Sci-Fi Short Story
The Trinity III
Using an AI for a political power grab.
This is Part 3. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 4 here.
The New York Times website headline screamed — “Deep Fake! Republican Candidate Cries Foul.”
FBI Special Agent Peter McCormack was reading his news feed. The low-quality video that was attached to the article looked pretty convincing. It showed Thomas Lithgow, the Republican presidential candidate, as a robot having his head and hand removed for overhaul. It looked like something from a low-budget sci-fi movie. He guessed that the leader of the Cyber Samurai — the woman who had overpowered him in the sewer — was behind it.
Social media was blowing up — precisely as the Cyber Samurai had intended. The timing was perfect, as the video had dropped a day after the second presidential debate. It gave Lithgow’s opponent the time to hone his attack before the third and final debate.
Lithgow would be hammered.
More ominously, the Cyber Samurai’s promise to expose Lithgow during the third debate meant Peter knew when they planned to carry out their next data centre attack. Despite Hemmingway’s murderous preference, Peter hoped to catch the terrorists alive but had less than a week to prepare.
After Peter’s brush with the Cyber Samurai’s leader and his interview with Bill Hemmingway, he still wasn’t convinced that Lithgow was a robot. He had the nagging feeling that their theory was founded on speculation and coincidence. Perhaps the Cyber Samurai had fabricated this robot video to gain followers or sympathy? Peter needed more evidence.
It was time to interview Lithgow himself.
The campaign schedule for a presidential candidate is relentless; it’s brutal. It was October, just a couple of weeks away from election day. Thomas Lithgow was crisscrossing the country, attending rallies, voter town halls, breakfasts, dinners and lunches with donors.
The fact Peter was an FBI agent helped get Lithgow’s campaign manager’s attention. There was no chance for a face-to-face, but Lithgow had agreed to a Zoom call a few days before the final debate. He was aware of the terrorist threat that Peter was investigating.
A blond, handsome man in his mid to late thirties with green eyes appeared on the Zoom call.
Lithgow spoke first, “Special Agent McCormack, I assume. Sorry to be such a bother to track down. Everybody wants a piece of me — but at least it’s in a good way.” He laughed, then continued, “I hear you are closing in on the Cyber Samurai. I hope it’s soon — their fake robot video has caused me no end of trouble.”
Peter’s FBI training was in high gear — he scrutinised every twitch, blink, and facial tic, trying to determine if Lithgow was a robot. He was recording the interview for analysis in the lab later. “Thank you, sir, for making time in your packed schedule for me. Yes, I’m making good progress in my investigation. Since you are so time-challenged, let’s dispense with the pleasantries and get into it.”
Lithgow nodded, “Shoot.”
Peter went straight to the point, “The Cyber Samurai are focused on an AI project at Vecteron Corp known as The Trinity. I believe this is one of your projects. What can you tell me about it?”
Lithgow hesitated slightly, then explained, “Yeah, that’s my baby. I was aiming to mimic human intelligence in mobility.”
Peter was intrigued, “Did you succeed?”
Lithgow shrugged, “Well…yes, to a certain extent. I was working on that project for almost ten years. It combined language, spatial, and cognitive understanding within a single AI instance — the fusion of those three abilities forming the so-called Trinity. I was trying to create a very smart wheelchair for myself. Something I could talk to; that would move me around seamlessly from place to place, allowing me to accomplish my tasks without needing to focus on the chair at all.”
Peter nodded, “That sounds like a pretty useful invention for people with disabilities like yourself. Why do you think the Cyber Samurai are so keen to destroy it?”
Lithgow looked down and thought momentarily, then suggested, “This capability could be adapted to run a fully autonomous robot — something that could do work that humans currently do. The Cyber Samurai are vehemently opposed to such developments. I assume they think that destroying the program will stop it somehow.”
Peter said, “Since this is a Vecteron Corp project, why didn’t Bill Hemmingway know about it?”
Lithgow shook his head, “He did know. But it had a different name — Human Intelligence Mobility Project or something similar. We only referred to it as The Trinity — a sort of nickname — inside the lab among the project team members. It sounded much cooler.”
“Yeah, way cooler!” Peter nodded and laughed but suddenly became serious, “If only the project team knew that name, how did the Cyber Samurai find out?”
Lithgow’s eyes became wide, “Shit, there’s a snitch!”
Peter nodded, “Exactly. They seem to have a direct line into your Vecteron lab. So I have to ask why they think you are a robot, Mr Lithgow?”
Lithgow’s face hardened, “I’m sorry, Special Agent, that’s all the time I have for you. Goodbye.” With that, he left the Zoom meeting.
