Page 29 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

He scoffed. “It’s ridiculous that you think I need you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “Who the fuck found him to begin with? Who found the link between the power outage and his facility? You wouldn’t have a fucking clue what was going on if it wasn’t for me.”

His jaw clenched in anger, but he finally conceded. “Fine,ifthe information pans out, we’ll cut him a deal. No jail time. But if we find out that he did anything to create these circumstances, I won’t hesitate to take that deal off the table. That’s between you and me.”

I nodded, knowing it was the best I was going to get out of him. I turned and walked back into the room, taking my seat again. “You’ve got your deal. Now, tell me what this is all about.”

He ran a shaky hand across his jaw, clearly agitated. “A long time ago, I partnered up with my college roommate and started the company. His name was Elliot Whitlock. He was smart as hell, probably smarter than me. His area of expertise was in computer science, whereas mine was in developing new technologies. Together, we created this machine learning computer. At the time, it was one of the first ones ever built for personal use, and while you’ll see others on the market now, you won’t find anything near the level of sophistication and programming that Whitlock and I created.”

“What was it used for?”

“We never used it for anything.” He leaned forward urgently, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. “It held a power that both of us knew could never be harnessed if it fell into the wrong hands. I told him I wanted to scrap the technology and move on, but he kept working on it. He developed a program that could begin a hack on a system, learn from it, and continue to hack nearly any program online. As I watched him, I started to see this darker side to him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He loved it. You have to understand, this was his technology and he wanted to see it flourish. But in order for that to happen, it would destroy nearly anything it could.”

“I’m not understanding, Hayes. What exactly did the technology do?”

“It’s not what it did. It’s what he planned on using it for.”

“Wait, you’re telling me Whitlock intended to use this for his own good?”

He nodded sagely. “Can you imagine holding the keys to the most brilliant discovery you’ve ever made, but never unlocking that power? That’s what this was for Whitlock. So, I convinced him to take it to the government as a tool for them to learn from, so they could prepare in the event that this technology would eventually get out.”

“And what happened?”

His shoulders sagged in defeat. “We took it to someone at Homeland Security and we were laughed out of the office. We met with some bottom level agent who didn’t understand the power of what we had, and that only fueled Whitlock to proceed with his plans.”

“Which were?”

“He wanted to hack into bank accounts of the wealthiest companies and people in the country. After he taught the computer how to do the first part, the computer would take over, working smarter to break into accounts, drain funds, and transfer them to secure accounts through shell corporations. It would be virtually untraceable. But the computer would never stop. It would keep learning to work faster and cleaner until nothing could stop the domino effect that would be created. The stock market would crumble, banks would close, everyone would lose every penny they had. The government would be useless. There would be no lending power any longer. The dollar would be worthless.”

“It sounds like an elaborate version ofWar Games,” I retorted.

“Mr. Owens, if you think this would be anything likeWar Games, you’re sadly mistaken. In the movie, they were able to outsmart the computer, but that wouldn’t happen here. There is no way to beat it, and in the end, you wouldn’t just be dealing with a broken economy.”

“Well, obviously Whitlock never got the chance to test out his theory on how the technology would work.”

“No,” Hayes said, bowing his head. “He died in a very unfortunate accident not long after our meeting with DHS.”

“Unfortunate?” I asked, getting the feeling he wasn’t just hiding technology.

“I did what I had to do. He was psychotic. He wanted to unleash it all and watch it crumble.”

“But you said this technology would eventually come out.”

“I’ve spent every penny I have to buy other companies that were even on the verge of discovering anything close to this. I’ve reinvested the money into finding a way to stop what Whitlock started. Unfortunately, he seems to be the only man that could not only create this, but also stop it.”

“Who else knew about it?” I asked, finally getting to the real reason we were here.

“Only a select few that I trusted, but I was the only one with the ability to get into the room in which it was stored.”

“Until the power went out and the backup failed,” I concluded.

“Precisely.”

“Mr. Owens, the few people that know, I trust them completely. All three of them know and understand what would happen if this ever got out. They would never steal the equipment.”

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