Rainbows End

Alfred Volunteers

Günberk Braun and Keiko Mitsuri: They were top officers in their respective services. Vaz had tracked these two since their college days. He knew more about them than they would ever guess. That was one of the benefits of being very old and very well connected. In a sense, he had guided them into their intel careers, though neither they nor their organizations suspected the fact. They weren't traitors to the EU or Japan, but Alfred understood them so well that he could subtly guide them.

So he had thought, and so he still hoped. And yet his two young friends' remorseless efforts to help had become the greatest threat to his plans. As today:

"Yes, yes. There are risks," Vaz was saying. "We knew that from the beginning. But letting a serious YGBM project escape detection would be much more dangerous. We must find out what's going on in the San Diego labs. Plan Rabbit can do that."

Keiko Mitsuri shook her head. "Alfred, I have contacts in U.S. intelligence that go back years. These aren't my agents, but they would not tolerate a rogue weapons project. On that, I would trust them with my life. I say we should contact them — very unofficially — and see what they can learn about the San Diego labs."

Alfred leaned forward. "Would you trust them with your country's life? Because that's what we are talking about here. In the worst case, there is not only a YGBM research effort going on in San Diego, but it is supported at the highest levels of the U.S. government. In that case, your friends' best efforts would simply alert their superiors to our suspicions. The evidence would disappear. When it comes to investigating a threat this serious we simply must do it ourselves ."

In one form or another, this was an argument that dated from their Barcelona meeting. Today's installment could be decisive.

Keiko sat back and gave a frustrated shrug. She was presenting in more or less her real appearance and location, a thirty-year-old woman sitting at her desk somewhere in Tokyo. She had transformed one side of Vaz's office with her minimalist furniture and a picture-window view of Tokyo's skyline.

Günberk Braun was less prepossessing. His image simply occupied one of Alfred's office chairs. No doubt Günberk figured that the EU swung enough weight that he could afford a mild disposition. Günberk might be the real problem today, but so far he was just listening.

Okay. Alfred spread his hands. "I truly think the course we set in Barcelona is the most prudent one. Can you deny the progress we have made?" He waved at the biographical reports scattered around the table. "We have hands and minds on the scene — all deniable, and ignorant of what is manipulating them. In fact, they totally misunderstand the significance of this operation. Do you doubt this? Do you think that the Americans have any whiff of our investigation?"

Both youngsters shook their heads. Keiko even gave him a rueful smile. "No. Your SHE-based compartmentalization is truly a revolution in military affairs."

"Indeed, and our releasing those methods — even to sister services within the Alliance — shows how seriously we at the EIA view the current necessities. So, please. If we delay more than one hundred hours, we might as well start over. What is your problem with giving the final go-ahead?"

Günberk glanced at his Japanese counterpart. She made an impatient gesture for him to go ahead. "I assume your question is rhetorical, Alfred. The problem with Plan Rabbit is Rabbit. Everything depends on him, and still we know almost nothing about him."

"And neither will the Americans. Deniability is the whole point. Rabbit is everything we could want."

"He is more, Alfred." Günberk's gaze was steady. For all his youth, Braun had the stolid aspect of a turn-of-the-century German. He moved from point to point slowly, inexorably. "In setting up this operation, Rabbit has performed miracles on our behalf. His ability demonstrates that he himself is a threat."

Vaz glanced at the results of Günberk's latest investigation. "But you have discovered critical weaknesses in Rabbit. However much he's tried to disguise it, you've traced all his certificate authority to a single apex." Having a single CA apex was not unusual; that Günberk had managed to discover Rabbit's apex was a triumph. For Alfred — given his own, ah, sensitive relationship with Rabbit — it was miraculously good news.

Günberk nodded. "Credit Suisse. So what?"

"So if Rabbit turns out to be a nightmare, you could pull the plug on Credit Suisse and put him out of business."

"Pull the plug on Credit Suisse CA? Do you have any idea what that would do to the European economy? I'm proud of my people, that they ferreted this secret out — but it's not something we can effectively use."

"We should have dropped Rabbit after that first meeting in Barcelona," said Keiko. "He is too clever."

