Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel

Chapter 22

Dark rain clouds blackened the sky as we approached JFK International Airport. I had no idea what to expect. We'd left the park in the first cab that stopped, without even detouring to get any of our stuff. Alex figured that it would take only a few hours for the cops to realize I'd bailed, and then it would be impossible to fly out of the state. Hours seemed generous to me. I thought my face would be plastered all over every airport within driving distance.

To distract myself, I tried to think more about what Alex had said. About how Gaia could be used for evil. It made a lot of sense. I didn't know how I couldn't see it before. When code becomes aware of itself, aware of its own structure, it's able to evaluate itself without any human weaknesses. If a human programmer were to write code on very little sleep, or even just when she's hungry, she might miss an edge case or copy and paste sloppily, without thinking through the consequences. If the code told the computer to erase itself, it would do so without a moment's hesitation, even if that was the last thing the programmer intended.

But if Gaia could understand that the programmer didn't intend to erase the computer, she could decide not to run that piece of code.

She? What am I saying? Jesus.

On the other hand, Gaia could just as easily be asked to report back every edge case that didn't match up with the intended code structure. Then a human hacker would basically have an exhaustive list of every security flaw in a given program.

I still couldn't imagine a world where Gaia itself was actually doing the hacking. That would be like imagining a gun that was built to automatically shoot any human it came into contact with. There still needed to be a human shooter pulling the trigger. Gaia might be an amazing tool and a feat of humanity, but it wasn't a full-blown living, breathing thing. It wasn't generalized artificial intelligence.

Alex grabbed my shoulder and said: "Hey. Earth to Luna. We're here."

He shook me out of my happy place, back into the terrifyingly bleak reality of my imminent prison stay. When they caught me this time, they'd probably send me straight to solitary confinement—like they did to Kevin Mitnick. I'd once read that he was put in solitary for eight months because they thought he could start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone. If he got eight months for that, well, with me, they would probably just throw away the key.

"Come on," Alex insisted. "We gotta go, or we'll miss the red-eye."

"I don't think I can do this. If I just go back now, it probably won't be too late. I'll tell them I was taking a bath or something."

"If you can live with not finding out whether or not your company is responsible for the largest genocide in human history, then sure, go ahead."

What did I owe the world anyway? Sure, I was wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. But it wasn't like I hadn't paid a price for that money. I didn't owe the world a debt of thanks. But then I saw a policeman waving us down, and I froze where I was, still in the back of the cab.

This time, it was the cabbie who spoke up: "Hey, lady, come on, are you coming or going?"

The policeman came up to us. This was it. They knew I was running. Just like I'd predicted. It wasn't going to take them them to put together the pieces. It was as good as solitary confinement for me. I considered yelling to the cabbie to floor it, but my mouth wouldn't open.

"Sonne? Is that you?" asked the officer.

"Son of a bitch, Jason Freeman. What are you doing working this lousy patrol? You pushing the airport traffic along now?"

"Hey, it's gotta beat early retirement, right?"

Alex punched Jason in the arm a little harder than seemed friendly.

"Are you taking a—" Jason started to ask, but Alex interrupted him.

"Just helpin' a family friend to the airport. Visiting from California."

Jason looked at me like I was a piece of meat. "Uh huh," he said. "Where are your bags?"

"In the trunk," said Alex. My mouth still wasn't working. Jason probably thought I didn't speak English.

"Well, have a good trip, ma'am," he said to me. "Good to see you, Alex. Hey, hey, this isn't a parking lot, keep it moving." He blew his whistle and ran toward a minivan.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and hopped out of the taxi. Nothing was going to stop me now. My heart was racing. Alex was right: I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it turned out Ancien and Gaia were being used to kill people and I did nothing to stop it.

"That was some quick thinking," I said. "But what if he'd checked the trunk?"

He grunted and smirked. "You think a cop who's good enough to follow up on a hunch would end up here?"

"What about you? Why'd they kick you out?"

"That's a story for another day."