CyberStorm Part 49

In the immediate aftermath of CyberStorm, the world had seemed ready to change and normalize laws, find ways to solve the problems, but this had only lasted a few months, and already it seemed that most of it would never materialize. Fighting had broken out in Nepal, and it looked like the whole world might be dragged into it.

India and China had been quietly squaring off over the water contained in the Himalayas, the glaciers there containing over three thousand cubic miles of fresh water, nearly as much as the combined Great Lakes. These glaciers fed five of the great rivers in Asia, collectively supplying fresh water to nearly half the world's population.

The problem was that while the majority of these rivers flowed into India, Pakistan, and Indochina, the glacial watersheds were located entirely within Tibet, a part of China. China had begun a program of damming these rivers far upstream over a decade ago, but now the two nascent superpowers, India and China, were coming to blows, and tiny Nepal was caught in the middle.

The US was sending in troops as peacekeepers, but n.o.body had any idea how long the "peace" part would last. There was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment, even after they'd helped rebuild our electrical grid. Many chose to see only one side to the coin, that the Chinese hackers had attacked us, ignoring the bigger picture of our own part in it.

Perhaps more accurately, they didn't ignore it, but chose to use it as a political weapon.

Lauren's parents were sitting across from us with a middle-aged man I recognized but couldn't quite place. Patricia finished her speech, and while we were all clapping, Vince appeared, dressed in a white tuxedo. He was hard to miss-he had the last Miss America as his date for the evening.

"Did you hear I got my own financing?" asked Vince, dropping to one knee between Lauren and me. His date stood behind him, and Lauren rolled her eyes as she looked at me.

"Congratulations!" I replied enthusiastically.

Vince had been serious about wanting to build a technology for predicting the future. With all his fame, he'd been able to attract a nice pile of money to his cause.

"I'm going to call it the Phuture News Network," he said proudly. "Like CNN, the Cable News Network, but for the future. And I'll spell it with a 'p-h' to make it more cyber. What do you think?"

"Phuture News?" I laughed. "I like it."

"Excellent!"

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Chuck, and he was pointing up at Lauren's father, who was standing to my other side with the middle-aged man I'd seen him sitting with.

"We'll talk later," said Vince. He kissed Lauren on the cheek and retreated with his date. I watched him wind his way towards Patricia, and heard them start talking about the wikiworld project they were collaborating on.

"Mike," said Mr. Seymour, drawing my attention back to our group, "I'd like to introduce you to Herman Kesselring, the founder of Cognix Corporation."

I stood to shake Mr. Kesselring's hand.

That's right, Cognix Corporation. They were the ones whose artificial intelligence engines had cut through the clutter and found the Russian hackers.

"A great pleasure," I said to Mr. Kesselring.

"The pleasure is mine, I a.s.sure you," he replied.

Patricia had returned by that point, after finis.h.i.+ng talking with Vince. She was followed by several reporters, who she quietly but firmly pushed away.

"Dr. Killiam," said Mr. Seymour loudly, "I was hoping that I might be able to have a short chat together with you and Mike."

"Why don't you take my chair," suggested Lauren, getting up. "I was just going to get some fruit juice at the bar anyway."

Mr. Seymour nodded. "Thank you, sweetheart. We'll just be a moment."

Lauren leaned in to give me a small kiss and got up to head for the bar, while Mr. Seymour and Mr. Kesselring sat themselves down in a circle with me and Patricia.

"I think you already know Mr. Kesselring?" said Mr. Seymour to Patricia.

She nodded, smiling briefly at Kesselring. "Yes, I did the original research on many of Cognix's artificial intelligence engines."

"We have a proposal we'd like to put to the two of you," continued Mr. Seymour.

"Okay," I replied, shrugging to Patricia. I had no idea what he was going to say.

"All this mess the world is in," said Kesselring, "it just isn't going to end soon. Do you agree?"

Patricia and I nodded. The Nepal conflict looked like it would take years to sort out.

"Events like CyberStorm are just the start, I'm afraid, and there are going to be very few safe places left on Earth."

"I don't disagree with you," I said, "but what are you getting at?"

Mr. Seymour leaned in toward us. "I know this may sound fantastical, but Mr. Kesselring and I and a group of leading businessmen have been discussing the idea of building floating cities, entire nation-states on the open seas."

I laughed out loud. "You can't be serious."

n.o.body else laughed.

The smile on my face vanished. "You're serious."

"After this CyberStorm mess, many wealthy and powerful people have lost faith that the government can protect them," said Kesselring. "Already they are talking about launching a new war in Asia-for what? Have the governments even figured out what made CyberStorm possible?"

It was a big topic of conversation.

"Mr. Kesselring's organization found the name of the Russian gangster they think coordinated the first attack, Sergei Mikhailov," said Mr. Seymour.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Irena look toward us when she heard Sergei Mikhailov's name, and she leaned over to whisper something to Aleksandr.

