Chapter 50
No.1
The midday sun glared off the glass walls of the Aethel Intelligence headquarters.
Elisa sat in the center of her private, climate-controlled server room. Three massive, curved monitors glowed in front of her, casting a pale blue light across her sharp features. Her fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard in a blur of motion.
Her personal phone, resting on the desk, buzzed with an incoming message.
It was a text from Jewel.
Look at this absolute garbage.
Attached was a screenshot from Instagram.
Elisa paused her typing and tapped the image.
It was a post from Devon Browning's public account.The photo was taken on the sprawling, manicured front lawn of the Chambers family estate in Long Island.
No.2
+120 Points at most
Parked in the center of the driveway was a brand-new, limited-edition white Bentley Continental.
But the focus of the photo wasn't the car. The camera was zoomed in on the rear bumper.
Bolted to the car was a pristine, official New York State license plate. It contained a single, solitary character.
A
The caption beneath the photo was written in Devon's signature sycophantic style:
True power. When he moves mountains and calls in the Governor just to make her smile. KingAndQueen
Elisa stared at the image.
No.3
The comment section was a toxic wasteland of Wall Street bros and aspiring socialites, all drooling over the sheer, corrupt political flex required to secure that plate. They were crowning Allena the undisputed queen of the city.
A second message from Jewel popped up.
He actually did it, Elisa. He burned his father's
political favors to get a license plate for that parasite.
The whole city is talking about it. Are you okay?
Elisa looked at the single 'A' on the screen.
Five years ago, this would have crushed her.
She remembered a charity gala early in their marriage. She had worn a dress that was slightly off-season. Devon and his circle of trust-fund friends had surrounded her, mocking her lack of pedigree,laughing at her inability to identify a specific vintage of champagne.
No.4
August had stood ten feet away, holding a drink,watching her drown in humiliation. He hadn't said a word to defend her. Later, in the car, he had coldly told her to "stop acting like a peasant and learn your place."
She had cried herself to sleep that night, feeling utterly worthless.
Elisa looked at the photo of the Bentley again.
She waited for the familiar sting of inadequacy. She waited for the anger.
Nothing came.
+120 Points at most
Her chest was completely hollow of any emotion regarding August Chambers. The man who had broken her heart didn't exist anymore. He was just a target. A data point in a failing algorithm.
She was Faye. She had twenty-five million dollars in liquid capital, a genius daughter hidden away, and the keys to the most powerful Al on the planet.
No.5
She didn't need a license plate to prove she existed.
Elisa swiped the notification away, dismissing the photo into the digital ether.
Let them have their toys, Elisa typed back to Jewel.The higher he climbs on his ego, the harder the concrete will feel when he hits it.
She tossed the phone aside and turned her full attention back to the three glowing monitors.
On the center screen was the official VIP attendee list for the upcoming Global Medical Al Innovation Summit,scheduled for next week.
Highlighted at the very top of the list of keynote investors was the name: August Chambers - CEO,Chambers Group.
August was planning to use this summit to announce a massive, hostile takeover bid for a major tech firm,attempting to prove to the market that his divorce and the recent PR scandals hadn't weakened his empire. He was going to stand on a global stage and project absolute invincibility.
Elisa's fingers hovered over the keyboard.
No.6
She opened a hidden, encrypted backdoor into the core architecture of Project Chiron.
She began to write a new sequence of code.It was a masterpiece of digital sabotage, beautiful and completely untraceable. She named the executable file 'CHIRON ACHILLES_HEEL.dat`. A fitting,mythological nod to the fatal flaw she was about to inject directly into his empire.
She programmed the code to lay dormant inside the Al's presentation software. It was designed to trigger only when a specific biometric voice pattern-August's voice-spoke a specific command during the live demonstration.
When triggered, the Trojan Horse wouldn't destroy the Al.
It would bypass the presentation slides and project a highly encrypted, hidden data file directly onto the massive screens behind the stage. A file containing the audio recordings of August ordering the financial destruction of his own family, and a collection of encrypted files proving his direct complicity in a series of fraudulent activities that would not. only destroy his reputation but likely trigger a federal investigation.
Elisa hit the 'Enter' key.
A small green box flashed in the corner of the screen:Payload Embedded. Awaiting Trigger.
Elisa leaned back in her ergonomic chair. She picked up her cold cup of black coffee and took a sip.
No.7
The taste was bitter, but the satisfaction blooming in her chest was incredibly sweet.
August wanted to play games with license plates and social media posts.
Elisa was going to play with nuclear codes. The summit was in seven days, and she was going to burn his empire to the ground on live television.