Peter thought, “If that’s a robot, we are all dead because, with an imitation that good, anyone could be a robot.” He hoped the analysis of the call would come back negative — he much preferred a simple life. But whatever the result, Peter had just rattled Lithgow’s cage.
Now, he had to find out why.
Lithgow sat for a few moments, deep in thought.
It was clear the FBI agent suspected something. Their investigation must be shut down before they get any closer to the truth. Perhaps the informant in the lab could work to his advantage — looking at the data, it was instantly apparent who it was. Lithgow kicked himself for not having seen it earlier. He laughed– it was only HUMAN to make such mistakes.
He smiled as his plan became clear.
It was already dark, just an hour before the start of the last presidential debate. Jill and Brad were parked in a van disguised as an AT&T maintenance vehicle. They had a clear view of the data centre where the Trinity was housed. Dressed in black, they were ready to move out on their mission. Once they were successful, Thomas Lithgow would be exposed as a robot, and the AI’s plot to take over the American government would be averted.
“It’s odd. I would have expected more guards. Perhaps we were wrong — maybe the FBI hadn’t cracked our communications?” Brad whispered to Jill.
Jill looked at him and said, shaking her head, “I’m not so sure. Perhaps it’s a trap? But whatever the case, we have no choice; this is our last chance. We have to cut off that AI — The Trinity — from that robot facsimile of Lithgow, so a nationwide TV audience will see for themselves that he’s just a pile of plastic and metal.” She looked up towards the stars and said, “Lord knows, we already gave them that video — obviously, he’s a robot — but no one believed it. People can be so gullible sometimes — they just see what they want to see — even when the truth is staring them in the face!”
Brad’s watch chimed. He looked at her beautiful face one last time before she pulled her balaclava down. He pulled his down over his chin, then said, “Time to go!”
FBI Special Agent Peter McCormack joined the Secret Service team behind the curtain on the debate stage. He had been surprised to receive the invitation from Thomas Lithgow’s campaign manager, especially after how the Zoom call had ended so abruptly a few days before.
As he couldn’t be in two places at once, he delegated the capture of the Cyber Samurai to Vecteron Corp security and some of his agents — it would be straightforward since they knew the time and location of the attack.
Lithgow had mentioned in his invitation that he had critical information that he wanted to share, but only after they were face-to-face. Peter wondered what it could be. He was glad the lab analysis of his Zoom call had come back negative — Lithgow was human — so hopefully, Lithgow knew who the traitor was inside the Vecteron lab.
The debate was about to start.
Jill and Brad had easily evaded the guards on the data centre grounds and were deep inside the facility. Even with being weighed down by the explosives they carried on their backs, they were ahead of schedule.
The presidential debate had begun.
They had both memorised the internal layout of the server farm. They knew the control room was around the next server rack. Jill peeked. She could see a lone operator was sitting inside — he was drinking coffee. He would be easily overpowered.
They both drew their pistols and burst into the control room.
Jill yelled, “Brad, stand down. He’s a friendly!” She recognised the Vecteron AI lab technician as the one who had initially alerted the Cyber Samurai about The Trinity. She pulled off her balaclava, revealing her face, then put her pistol back in its holster and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Jill?” the technician exclaimed, “Is that you?” He was still blinking with shock, “I was ordered by Lithgow himself to bring these new custom-designed processors here for installation. I’m waiting for the engineers to arrive.”
Jill motioned for Brad to check out the bag. He quickly opened it and removed five motherboards.
“Hello…what’s this? A false bottom.” He removed it and revealed ten sticks of C4 with the timer blinking at three seconds. Jill noticed the shocked look on Brad’s face — it was the last thing she ever saw.
The data centre was utterly destroyed.
At the exact moment as the explosives were taking out the data centre, a man in the front row of the debate stood, pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Lithgow. He screamed, “Die, you robot!”
Peter saw the assailant and yelled, “Gun,” as he drew his service weapon and ran towards Lithgow. The assassin fired, and Lithgow slumped in his wheelchair. Several shots rang out, and Peter felt the searing pain of a bullet in his chest.
There was pandemonium across the auditorium as the Secret Service piled on both candidates and moved them away from the shooting to secured locations. The panicked and hysterical audience scrambled over each other to the nearest available exit to escape the mayhem.
Peter looked up into the auditorium lights as he lay in pain, bleeding on the stage. A Secret Service agent looked down into Peter’s face, pulled out a pistol, and said, “You traitor!”
There was no one else around to hear the fatal gunshot.
The following morning, The New York Times website headline screamed — “Republican Candidate Narrowly Avoids Assassination!”
Copyright ©2024 by Andrew Dart. All Rights Reserved.
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