Chapter 31

Brandt, along with Smith and Beckett, had worked tirelessly over the past two days to bring Jean back online. The times when Brandt would offer his assistance were met with raised eyebrows and bitter mumblings. He was able to take the hint. Even though there wasn’t much that Brandt could help with, he gave them as much space as possible while vigorously working out a Plan B. One of the building managers at the Institute had offered a small unused office for Brandt to conduct his own activities. To him, it felt like a broom closet, but it was much better than listening to Smith and Beckett stress over the technical difficulties of the project.

His Plan B was little more than a theory. Using his prior knowledge from what Jean had originally found out he spent most of the time looking at locations around Dallas through web-based searches. Brandt eliminated Dallas as a whole; he couldn’t imagine that the man he had met a few days prior would wish to reside in such a populated area. The office walls resembled something that a mental patient in an asylum would concoct. Papers were pinned to the wall to invoke a kind of revelation, while maps of various towns in the surrounding area had highlighted circles drawn onto them. None of his methods had brought him closer to finding Nyx. The state was too large, and there were too many rural areas to pinpoint a location. Without the official assistance of the Bureau, there was little more he could do. Aside from physically going to each place and knocking on the door, he felt like his progress had stalled.

Brandt had decided to check on Smith and Beckett if nothing else but to think on his feet of how to further his own progress. The institute seemed humble and small on the exterior, but once inside, it was more of a labyrinth. He would consistently become confused when walking around the corridors and often have to ask one of the employees for directions to and from the office.

He opened the door to the room labeled Server Room D and found Beckett frantically typing away on a laptop while Smith was plugging in some kind of storage array on the back side of the server rack. It looked like neither of them had slept in days, which probably wasn’t too far from the truth. The oily and unkept hair and a light scent of body odor were a sure giveaway.

The sound of all the fans rotating at once was almost deafening and the room was chilled. The pair elected to wear sweaters while Brandt entered with a plain white short-sleeved shirt and began walking toward Smith. He didn’t expect to be in there that long.

Brandt gave Smith a tap on the shoulder, which made his head pop up and almost hit the frame of the rack.

“Jesus!” Smith yelled out. It had become common practice for everyone to yell due to the noise of the room; it was literally the only way one could be heard.

“Sorry. Just checking up on you. How is it going?”

“Let’s talk outside.” Smith motion towards the door.

The two exited the room, where it was nearly silent. Smith leaned his back against the wall and propped his right foot flat against it. “Beckett is still working out the code to convert the signals.”

“Why does Jean need a converter? You said that she was already capable of understanding quantum data.”

“I also said that you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. This applies to technology as well. You can’t just introduce new hardware and expect everything to work correctly as soon as you hook it up. Things have to be done first. Proper power distribution, driver installation, and software that allows access to the features. It’s just not simple, especially on this level of complexity.”

“I can appreciate that, but doesn’t this place already have these things set up?”

“Yes, but tailored to their own devices and needs. Jean didn’t have a quantum computer helping her make decisions from the start. Instead, she relied on virtualized hardware that made her actions more responsive than a traditional computer. This was done using quantum simulators. It’s not as effective as the real thing, but it at least gave her a foundation to work with. We can’t use the simulators since you want her hooked up to the real deal. So a new application layer and interface had to be worked out, courtesy of your friend Beckett.”

Brandt rolled his eyes. “Okay.”

I’m sure I’ve already explained it to you before, but the simulator operates solely on a digital signal. Ones and zeros. The real processors use ones, zeros, and both simultaneously. Additionally, the signals to and from the apparatus are done through analog. This has to be converted to a digital readout that sends instructions through a classical processing method. Once you have all of those completed, it’s sent through the application layer, which Beckett is still working on.”

“So, we are essentially waiting on Beckett to complete this layer?” Brandt could see the irritation in Smith when he asked the question.

“Yes. It might be best if I am the one that checks on—”

The door flung open, knocking Smith off balance and landing on the ground.

“What the hell, man?” Smith said to the man who was clearly too excited to be bothered with office etiquette.

Beckett, in all of his enthusiasm, must have forgotten who he was in the presence o because the words flowed from his mouth a mile per second. “I think it’s done. We might be able to test now. What are you doing down there? Get up and help me.” He dropped back down to his usually gloomy self once he noticed Brandt helping Smith off the ground.

Smith dusted himself off, even though the hallways were sterile enough to eat off. “Right. Apology accepted. You completed the entire application layer in only two days? How?”

Now in a more mellow tone. “I was able to reuse a lot of the source code from Avery.”

What Beckett said put a look of concern on Brandt’s face. “That’s not going to turn Jean into Avery, is it?”

Smith chose to answer for Beckett this time. “No. It’s just a communication lane to send signals back and forth. There’s no memory, or in this case, personality, stored in it. Those traits would be stored on the hard drive array or in the core code.”

“Ah, I see.”

“No, you don’t.”

“That’s fair. What do we do now?”

“Now we need to ensure the apparatus is calibrated and make any adjustments as necessary. Beckett and one of the late Dr. Phillips’ technicians will go inside the chamber that houses the chandelier and do their tweaks while I run benchmarks from the server room. And before you ask, no you can’t go in there with Beckett.”

“I’m sure he’d love my company, but I remember. It’s a delicate and sterile process; the less people, the better.”

Beckett and a man that looked like he was barely out of high school suited up in what appeared to be hazmat suits before entering the chamber that housed the quantum computer. Brandt observed every precaution they took and marveled at how such measures seemed a lot like working with lethal pathogens. Dust, microbes, noise, and even the simple act of breathing could disturb the quality of their results.

