Richard Stephenson - Resistance

“What terrible things? What was so terrible that you had to leave?”

Richard wasn’t prepared to answer that question just yet and was relieved when Morris intervened. “Chrissy, honey, it’s a very long story, one that you’ll be told when you’re ready. Let’s not focus on that right now. This man is your father, and he loves you very much. Let’s concentrate on being a family and forget about everything else. Can we do that?” Morris squeezed Chrissy’s hand and sealed his plea with a kiss atop her head.

“Okay. I’m so glad you found me, Daddy.” Chrissy stood up from the couch and sidled over next to Richard who gathered his sweet daughter close as their tears washed away the uncertainty and sadness. Richard motioned for his son to join the huddle, and the three held on tight for several minutes. The tearful reunion was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Richard raised his voice, but the door didn’t open. “Hal, for God’s sake, will you please open my door?” Richard ignored the fact that Hal didn’t respond. He knew Howard was deep in the bowels of the Castle repairing Hal’s voice interface and assumed he hadn’t completed the task. Richard opened the door himself, only to find a security officer standing there.

“This had better be important. What do you need that Mr. Twigg can’t help you with?”

I’m really sorry to bother you, General Dupree, but it’s one of the prisoners. Mr. Twigg is my boss and all, and I don’t want to get in trouble, but he did something that I, uh, I’m not sure he should do something without telling someone. I mean, he is the acting director of security so he had every right to…”

“Get to the point and get there quickly!” Richard shouted.

“He took Butler out of the cell and went to the elevator with him. I mean, he escorted him in handcuffs, so I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time. I thought he was taking him to the infirmary on level four but the elevator went all the way up to the hangar bay. Should he have done that? I know it’s not my place to be asking, but I thought that if he was going to move one of the prisoners out of the Castle, you or President Beck would at least be there to…”

“Okay, slow down. You did the right thing coming to me. You’re not in trouble. You are absolutely certain he took Jackson Butler to the hangar bay?”

“Yes, sir, he did.”

“Have you given President Beck this information?”

“No, sir. I don’t know where he is.”

With a knowing glance of approval from Morris, Richard and the security guard headed out in search of Howard.

***

With communication still offline in the Castle, Howard had no way of knowing Jackson Butler had escaped confinement. Howard had meticulously installed eleven of the twelve cores, running a battery of tests after each installation. He was pleased that each core installed without incident. The last core- the one containing all of Hal’s memories-was the most complex, and with it came the greatest risk of a repeat malfunction. To minimize that possibility, Howard extracted all the memories Hal had accumulated over the previous twenty-four hours and backed them up on a secondary drive. Howard carefully secured the final core. “Old Man, can you give me a status report? How do you feel?”

“All of my primary systems are operating at peak efficiency; however, I must report that the last twenty-three hours and fifty-eight minutes are unaccounted for.”

“Yes, my friend, I know.”

“May I ask why?”

“Well, Hal, you’ve experienced your first malfunction. I had to take you offline and reinstall your programming.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome, my dear friend.”

“I must insist that you return to the command center. Several events have transpired that require your attention.”

“I’m on my way now.” Howard secured the subbasement and headed for the elevator. “What’s going on?”

“Regional Governor Butler is no longer in the detention cell.”

“What? Where is he?”

“He is not in the Castle. I detect that Acting Director Twigg has left the facility as well.”

“What in the hell is going on?”

***

“Start talking, you smug piece of shit. What happened?” Richard Dupree and Simon Sterling glared at each other through the protective Plexiglas wall.

“Are you joking? You’re asking me?” Simon was becoming more confused by the moment.

“Just answer the question! What happened to Butler?”

Simon stared at Richard in pure terror as the devastating reality hit home. If the commanding general of the Pacific States of America had lost such a valuable prisoner in the most secure facility on the planet, there was only one possible explanation- they had lost control of Hal. If they did have control of Hal, every inch of the Castle was recorded and could be played back at leisure. What terrified Simon even more was the knowledge that only one nation in the world rivaled the former United States when it came to technological advancement. The Chinese had taken control of Hal and would soon have free reign over the entire country.

“You’re telling me you really don’t know what happened to Butler?”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. How did you do it?”

“Do what? Why on earth would I still be here if I could have left with the man? Think about it!”

Richard hated to admit it, but Sterling was right. It didn’t make sense. “Okay, you have a point. How long ago did this happen?”

“Maybe ten minutes ago. You realize what’s happening, don’t you General Dupree? Tell me, is Hal okay? Any problems with Howard’s little pet?”

“I’m not discussing this with you. I’m asking the questions. Did Twigg say anything to Butler? Did Butler protest in any way? Did he look frightened?”

“Now that you mention it, Butler was acting like he’d been waiting for it to happen. The bastard smiled at me on his way out.”

***

Howard Beck stared at the giant, spherical monitor in the command center of Beck Castle and pleaded with his brilliant mind to kick into overdrive. Never in his life had a computer system failed him in such spectacular fashion. He had faced his fair share of computer crashes and virus attacks in his day and prided himself on being able to make quick and accurate decisions about the best way to resolve such pesky technological issues. This time, he was clueless. He knew one thing, though: if he didn’t get his act together soon, a great deal of chaos was certain to follow.

Howard tore open a drawer to his right and pulled out an outdated piece of technology- a physical keyboard with actual keys. He relaxed and let muscle memory kick in as he typed adminBeck/cmd/loopcut/restore/auth/MbP47aT/ and hit enter. It was the final, end-all failsafe that would shut Hal down for good. Nothing happened.

“Hal! Answer me! You have to stop this!” Howard flushed as he smashed the keyboard on the tabletop.

“I’m sorry, Marshall. Your father has given me instructions that I must carry out.”

“What in the hell is wrong with you, Hal? I am not my son! I am Howard Beck! I created you; I wrote every line of your programming! I’m telling you, something is wrong with you!”

“Marshall, your father would not appreciate your attempts to deactivate me.

“Can’t you see me sitting here in the command center?” Howard leaned forward and glared at the monitor like an abusive father trying to frighten his son.

“Marshall, since your father deactivated all video surveillance in the Castle, I’m unable to see you.”

Howard took a deep breath. He knew he had to get to the bottom of things. Someone had manipulated Hal into thinking he was his son. Marshall had administrative rights to Hal’s systems, but could not override Howard’s authority by directly contradicting commands given by Howard. The only way Howard was going to solve this problem was to play along and gather as much information as possible.