Mason rubs his face with both hands, first up, then down, twisting it into strange contortions. He must have made this same movement thousands of times. "Kendall, yeah, what an amazing young woman. I mean, that makes me sound like I'm a hundred. She died the night of our company holiday party. Kendall was in charge of the whole thing, booked the venue, security, catering. She worked with a party planner, but I don't remember the name. I remember that night she seemed stressed. She has this thing she did with her eyebrows when she was tense but trying not to show it. She had an argument with the caterer about something, and things were getting a little heated. There was private security for the party, and this guy came over and helped the caterer settle down. He was big, and he seemed pretty protective of Kendall, but he was protective of all of us, you know. That's his job. Anyway, the party was great, everyone had a good time, only a few people had too much to drink. Last I saw her was around midnight, she was picking up stray gift bags and items for the lost and found. I told her that she had done a great job and to enjoy her two weeks off and I'd see her in the new year. I didn't see her leave. The police said she left alone. I figured she must have cut through the park to get some air or clear her mind. It wasn't exactly a short cut, but it wasn't out of the way."
::"Jonathan, Ask her what the food was like at the event. Was anyone will after?"::
Hathaways sends telepathically having taken a seat, his hands on his walking stick.
Jonathan darts his gaze to Hathaway and then returns his friendly look to Mason, "Thank you, Mason. I've a few follow up questions. First, did anyone feel unwell after that holiday party? Second, how would you be able to locate big, private security guy? You're a CEO and very resourceful man."
"And third, your company here seems to be trying to help people live longer. What are you really trying to do here?"
There are flowers, cards, burned down candles, photos of the deceased, what you would expect. The two things that stand out are an unusual flower and a torn ticket to the Boston University History Museum.Benjamin uses his phone to snap a picture of ticket and the unusual flower.
If he feels he can do so without anyone seeing him, he'll remove the flower and pocket it. He'll then catch up to Helen and Sekhmet.
The ticket is from 8 days after she was found.
As he follows behind his partners talking to Professor Wilson, Benjamin is only half-listening as he pulls out his phone and tries to find out what -- if any -- exhibits might have been going on at the Boston University History Museum 8 days after Summer Harrington was found.
The featured exhibit at the time featured the travels and journals and artifacts of Henry Walter Bates, who explored the Amazon basin from 1848-1852, returning with many artifacts.
Even though the summary of the museum exhibit doesn't take long to read, Benjamin stares at the text for a long time. Some tenuous connection is trying to form in the back of his mind, but he's not sure...
Benjamin falls back out of earshot of Professor Wilson, and then, over the communicator, he asks, ::I'm sending an image of an unusual flower via text. Can anyone identify it?::
He then creates a group chat with any of his team members that might have a phone number, and sends the picture of the flower he took at Summer Harrington's riverside memorial.
Hathaway sends to Benjamin the soft telepathic whisper of
::"Let me have a look"::
Taking out a small unknown device he looks at the screen.
::"Humm this is unknown to me"::
He sends another message to Sehkmet.
::"Would this plant be something you may know about, being closer to nature?"::
Hathaway seems to be happy letting the others work. Jonathan had a gift to getting others to do as he wishes. It was like Hathaways gifts but on a whole other level. Hathaway had empathy, he could feel what others selt. And use that to guide them but Jonathan has so much more control.
Hathaway was not holy comfortable with this, he did not like the idea of himself having such power over others. But he understood that it was part of Jonathans gifts. The others where so talented, in one way or another they really where incredible. Where as he was just clever and wealthy. Yes he had trained his mind to do thing others could only dream off, but still they were so powerful.
He played with his walking stick and contemplated this while he waited.
As he waits her thinks of the time he played the piano off the cost of Costa Rica. He perfect memory letting him relive the moment.
Jonathan darts his gaze to Hathaway and then returns his friendly look to Mason, "Thank you, Mason. I've a few follow up questions. First, did anyone feel unwell after that holiday party? Second, how would you be able to locate big, private security guy? You're a CEO and very resourceful man."
"And third, your company here seems to be trying to help people live longer. What are you really trying to do here?"
