have to wait until the Tag is distributed. Which means that you and Mariko are exposed. Essentially, you have to choose whether you want Mariko or someone else to die. Unless, of course, we can locate and extract her before the 14th, which will be our primary focus.”
“I can’t put Mariko’s nor my life in front of six billion deaths. She wouldn’t want me to. I detest the thought of having to kill an innocent human to save her. I know I can do that. I’m sad to admit it, but I do. That’s just love, but what worries me is that in doing it, she will hate me forever.”
“What if the person you killed wasn’t innocent?”
The question from Marty turned the room to silence. I looked at her. She held my look and sat calmly next to Gabriel. Her legs together, leaning forward with her arms on her thighs, she stared at me under her blonde fringe. Her eyes bored into mine.
“I mean a really nasty person. Unfit to call themselves a human. That kind of non-innocent. Could you kill such a person?”
“It doesn’t matter whether the person is a bad or a good person. Under the law I believe in, they are both due the same rights as humans under the Nation’s Law. If we have failed to stop this person from committing illegal or just plain evil acts, then that is a failure of the Law and its processes, not the individual. Any other understanding leads to anarchy or vigilante mob justice.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. I’m not talking about theories, I’m talking about right now. A particular person and whether you want to save Mariko or not.”
Gabriel put a hand on her arm. “Maybe we’ll come back to that question later. I have an idea which I’d like to run by you. Something I’ve been toying with for a while now and I’d like to get your opinion on it. OK, here goes. What if we delete all identity records? Everyone’s PUI. Gone in an instant?”
Marty shook her head and said, “Shrouded in the heaviest of security and even if you get through that, there are backups in several different places.”
“Yes, I know, but suppose we could do it. What do you think of the effect?” Gabriel sat back in the chair.
Annika walked to the table and held her glass out for Gabriel to refill. Once filled, she emptied half of it in a huge swallow. “You’d destroy personal wealth, contribution would cease to have a reason, and the world would sink into anarchy overnight. But apart from that I don’t see a problem with it,” she said, smacking her lips. Hand on hip she raised her glass, giving us her profile. We all burst out laughing.
“OK, to be a little less extreme,' Gabriel said. 'The Tag has to be controlled with a command that would be uploaded to it. This would release the toxin. To do that selectively, you have to match serial numbers of Tags distributed with names of people distributed to. Makes sense right?” He wasn’t expecting an answer. “Right. So we need to find those two lists and once the product has been released, destroy the lists of serial numbers or randomize it. Because if we can’t do that then our last recourse is to delete everyone’s identity. And Annika, I agree with your evaluation of what would happen, but that’s still better than six billion dead. Right?”
“Yes, you’re right,” I responded. “How much time do you think we have after the Tag Law has been passed?”
“I’d estimate no more than two weeks. By that time I reckon they’ll come up with something to force the issue. It looks to me like the Hawks have achieved enough insiders in the UN and in the Security Council to manipulate a crisis and get people to inject the Tag quickly. So yes, about ten to fourteen days tops.”
“So no later than the end of month?”
“No. I reckon he’ll order the cull once he gets seventy to seventy-five percent adoption. If what we know about the toxin is correct, and we think it is, then it takes about a week before it kills. Which means that he can kill the ones who haven’t injected before the ones who have start to die.”
“So the key is the list of Tag serial numbers and to get it I have to kill someone. There’s no getting around that is there?”
“No. Unfortunately not.” Gabriel looked straight at me and spread his hands.
Leaning forward in her seat, Marty spoke softly. “I know who you can kill.”
I looked at her, struggling to match the beautiful woman with the words. She continued in the same soft tone. “His name is Jonathan Wigley. We called him ‘Wriggly Wigley’ because we couldn’t get any evidence on him even though he practically boasted about his crimes in a few online forums. He lives in Bangkok and on the surface is a — ”
“I know him. He was lead counsel for Bauer.”
“Yes. That’s why he’s perfect, because you do know him. And you had some serious arguments with him too, right? We got that tracing some of his communications with his people back in Bangkok.”
“Yes, that’s right. During the settlement negotiations he was obstructive without being constructive. He was just wasting time, I suspected, so that he could charge more for his contribution. Finally I accused him directly in a meeting and the Bauer team replaced him with David Chalmers. After that we reached settlement quickly.”
Marty nodded. “Mr Wigley spends his cred and self-time getting young boys and girls from all around Asia and having sex with them. They’re always under ten years of age. We haven’t been able to get a witness or evidence to point the finger at him but we know he’s doing it. It is only a matter of time before he slips up and we get him, but who knows how many more young lives will be corrupted by his touch before then.”
Gabriel leaned close to me. “I can do this if you want. We’ll rig it to make it look like you did but I’ll actually take care of it.”
“No. I will take care of it. As much as I hate the thought, it’s possible that the deception would be found out and then all this would be for nothing. I’ll kill him unless we can figure out a way to get that list before the 14th.”
“So you want to leave it until the final day?”
“I know it’s risky, but yes.”
“All right. I think you should stay with me until then. What do you think?”
“Won’t that raise all kinds of alarm bells?”
“We’ll come up with a good reason for your absence. I think it will also unsettle him and Cochran.”
“Cochran?”
“Sure Cochran. She’s in deep with this thing.”
“I should go back the day after tomorrow when Annika leaves. Being here is nice and I feel safe. A part of me, a big part, wants to stay here, but I’ve got to get back into it.”
Gabriel nodded and smiled at me. “I’ve got to provide you with some protection against any mind probes or truth treatments. We can’t take the chance of those being successful, for all our sakes, and we need at least twelve hours to do that. It isn’t a pleasant process either and at the end of it you’ll be too messed up to trav. So I think that you will need to stay until Sunday morning.”
“Annika?”
“Yes, Gabriel.”
“I need you to continue your affair with Jonah through till Sunday morning. Can you do that?”
“I think it’ll probably make my popularity ratings increase,” Annika said with a smile and blew a kiss at me.
Chapter 33
UNPOL Headquarters, Directors Office, 244th floor
Sunday 9 Feburary 2110, 2:00am +8 UTC
Cochran stared intently at the image of Jonah standing on the platform waiting for the Bangkok Lev. The platform was virtually deserted. She panned the camera down its length and zoomed on each of the people, picking up the PUIs broadcast from their Devsticks. She switched back to Jonah. He looked relaxed and tanned. But there was something different about him. She couldn’t put her finger on what and so she stared intently at his image on the screen.
“Contact Sir Thomas,” she said in a curt tone to the Dev she was sitting in front of. The Devscreen in front of
