Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel

Chapter 84

I stood up.

"That's the most sensible decision you've made all day," Doug said.

He was only a yard away from me when I pulled the tube of lipstick from my pocket and raised it to eye level. Doug stopped moving.

"What's that?"

I inched forward and said, "What's it look like?"

"It looks like lipstick."

My hand trembled.

"Put that down, Luna. Come on. Enough with all the drama."

I lowered the lipstick a couple of inches and Doug stepped forward. Just a little closer at first.

"Come on," he said.

I mumbled.

"What?" he said. He took another step closer.

"I said, eat shit."

I pressed down on the lipstick case and a beam of liquid shot straight into Doug's eyes. He dropped the lead pipe and screamed, dropping to his knees. I could smell the capsaicin in the air, like it had been absorbed into the fog. My eyes stung a little. The experience at the stock exchange had been a wake-up call. I realized I needed to be better prepared, so I bought real pepper spray that looked just like a tube of lipstick.

I went over to Doug. He was writhing in pain and couldn't see me. I stuck the pepper spray as close to his nose as I could get it and pressed hard, letting it spray twice as long this time, directly into his face. His screams doubled in volume, and he started convulsing in anguish. I kicked him as hard as I could in the balls, but he didn't even react to the added pain.

I looked over at Alex and Phillip. Alex was still passed out. Phillip was trying to drag himself out from under the shipping container's shadow, but there was no way he would make it in time. The shipping container was already halfway down—its movements slow and jerky. I wondered if Gaia's algorithms were having trouble. I ran to them, and tried to haul Phillip away by the arm, but he was too big for me to move. He didn't budge. Alex was smaller; he budged, but not by much. When the shipping container brushed against my head, I knew I needed to think of something else.

"Luna," said Phillip. "Please tell my son how much he means to me."

"Don't talk like that."

"And I know this doesn't mean much, but I want you to know. You're the best friend I've had in recent years. Thank you for everything."

A bunch of emotions balled up in my stomach. I had to duck down to shuffle over to him. I kissed him on the forehead and wrapped my arms around him as best I could.

"Same here. But don't give up. This is not over yet."

I ducked out from under the container. I had to find some leverage. Something to stop the machine. Machine. That was it. Like Doug said, it was just a machine executing an algorithm. I ran to the control panel and saw what Doug had been typing away at so eagerly. It was Gaia. A slightly modified version of the control input Taye had built. The one I had played around with days ago.

But back then, there'd been nothing about targeting people or killing. It was just code built to improve other code. I entered a question mark in the prompt. The menu options were similar to the Gaia I was already familiar with, but there were a few new options at the bottom of the list.

Phillip shouted, "Hurry, Luna."

"I got this," I shouted back.

I typed the targeting option. It gave me options to enter a new name, but I couldn't find anything about unselecting a target. I looked over at Phillip and Alex, but I couldn't see them anymore. The container was on top of them now. There were no options. There was no undo.

But there might be a cord. And the only way this machine could be instructed to do anything was if it was connected to Ancien. I pulled at the monitor. It wouldn't budge. I dashed back over to Doug. He was still writhing on the ground, but I wasn't there for him. I snatched up the forgotten piece of pipe, then tore back to the control panel and swung the pipe into the machine as hard as I could. Sparks flew everywhere. The crane's engine made a loud, high-pitched noise. Then everything went quiet. I heard a crow cawing angrily.

The container had stopped moving. Breathlessly, I ran back to it and threw myself on the ground, peering under the metal. The container was just touching Phillip's belly, but he gave me a big thumbs up.

"We're okay. You did it."

"That's what friends are for," I laughed. "Now let's get you out of there."

"Not so fast." It was Doug.