"No one was sick that I know of. We didn't work for the next two weeks, but I didn't hear anything like that, and I would heard if there was a food poisoning outbreak or something. I'm sure I could contact the event planner. All of the stuff would be in Kendall's notes. Why don't we just ask Kendall? You see, we aren't trying to extend life, not in a biological sense. We are trying to extend consciousness."
"Alright, let's ask Kendall. Lead the way, Mason." Harker did not understand Mason was talking about but had a hunch that the company danced with the afterlife. And usually then, mortals discover the supernatural living among them to their disaster.
Sehkmet continues to watch the conversation eagerly but she really has little to add to the investigation at the moment.
Unless by some chance the flower was once used in ancient magics?
No, never used in any magic that she is aware of :-)
Mason smiles a broad, proud smile and turns on his heel. He strides across the open workspace to a nondescript door covered in black stainless steel like a designer kitchen appliance. He moves a panel on the wall beside it, revealing a security panel. He scans his hand and says, "My name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport." He turns back to you as the door slides into the wall. "You ever see that movie? I love that movie."
He leads you into the room. The room is a fairly mundane if fashionable conference room. One whole wall is a display. The center of the room is filled with a richly colored wood conference table and comfortable chairs.
"You can stand or sit. People usually like to sit. The effect can be quite shocking. We don't have the holographic part working too reliably yet, so I'm just going to use the flat display if that is ok?"
Once you settle, Mason raises his chin as if addressing the air around him. "Pi, we welcome Kendall Novak into this space now. Kendall, please come forward and make your presence known..."
The screen wall shimmers and the motes of light coalesce into an image of the woman you recognize from the police reports. Kendall looks around the room, taking you all in. "Good evening, Mason. Who are our guests?"
Mason introduces you as much as he is able, smiling with pride at the whole situation.
Kendall smiles and says, "It's great to meet you all. Um, what can I do for you?"
Jonathan looks at his companions and starts with easy questions, "Kendall, please tell us about the private security person at the holiday party. How could we contact him?"
Then, the vampire heads into potentially difficult questions, "What is your last memory? For example, can you tell us about your physical death?"
::"Soul driven AIs, I hate to say it but the darker port of the Hathaway industries had speculated about this. But it was discounted as near impossible, if they have managed to do it, well there is some dark science going on here"::
He sant to the others
"Yeah, sure, I'm sure I have him in my contacts." She pulls a phone from a rear pocket and scrolls through the contacts. "Here he is, I named him Dylan Security Guy. But his last name is Foley. Dylan Foley. He was nice, a little intense, but you felt like he was watching everything and not just goofing off, right? Here is his number."
At the second set of questions, her brows twist in confusion. "You mean, before this meeting? I was talking to Arayo earlier. He is one of our programmers. We were working on the 4th of July bash for Mason. I don't understand the rest of your question."
At that, Mason says, "I'm sorry, the model is only built on data we have about the subject. As she didn't write anything about that event, the model is unaware of it."
”Thank you Kendall. Mason, would you have either Summer Harrington or Laurel Montgomery saved in there, too?”
“And, please tell us about your clients and investors?” Jonathan tries to connect the other two deaths and find another lead.
"No, sorry. I don't know those names. I can give you a copy of our client and investor files."
Henrietta is taken aback by the appearance of Kendall's image. "Remarkable," she half-whispers. She is momentarily confused when Hathaway's voice sounds in her head, but she quickly realizes what is happening and mentally signals her agreement.
[dice=expertise: Mad Doctor to identify strange flower]d20+20
** spoiler omitted - but it identified the flower as from the Amazon **
"Huh. Okay, weird. Thanks," he mutters into the communicator they were each given.
After a moment, he continues. "I found this Amazonian flower at the memorial for Summer Harrington, set up where they think she entered the water. It was pinned on a board near a museum ticket where they have an exhibit about a guy who explored the Amazon."
Benjamin's voice pitch changes slightly as often happens when one is obviously reading something aloud. "Henry Walter Bates, who explored the Amazon basin from 1848-1852, returning with many artifacts."
He quickly glances up to make sure he's still following Helen, Sekhmet, and the professor, but not too closely that the professor can hear his words. He sends the picture he took of the ticket and a link to the museum's website talking about the exhibit in the group chat.
