The army engineers replaced them. Out of curiosity, I asked them to start the machine to check the workflow. It turns out its way better than before. Its displays are not on the screens anymore. They can only be viewed using virtual reality helmets that I was too afraid to put, or through a hologram where the machine could interact with the user. I picked the hologram, and it was fantastic. The engineers had never seen anything like that as the machine showed a hologram of them turning on the machine just like they did. It was a kind of a recording that happened before the machine was even on.
Okay, I need a team of psychologists. I don’t want to see the engineers in the golden gowns again and drive them into insanity. We waited a moment, then four therapists showed up. The place is crowded but dead silent as the therapists now look at themselves in the hologram coming in one by one. Shocked, they began murmuring, and I started thinking we now needed to bring more therapists to manage the first therapists that are managing the engineers. After a moment, I realized that this thing could drive everybody insane, so I decided to empty the pavilion.
I had to scream repeatedly. It seemed they didn’t hear me as they were bewitched by the machine. Everyone finally left except me. I made a coffee there and enjoyed the fake windows showing a background of a calm hill. A gentle breeze moving the grass gave a feeling of peace and tranquility. I dreamed about myself walking there, slowly touching the grass barely with my hands. At the top of the hill, Oina was waiving me.
Wow! I should take that cocktail that I had earlier more often. It did transport me nicely.
I checked my watch, and I realized that I’d been down here for three hours already. It wasn’t that hard, after all. I’ll go up, and before lunch, I’ll send the signal to the Supernova to launch the attacks – five targets on the five data centers of Consoft. It took me a year to find all the databases as they did hide them very well. I’ll justify that by claiming it was a terrorist attack. Some guys from a third world country took control of the Supernova and managed to launch many ballistic missiles. Why not? Other empires do that all the time, and no one ever doubted those reports.
Unfortunately, there will be some human casualties since there will be no warning. Warning them so they could evacuate the centers would give them the time to copy and transmit the data to somewhere else. This is the only card I have where only I know the outcome and no one else.
Of course, they can rebuild another machine in a week. Now, I’m told, they can build even a portable version. The machine's core is not the hardware but the databases used to construct the model. Those databases need to be destroyed forever. Hundreds of innocent people will die. Do I care? Not at all… In these circumstances, it’s this or Doomsday.
And who are you to take such a decision? Shut up, baby salamander! I don’t have the time for that now.
I took the elevator back upstairs. I’m hungry now. The drugs made me feel like I need to devour an elephant. It’s lunchtime, and I’m starving.
Walking down the corridor to my office, I noticed that it was empty. Usually even at lunchtime the offices are busy, but this time it all seems like it's dead empty. Something is wrong. I rushed to my office, opened the door, and then checked the clock on my desk. It showed 7 a.m.!
I felt dizzy. This can't be possible…
Dismar woke me up slowly. I’m still at my office sitting in my chair. He told me that he picked me up today twice in the morning. He remembers that as a dream, but it did happen, and he is sure of that. I asked what time was, and he told me that it was 9 a.m. I told him that we are in deep shit and now we need a miracle. I asked him to follow me down to the elevator fast, the phone was ringing on my desk, but I choose to ignore it.
I gave him a cocktail of drugs to help him lose his mind, just enough to go through the rabbit hole. I took double that. It’s better become a junky than a crazy old man. I prayed to all the gods, silently. I was begging that I would find the place empty.
I even didn’t have the courage to see by myself when we arrived, so I asked Dismar to open the door and check if anyone was there. He told me that the monkeys were there, dressed in bizarre golden gowns. I took a deep breath. Let’s dive in then. I asked Dismar to lose his mind for a moment as what he will witness is from the other side of existence, and if we lose it all, then it was meant to be.
Erwa welcomed us. The other two were still praying to the machine.
“I told them that I would be back, Konu.”
“Hi, Erwa. How is everything? I see you guys are becoming religious.” I watched Dismar swallowing another THC pill as he knew that this was going to be quite a trip.
Erwa replied, “But Konu, is this really you?”
“Yes, I think so. The one from this morning was the oblivious version of myself. Sorry about that.”
“We see you here every morning since we started the
