agent simms? scott bowman: welcome to b- 36. if you'll follow me?
it stands for 'autonomous reconnaissance intelligence analyst'.  and we reveal "the tank." a glassed-in wall containing tons of water. an awesome steel sphere in the water, suspended by a claw-like apparatus. the "brain" of a com uter network. the very same image jerry and rachel just saw on the tv.
twenty-two hundred tons of super-cooled water keeps her from overheating -- that's ninety-two thousand processors, the equivalent of a hundred.millionhuman brains working together as:,.one"'
no, that was echelon, eavesdropping off satellites. this goes.;. much farther.
after 911, our problem wasn't collecting data, it was interpreting it fast enough. ergo: quantum rocessin
today there are more microchips than people, and they can all be data-mined, either via direct connectivity or wireless signals --let's say we're chasing someone with a suitcase nuke in l.a., we can order aria to shut down mass transit, track the perp through traffic cameras.  and if given the order, she could even turn a tv into a bomb to take him out.
-- she can't act without authorization. see, she's bound not to countermand our laws -- even the declaration of independence is woven into her source code. her primary role's pre-emptive -- running simulations, identifying threats before they become real.
you know, clever allegory -- of the apocalypse'--`except we're here to prevent it. scott taps the console, id photos appear of our four "horsemen": paul shaw, scott, and two men we'll call lowell and jimmy.
officially, we don't exist, but we monitor aria's network 24. 7. there were :four of us.  til paul died. he was smarter than all of us put together.
yeah, but you could set your watch by paul. except.
the night he died? he left his shift three minutes early. which you don't do. which he wouldn't do. latesha's suddenly locked in on a clue -- prelap:
aria's system uses biometric security to identify us, so only horsemen can access her core programming. suddenly his head's ensconced in a laser grid that scans every inch of his features: "processing for match.  horseman ident confirmed: bowman, scott." latesha watches somewhat dumbstruck as the machine arm retreats upward.
aria, go voice active, please.
aria, this is latesha simms, she's here as part of a counter-terrorism task force.
no need for cameras in here, we've got aria. latesha looks through a glass divider at aria floating in the tank. creeped out. the footage jumping as paul rounds the corner for the elevator. presses his thumb to the panel.
is he.  blinking? yes. erratically, deliberately. fucking weird. scott and latesha share a look. suddenly, the image on the monitor starts to flicker and jump --
negative, i'm prioritizing this.
a code. he's blinking code
oh, that sonofabitch.  he grabs a piece of paper and starts writing madly, scribbling numbers, scratching some out, then converting them to letters --
it's a code -- hexadecimal -- a number system that can be converted to letters the first computer used it as a programming language back in the 50's. latesha watches, rapt: r.  e. e.  x.  t. ." on the feed: the elevator door opens and paul steps out. that's all they get. they stare, trying to make sense of the letters:
maintenance replaced it yesterday. this isn't right.  they weren't supposed to do it til june. they lock eyes.
shit, there're hundreds of them.
latesha! -- grabbing the extinguisher as crash!! the arm crushes down as she snaps her hand back just in time. turns the tank over and palms something, unnoticed by everyone. as the operator runs up to her, beside himself --
-- you okay? jesus latesha?
yes. yes. good idea. come on -- as they start walking out. workers parting to let them through. as they head towards the exit, latesha suddenly pulls scott into
mr. secretary, we need to speak to you. now. in the "vault." callister looks at scott, at the sweat on his face. at the cameras he keeps looking at. whatever this is, it's. urgent.
a 'continuity of government' simulation we run periodically to game out terrorism drills: how to keep the country running if the chain of command were wiped out. everyone down to the fourteenth man, that is --
-- but she thinks algorithmically, she can't make value judgments: operate outside the law --
but paul put a biometric lock on her, technically she still can't do anything.
hey! heeeelllpi
climb!! aria cam watches as they jump up and yank off the grate --
hold on to me!! she manages to swing back onto the ladder rungs, slamming against them -- safe -- and we match to:
we can only unlock the emergency override from the main terminal, and that's assuming she lets us in.
we can't shut her down, but maybe we can get her to shut herself down. help me with this as they tug at the hatch --
this controls her primary cooling system.  if we cut the circulation, the temp in her tank goes up.
she'll have to shut herself down to keep from overheating.
not anymore. the lights in the room flicker as the liquid in the tubes stops flowing. temperature gauges: aria's core temp starts to rise --
once she's at 82, she'll shut down.  latesha nods, sweating bullets. come on come on come on.
one more degree suddenly the door bursts open and two guards rush in with guns, slam them to the wall:
-- oh shit.  she's upping the water pressure --
she can't drain the tank.  she's--gonna blow it. as the pressure in the tank intensifies, the frame begins to groan. the steel fitting screams with the enormous load -- a support rivet pops out with an earsplitting kwang! zings across the room like a bullet, pockmarking the wall.--
you gotta let me run a bypass on that door or in about 30 seconds this room's gonna be full of water! a fracture shoots across the glass. the guards are frightened:
i need something to pry it open! latesha whips out her keychain with the mini army knife -- scott pries off the panel:.as. the glass fracture grows -- he starts stripping wires as more'steel rivets pop loose, ping ping ping! it's like dodging bullets -- scott sparks the wires together and the door starts to open, but only a few inches before it stops.
stop telling me i can do it! the glass spiderwebs madly -- he sparks the wires together again, the door opens a few more inches but: the glass gives way and the tank explodes! water surges across the room, the guards are impaled by glass shards, latesha and scott smash hard against the wall, but the half-open door acts like a drain, siphoning water into corridors.  as the level lowers, we find latesha and scott on the ground, water runoff trailing around them, unmoving.
she may have tried, but running her.  subroutines alone would take 300: million desktop pc's all networked together. there's no single system out there with enough computing capacity. to"sustain her. the men share glances, satisfied with the answer.
so.
hey :you think i could have your.  you