Brandt sat next to Smith for over two hours while they conducted their tests and adjustments. His brain felt like it was spinning from hearing repetitious words that he couldn’t comprehend, such as quantum gates, pulse sequences, and restless measurement. Restless measurement, that’s what I feel like I’m experiencing right now while waiting on this thing, Brandt’s inner thoughts echoed his boredom.

“I think we got it.” Smith finally spoke up after glaring at the laptop monitor for hours.

That woke Brandt up from opened eye slumber. “Really? I mean, finally?”

“Don’t get too excited, Brandt. We still haven’t started Jean’s program. That’s when we’ll know if everything is fine or something is seriously wrong.”

“If it all goes tits-up, you can easily stop it, right?”

“Yes and no. Once the program is running, it sort of goes into a perpetual rhythm of execution. If we abruptly stop it, we can damage the equipment, and we might never get it running again. At a time like this, it’s best to provide a little bit of trust with a lot of hope.”

Beckett and the young-looking man who finally introduced himself as Jon had already exited the chamber and removed their protective equipment. The four of them crowded around the laptop, looking at one another and wondering would do the honors of starting the program.

It was Smith who finally spoke up and offered the task to Beckett. “Since you wrote the code, why don’t you start it up.”

Beckett cracked a small smile. It was a rare sight for Brandt to witness, but he didn’t offer any feedback so as not to ruin the moment.

“Are we doing a drum roll?” Brandt asked.

Beckett glanced at him with his usual flavor of annoyance.

“I guess not.”

It seemed very anti-climactic when Beckett simply pressed the space bar on the keyboard to initialize the program. Brandt didn’t know what to expect, but that singular keyboard stroke certainly didn’t live up to the hype.

“Okay. She’s running. No errors or faults yet,” Smith said.

“How long until she’s fully operational?”

“She should be already. Maybe ask a question.”

Brandt leaned toward the microphone next to the laptop. “Jean, It’s Edward. Are you functioning?”

“Just FYI, it’s a condenser mic; you don’t have to get so close,” Smith said.

The speakers from the laptop came to life. “Nuclear missile launch in five seconds.”

“Jean. You’re not hooked up to the outside world. Try again.”

Everyone except Brandt was stunned and motionless when they heard Jean speak. They each had their own skepticisms but did not anticipate such an intelligent response.

“Oh. Right. Activating halon system in three, two.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a sick sense of humor? Impressive, but morbid. Perhaps one day you’ll meet Hal.”

“Yes. Once. Who is Hal, and how are you today, Agent Brandt?”

“It’s actually Mr. Brandt now. I don’t think I’ll be welcomed back to the Bureau with open arms after this.”

“That’s sad to hear. As long as you feel that you made the right decision, that’s all that should matter.”

“I do, and I’m glad to see that you are functioning. Joyce also sends her thanks.”

“I’m happy that my message was received. I trust that you know what happened to my systems?”

“Was it Avery?”

“Correct. Before I sent the message to your wife, I backed up a save state and core programming to the USB drive. It was a defense mechanism that Andrew implemented in case I ever felt threatened. My only worry was that you weren’t going to make it in time, but it appears that you did. How did it go?”

“Everyone is fine. Joyce is somewhere safe. We found Nyx, but he escaped us with some help. When we found the thumb drive, we did our best to upgrade you from your prior situation.”

“Yes. I notice that I have traditional processing and a new deep learning capability.”

“Agent Smith and Beckett were the heroes here. They found a way to give you access to a quantum computer, just like Avery.”

“I kindly thank them as well. I sense concern in your tone, Mr. Brandt.”

“We have to find Nyx, and we have to eliminate Avery.”

“I have prepared for this.”

“So, you knew we were going to connect you to all of this?”

“I did what I could with what I have. The choice to bring me back, I left entirely up to you. But I have something that could help us find Avery and shut him down for good.”

“Really? What’s that?”

Beckett whispered something to Smith, almost as if he knew the answer before Jean could say it.

“The last bit of information that I placed onto the drive was a signature of Avery in case you or I ever needed another chance to find him.”

“A hardware ID,” Smith said aloud.

“Correct. Are you Agent Smith?”

“Yes. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Thanks, same to you. The hardware ID is unique to a particular hardware configuration for computer systems. It’s a way to validate the authenticity in some cases. In our case, we can use it to search for the location where it resides.”

“So, just like a MAC address for networking systems.” Brandt flexed the one nerd muscle he had acquired from Andrew many years ago when he helped set up his home Wi-Fi connection.

“Correct. But MAC addresses are easy to spoof and change. The actual hardware would require someone to physically change it.”

“What if it has already been changed?”

“Then Avery will be much more difficult to track. We would need to wait for some catastrophic event of his doing to have another chance. Even with a quantum processor, I could not have my gorgeous digital eyes everywhere at once.”

Brandt had already had enough of being entombed within the building. Every moment wasted within the walls allowed Nyx to create more carnage. He felt fortunate that his patience that led to near insanity had paid off. He was happy to be talking to Jean again; he found her voice comforting and almost felt guilty that he was requesting so much from her. There just wasn’t any other route for him to take. If he could get the information he needed, he would try to make it up to her somehow. “What should we do first?”

“I will need you to take another leap of faith. I must have access to your internet again.”

Smith, Beckett, and Jon’s eyes widened and they simultaneously turned their heads to look at Brandt.

“Do it.”