Vaz raised a hand, "Perhaps, but how could we know?"

"Ja ? Forgive me, Alfred, but we wonder if you know more about Mr. Rabbit than we."

Damn ! "Not at all. Honestly." Alfred leaned back in his chair and took in the nervous postures of his colleagues. "You've been talking behind my back, haven't you?" He gave them a gentle smile. "Do you think Rabbit is really American intelligence? Chinese?" They had spent a lot of time investigating those possibilities. But now Keiko shook her head. "Then what is your theory, my friends?"

"Well," said Günberk, sounding a little embarrassed. "Maybe Mr. Rabbit is not even human. Maybe it's an Artificial Intelligence."

Vaz laughed. He glanced at Keiko Mitsuri. "And you?"

"I think AI is a possibility we should consider. Rabbit's talents are so broad, his work is so effective — and his personality is so juvenile. That last was one of the features the U.S. DARPA thought would be characteristic." She saw the incredulity on Vaz's face. "Not every threat is a cult or conspiracy."

"Of course. But AI monsters? That's a bogeyman out of the twentieth century. Who in the intelligence communities takes that seriously? Ah! That's Pascal Heriot's hobbyhorse, isn't it?" Alfred's tone became low and serious. "Have you been talking to Pascal about this project?"

"Of course not. But AI is a threat that's been totally overlooked in recent years."

"Correct, because nothing ever came of it. Before the Sino-American war, we know DARPA spent billions on the Little Helper Project. It was almost as much a fiasco as their Space Access Denial initiative."

"Space Denial worked ."

Vaz laughed. "It worked against everybody, Keiko, the Americans most of all. But you're right, SAD is not a proper comparison. My point is that some of the smartest people in the world tried to create AI and failed."

"The researchers failed, but surely runnable code survived. The Internet is not the cramped toy it once was. Maybe pieces of DARPA's Little Helper are out there, growing into what it could never be in the low-tech past."

"That is science fiction! There was even a movie — "

"More than one, actually," said Günberk. "Alfred, I don't agree with Keiko that programs from years ago could self-organize just because decent resources are available now. But here at the IB, we have been tracking the possibilities. I think Pascal Heriot has a point. Just because most people have dismissed the possibility doesn't mean that it is not real. We are certainly past the crossover point when it comes to computer hardware. Pascal thinks that when it finally happens, it will arise without institutional precursors. It will be like many research developments, but rather more catastrophic." Just another way humankind might fail to survive the century.

"Whatever the explanation," said Keiko, "Rabbit is simply too competent, too anonymous… I'm sorry, Alfred, we think the operation should be shut down. Let's approach our American friends on this."

"But equipment is in place. Our people are in place."

She shrugged. "With Rabbit managing things? That could leave Rabbit with whatever we discover in San Diego. Even if we agreed with you, our bosses would never go along."

She was serious. Alfred glanced at Braun. He was, too. This was bad. "Keiko, Günberk, please. Just balance the risks."

"We are," said Keiko. "Rabbit loose within this grandiose scheme is a cosmic-sized un safety!" She could be quite full of modern Japanese bluntness.

Vaz said, "But we could arrange things so Rabbit receives operational information just-in-time as the action evolves."

Fortunately, Günberk shot that down immediately: "Ach, no. Such remote micromanagement, it's a guarantee of disaster."

Vaz hesitated a long moment, tried to look as though he were thinking hard, making some hard decision. "Maybe, maybe there's a way we can have everything — the, uh, 'grandiose scheme' and minimal risk from Rabbit. Suppose we don't supply Rabbit with the final details in advance. Suppose we put one of our own people on the ground in Southern California the night of the break-in?"

Mitsuri and Braun stared for a second. "But what about deniability then?" said Keiko. "If we have our own agent breaking in — "

"Think, Keiko. My proposal risks tipping off the Americans, which is something yours guarantees . And we can keep the risk low. We simply put our own agent nearby, in a well-planned position with essentially zero latencies. What the Americans call a Local Honcho."

Günberk brightened. "Like Alice Gong at Ciudad General Ortiz!"

