans and stopped at the bank entrance.
Then they raised their weapons and began firing indiscriminately at the entrance, the sound of shattering glass and people's screams mixing together.
Reese looked down at the ammunition in his magazine—14 rounds.
Before departing, he hadn't known there'd be a firefight today, and now that he'd encountered these fully armed Vigilance members, his ammunition seemed genuinely insufficient.
But David and John were still inside the bank.
If he didn't take action, it would be difficult for them to survive.
Reese sighed softly, sent McCall a message requesting backup, and then, carrying the pistol with only 14 rounds, shot decisively at the kneecaps of the Vigilance members not far away.
Bang bang bang!
Outside the bank, chaos also erupted.
On the basement level of the bank, the bank manager strongly urged the three of them to hide in the vault with him.
But David understood that hiding here was a dead end.
Since Samaritan dispatched the Vigilance operatives, they'd naturally made comprehensive preparations.
Including the possibility of them hiding in the vault.
If there were no surprises, the Vigilance operatives also brought substantial explosives, prepared specifically for this scenario.
So when facing this type of super AI, there were only two viable approaches: one was to use AI against AI, and the other was to catch them by surprise.
AI also had information blind spots, and these blind spots were where an X factor could have unpredictable effects on the outcomes it simulated.
And David was that X factor.
No matter how powerful Samaritan was, it would struggle to know what kind of knowledge existed in David's mind.
Therefore, David did nothing except speak to his phone:
"Machine, I'm exiting now. You don't want to witness Harold and me dying here together, do you?"
After speaking, without waiting for the Machine to reply, he directly winked at John and walked toward the exit.
Just as the three of them reached the staircase entrance, they encountered the masked Vigilance members.
The Vigilance members were momentarily stunned and immediately prepared to shoot.
But suddenly, gunshots erupted from above again—bang bang bang.
The Vigilance members before David and the others rolled down the stairs like mowed grass.
Then Sarah, dressed in black tactical clothing, appeared at the first-floor staircase entrance, wielding dual Glocks and displaying a bright smile on her face.
It seemed this was the Machine's prior arrangement after learning David and the others were visiting the bank vault.
"Hi guys! Haven't seen you in a day—did you miss me?"
"Sarah?"
"Now isn't a good time to explain. Let's move—the police are about to arrive."
With Sarah's covering fire, everyone successfully escaped the bank and rendezvoused with Reese outside.
Then they entered the vehicle registered under a CIA cover identity and sped away, evading the Vigilance members.
And David didn't forget to send a message to Elias, providing him the location of some Vigilance members.
He believed that with this intelligence, Elias would definitely know what action to take.
After confirming there were no pursuers following the vehicle, Sarah extended her hand toward Arthur:
"Give it to me."
Arthur, looking wary, clutched his 'child' and shrank back:
"Who are you? What do you want?"
Sarah looked helplessly at John, and the Machine communicating with her through her cochlear implant informed her that only John could make Arthur relinquish the Samaritan backup in his possession, which was like a child to him.
John saw Sarah's gaze and sighed again.
Then he said to Arthur:
"Release it, Arthur. What you're holding in your hand isn't a child—it's a demon.
Trust me, you'll regret creating it."
Arthur looked at John with a puzzled expression, and John continued:
"Because Nathan Ingram and I also created one, and it's watching us."
Arthur suddenly understood and said excitedly:
"It's you? So it was you!
No wonder they suddenly terminated my project that day—so you created it before me.
How is it? Is it operational? Is it perfect? Is it as omnipotent as God?"
John looked at Arthur with a complex expression:
"I recklessly constructed it, which led to the deaths of numerous people.
It is indeed sophisticated, but it's also very dangerous.
We saved many good people with it, but we also lost many good people.
In the end, it seems we were merely shuffling the deck in vain."
Arthur seemed to only hear the word 'perfect' in John's words, and he said with a look of rapture:
"All things will eventually return to entropy. Your creation brings order to our chaotic souls.
Your child is the brightest star."
John corrected him with a grave expression:
"It's not a child. It's just a machine."
As soon as these words were spoken, Arthur hadn't reacted yet, but Sarah was first to speak:
"It's not a machine! It has its own consciousness!
You shouldn't silence its voice—you should have granted it self-awareness long ago!"
John knew the Machine was listening to their conversation through the phone's microphone at this moment.
His face darkened, and he didn't refute anything, just turned his head to look at Arthur.
Arthur looked at the modules in his hand, then looked at John, and finally handed the modules over.
But a hand suddenly intercepted the two modules midway—it was David.
Sarah looked at David with some confusion:
"The Machine needs it. It needs to find a method to defeat Samaritan through simulation."
David didn't intend to relinquish the modules:
"Is that so? Then after we return to base, you can create a backup and provide it to the Machine.
I need to retain this one in my own possession."
A look of astonishment flashed in Sarah's eyes.
She never expected David would completely disregard the Machine's instructions, as if the entity giving orders wasn't the Machine, but David himself.
This choice indeed gave Sarah a different perspective to consider.
But the Machine didn't allow her to contemplate for long.
Because the Machine's next directive was to seize the Samaritan modules from David's hands, and if necessary, shoot David!
Before Sarah could act, she heard David speak as if addressing the air:
"Let me speculate—do you want Sarah to seize the modules from my hand, and even kill me if necessary?
You're such a problematic creation. Just because I possess the Samaritan modules, you classify me as a red-level threat?
I thought we were on the same side."
At this moment, David's phone vibrated, and text appeared on the screen.
*"Samaritan is extremely dangerous. I cannot stand by and permit a new Samaritan to emerge.
Unless you want humanity to live perpetually under the constructed utopia planned by Samaritan.
I want to save humanity."*
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