"That is still highly confidential," added Kesselring. "But even if Mikhailov did initiate CyberStorm, and we know how, it doesn't address the question of why he was able to do it."

Kesseling had a good point. Despite all the new laws and the momentum to fix the problems, it seemed most of the weaknesses in critical infrastructure would remain. It was close to impossible to plug security holes in systems designed thirty or forty years ago.

"We can build cities on the ocean and be free to start again from the ground up," continued Kesselring. "Or in this case, from the water up."

"You're really serious."

"We are," said Mr. Seymour, "and we have several billion dollars in advance funding already secured."

"And it doesn't hurt that we have some congressmen in the family," added Mr. Seymour.

"So then what do you need us for?" asked Patricia, speaking for the first time since Kesselring had shared his idea.

I could sense apprehension. She knew Kesselring, and I wondered what their history was.

"We're looking for complementary technology start-ups to get involved, to locate their headquarters on our first floating city-state," said Kesselring, "and we would like Synthetic Sensory to be one of the first to make this commitment."

"And why would we do that?" asked Patricia.

One problem we had was that we needed to have access to stem cell lines for Patricia's research, and the government had recently reversed course on stem cell legislation. We were going to have a hard time doing the work in America.

"You know why, and we'd very much like you to get involved in the next stage of our synthetic intelligence program as well."

It sounded like I was getting caught in the middle of something. I felt uneasy.

"And we're ready to provide the next series of financing for your start-up, immediately."

I almost fell backwards out of my chair. We'd only just secured the first round, and securing the next round would mean financial security for years. Security for my family.

Patricia sighed, sensing my reaction. "That's a very generous offer."

"Do you have some paperwork you could send us to have a look at?" I asked.

"I'll send it right now," said Kesselring, tapping his smartphone.

Patricia looked toward the ceiling. "And this floating island, what were you thinking of calling it?"

"We want it to be a world without borders," said Mr. Seymour. "We were thinking of naming it Atlantis."

"Atlantis?" said Patricia. "If you want to build a world without borders, why don't you just call it by its definition?"

"And what would that be?" asked Kesselring.

Patricia looked around at all of us.

"Atopia."

THANKS FOR READING!.

If you enjoyed CyberStorm and want more, you can read my novel Atopia Chronicles where you will meet Patricia and Vince again, in the far-future world of Atopia.

AND PLEASE...

I'd REALLY appreciate it if you could take a moment to write a review, no matter how small, on Amazon, BN, Kobo-anywhere you can! Writing isn't my full-time job (yet!) but I'd like it to be, and leaving reviews really helps promote my work. Reviews have a direct impact on rankings and encourage other people to read, so I'd REALLY appreciate it!

SPECIAL THANKS.

I'd like to thank my editor, Gabe Robinson, and I'd also like to make a special thank you to Allen Tierney and Pamela Deering who did a whole edits of the book as well!

THANK YOU to all my beta readers (and sorry I don't have surnames for all of you) John Jarrett, Amber, Ashvin, Bill Parker, Brian Lomax, Chrissie, Daryl Clark, Colby Zoeller, Ed Grbacz, Erik Montcalm, Hector, Jon, Josh Brandoff, Joy Lu, Julie Schmidt, Kimmerie, Max Zaoui, Mike, Niels Pedersenn, Niki, Or Shoham, Philip Graves, Samantha, Shabnam Penry, Tom Giebel, Warrick Burgess, William McClusky, Adam, Adi, Alison Hodge, Amit, Barry Sax, Bill Mather, Charles, Craig Haseler, David King, Edwina, Em (EndQuestionMark), Harold Kelsey, Haydn Virtue, Jim d.u.c.h.ek, Julie Parsons, Junko, Justin, Lance Barnett, Leonard, Leonardo, Lowell, Luke, Marjolein, Matt, Mich.e.l.le, Mircea, Mog, Mrs. Dayfield, Naveen, Peter, Rob Linxweiller, Robin, Sam Romero, Sohna Ravindran, Stefano, Tara, Tim McGregorus, and William.

And of course, I'd like to thank my mother and father, Julie and David Mather, and last but most definitely not least, Julie Ruthven, for putting up with all the late nights and missed walks with the dogs.

-- Matthew Mather.

About Matthew Mather.

Matthew Mather is the #1 best-selling author of CyberStorm and the six-part series Atopia Chronicles. He started his career at the McGill Center for Intelligent Machines. He founded one of the world's first tactile feedback companies, and won the $2M award for "Best New Videogame" from Telefilm in 2007. He's worked professionally in computational nanotechnology, weather prediction systems, and cybersecurity. He spends his time between his work in Montreal and his family home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

end.