" — Yes. Exactly." He hadn't been thinking of Alice, but Günberk was right. It had been Alice Gong on the ice at Ortiz, almost single-handedly discovering and stopping the Free Water Front. Maybe the Front would have failed anyway. After all, no one had ever tried to scale a Saturday-night special up to three hundred megatons. But if the bomb had successfully detonated, their "statement of principle" would have poisoned the freshwater mining industry off West Antarctica. Gong remained unknown to the outside world, but she was something of a legend within the intelligence communities. She was one of the good guys.

Thank goodness, neither Braun nor Mitsuri seemed to notice Alfred's discomfort at her name.

"Inserting a Honcho now would be difficult," said Keiko. "Are we talking a credible tourist, or cargo-container roulette?" Truly black insertions looked like WMD smuggling; they were hair-raising operations for all concerned. "None of my agents-in-place are rated for this operation. It will take a special person, special talents, special clearance."

"I have some good people in California," said Günberk, "but none of them are at this level."

"It doesn't matter," said Vaz, his voice filled with steely determination. "I'm quite willing to go, myself."

He had surprised them before, but this was a bombshell. Braun sat for a moment, openmouthed. "Alfred!"

"It's that important," Vaz said. He gave them each his most direct and sincere look.

"But you're a desk jockey like us!"

Alfred shook his head. Today he would have to let a little bit of his background story come unglued. Hopefully, it wouldn't all tear apart. Alfred had spent years "fitting in" as a midlevel bureaucrat at the External In-telligence Agency. If he were unmasked, then at best he'd end up like the prime minister, forced back into high-level political hackery. At worst… at worst, Günberk and Keiko might figure out what he was really up to in San Diego.

Vaz — > EIA Inner Office: Clear Biographical Package 3 for joint intelligence viewing.

Aloud, he said, "I do have field experience. In the U.S. in fact, in the early teens."

Braun and Mitsuri both had a long stare. They were busy browsing. BioPack 3 would show them the operations. It was all consistent with what they had known before, but revealed new depths to their Indian pal. Günberk was the first to recover. "I… see." He was silent for a moment, reading more. "You did well. But that was some years ago, Alfred. This will be a heavily network-technical assignment."

Alfred nodded at the criticism. "True. I am not a young man." Mitsuri and Braun thought he was in his early fifties. "On the other hand, my specialty here at the EIA is network issues, so I'm not really out of date."

A surprised grin flashed across Keiko's face. "And you do know this operation better than anyone. So by being on-site you can supply the critical pieces without giving them to Rabbit — "

"Correct."

Günberk was still unhappy: "And yet this is an extraordinarily dangerous operation. We Great Powers compete, that is true. But when it comes to the threat of Weapons, we must stand together. This is the first time in my career that that covenant has been broken."

Alfred nodded solemnly. "We must find out the truth, Günberk. We could be wrong about San Diego. Then we'll thankfully and silently disengage. But whatever the source of this weapon, we must discover it. And if that turns out to be San Diego, the Americans will very likely thank us."

Mitsuri and Braun looked at each other for a long moment. Finally they nodded, and Keiko said, "We'll support the insertion of a Local Honcho, presumably you. I'll put planners on fallback strategies in case you are exposed. We'll provide network and analyst support. It'll be up to you to manage critical data on the ground — "

" — and keep Mr. Rabbit from taking over the whole thing!" said Günberk.

Alfred sat in his office for some minutes after his friends departed. That had been too close a thing.

When the stakes are highest, the threats always multiply. Plan Rabbit was the most sensitive operation that the Indian government had ever (knowingly) been a part of; getting the prime minister's support had not been easy. Today Keiko and Günberk had almost shut him down as thoroughly as the PM could have. As for Rabbit — well, AI might be fantasy, but Rabbit was just as much a threat as Günberk and Keiko feared.

Alfred relaxed slightly, allowed himself a smile. Yes, the threats had multiplied like, well, like rabbits. But here today he had collided some of those threats and neutralized them. For weeks he had been plotting his Local Honcho role. In the end, Günberk and Keiko had provided him with the natural excuse to be present on the ground in San Diego.

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