Page 95 of Concluded
A chuckle rippled around the room.“I told you,” said Spurling.“It’s not like that.We’re a consortium.”
That was unfortunate.Dee had the impression that it was easier to defeat an enemy with a single powerful leader; if you took out the head honcho, the whole thing would tend to collapse.He had no idea how you disabled an entire committee.Maybe Charles and Tenrael did—assuming that Dee could get them any useful intel.Which seemed unlikely under the present circumstances.
“A consortium trying to end the world.”
“No, no, of course not.We simply want to improve things.You have to admit, the world has needed this for a very long time.And now we have the resources to act.”
Dee couldn’t tell whether Spurling truly believed this bullshit.He certainly seemed earnest, but then so did used car salesmen.Something interesting occurred to Dee: Spurling assumed Dee was stupid.Part of that was likely the superiority complex common in people like him, and he was possibly aware that Dee lacked even a high school diploma.Being underestimated might prove an advantage, especially if these people also underestimated Dee’s powers.If only he could find a way to use that advantage.
“To act how?”he asked.
A sort of ripple went around the table, with everyone exchanging uneasy glances and shifting their postures.Spurling looked unhappy.“Son?—”
“I’m not your son.And you’re not much older than I am.”
Spurling snorted.“I’m older than I look.Listen, you don’t need to know the details.It’s just what I told you before: a massive reorganization.A disruption.Things will be messy for a time, but the end results will be more than worth it.So much unpleasantness gone.”
Everyone nodded, whereas Dee wondered what—or who—they considered “unpleasant.”Maybe it was better not to know.
A man sitting to Dee’s right cleared his throat loudly.He had a grandfatherly air, with snow-white hair and thick-rimmed glasses, but there was no warmth in his blue eyes.“This is wasting time.Either he’s capable of doing what we want or he’s no good to us.He doesn’t need to know any of these things.”
Dee might have responded, but Irina reacted for the first time, putting a hand on Spurling’s shoulder and speaking.“Darling, if he has a better understanding of our goals, then?—”
“Not now, Irina.”Spurling shrugged away from her touch and a subtle expression flashed across her face.It was too quick for Dee to interpret, and he didn’t really know her expressions well anyway, but he thought she might be angry.
“Show us what he can do,” said a bald man wearing a button-up shirt over a gray tee.
“I’m not a new gadget,” protested Dee, but nobody paid him attention.Instead, Spurling picked up a black remote control and poked at it, after which the room lights dimmed and a beam shone from an overhead projector that Dee hadn’t previously noticed.A world map appeared on the wall screen.
“Are you familiar with these countries?”Spurling used a laser pointer to indicate two neighboring countries to the east of Italy.
“No.”Dee had a poor grasp of geography.
“Doesn’t matter.I wish for the northern one to attack the southern one.Immediately.Specifically, I want bombs dropped on the capital.”
Dee tried not to shudder.“Why?”
“It doesn’tmatter.”
“But people will die.”
Spurling made a sour face.“People always die.Nobody there is important.The countries have nothing to offer—no resorts, no interesting sites to visit, very little foreign investment.But they’re both backed by the same European countries.Their conflict will destabilize things in that region, which is what we want.”
Dee was aware that world powers played these kinds of games all the time.But it was jarring to hear someone speak about it so plainly, so matter-of-factly.As if it were nothing more than, say, paving over a garden to make a patio.
“That’s asking a lot,” Dee said, stalling.“Affecting an entire army thousands of miles away.”Actually, he wasn’t certain that this was beyond his abilities, but he had no intention of saying so.
“We don’t need to affect an entire army—just the person in charge of it.The president.I’m going to wish that he orchestrates the attack right now.By the time anyone tries to stop him, it’ll be too late.”The screen changed to show a panoramic view of a small city with green mountains behind a scattering of high-rises.Most of the tall buildings looked a little run-down, but the surrounding houses were cute, with red tile roofs.A river wound lazily through the town, its riverbanks lined with parks.Cars, buses, and pedestrians crossed on several small bridges.
And then suddenly one of the high-rises turned into a pillar of fire and smoke, then another, then a swath of the little houses and two of the bridges.Dee realized he was watching the city being bombarded.
“AI simulation,” explained the bald man proudly.“My company makes the software.Looks real, doesn’t it?”
It did, sickeningly so.Some of the people in the room started cheering whenever a bomb hit its target.It was like they were watching someone play a video game.When the attack stopped after about five minutes, nothing was left of the city except fires and piles of rubble.
“See?”said Spurling.“Nice and quick.They’ll retaliate, of course, and various other countries will step in, and things will get very interesting.”
“People will die.”Repeating it didn’t help, but it felt necessary.