"The weird thing is, the ticket is dated after Summer Harrington died. So, what does this have to do with her? Does someone know what got her, and this is, like, some sort of clue? Not sure if any of the victims have anything to do with the Amazon, though. But is something from the Amazon river in the Charles River?"
Benjamin eyes the river the group is walking along as if he might expect to see a giant piranha surfacing.
Jonathan nods at Kendall and Mason, "Thank you so much, Mason."
He looks toward his companions for feedback, "Do you have any other questions? I think the strongest lead is Dylan Foley."
” I definitely agree that we should follow up on Foley. He could very easily be the person my witness saw. Unfortunately, I don’t think my witness would do well with a photo array. But if we find his apartment, or him, I should be able to smell if it is the right person“
But, Foley's existence only goes back about 5 years. His birth name is Dylan Rodgers, and he has an extensive military background including enlisting in the US Navy, and Basic Underwater Demolition, Parachute Jump School, and SQT (Seal Qualification Training). He washed out of SQT after 46 weeks of training, before that receiving top marks. After that, his service record is redacted. Rodgers is listed as KIA in Afghanistan. Then a few months later he appears as Dylan Foley with a job here in Boston.
Henrietta is fascinated by the electronic Kendall. Turning to Kendall, she asks pointedly, "Are you actually Kendall, or are you an AI programmed with the memories of Kendall? Can you feel emotion?"
Following on Henrietta's questions, Harker asks Kendall, "Kendall, can you show us what this Dylan Foley looks like?"
After getting the investigation update from Lord Hathaway about Dylan Foley, Jonathan offers, "Excellent work, Hathaway. I think we found our common link between the three deaths. Time to find this Mr. Foley or Rodgers, that is." Jonathan looks to his companions for consensus.
Henrietta is fascinated by the electronic Kendall. Turning to Kendall, she asks pointedly, "Are you actually Kendall, or are you an AI programmed with the memories of Kendall? Can you feel emotion?"
"Of course I'm Kendall. What a strange question. Ohhh, you mean because of e-Phemeral. I can understand the confusion. This is just the conference wall. It's a telepresence thing Mason was working on. We installed it in some classrooms around the world as a sort of window so that kids could connect with classrooms in other cultures. Like there is one that is a window between an Australian kindergarten and one in India. I can't get into the office right now, so Mason has given me this cool way to telecommute. It lets me feel like I'm right in the room. And yes, I have all kinds of emotions."
Following on Henrietta's questions, Harker asks Kendall, "Kendall, can you show us what this Dylan Foley looks like?"
"Yes, I'm sure I have a photo of him from the party." She scrolls through photos on her phone. "Here you go, I'll put it up on the screen."
Hathaway takes out his phone and makes a call. Soon he is done and tells the team.
"Dylan Foley lives at a condo near the river, i have the address, its pretty close to in the center of the map of incidents. Foley is a security guard at the Boston University Museum of History. Also works private security for various employers, including Green Laurel Events, a company owned by victim 3, Laurel Montgomery."
Stops as he gets a text.
"humm it seems, Foley's existence only goes back about 5 years. His birth name is Dylan Rodgers, and he has an extensive military background including enlisting in the US Navy, and Basic Underwater Demolition, Parachute Jump School, and SQT (Seal Qualification Training). "
hathaway reads more of the text.
"He washed out of SQT after 46 weeks of training, before that receiving top marks. After that, his service record is redacted. I am working on that, but Rodgers is listed as KIA in Afghanistan. Then a few months later he appears as Dylan Foley with a job here in Boston."
Hathaway studies Kendall,
"My dear, could I ask, what did you have for breakfast this morning?"
Sehkmet stares at what can only be considered to be the ghost of Kendall in fascination mixed in with disgust.
She's met the undead before. Heck, she is working with and quite likes some of them. But they're still an affront to Ma'at. And the potential scale here is terrifying.
But maybe it is just an AI and nothing to worry about.
It is rare for the two sides of her new person to be so at odds.
"Umm, yogurt, granola, blueberries. There is always good food here, but I'm simple, I guess."
"Thank you, and can I ask when was the last time you left your home? You know to head outside into a public space"
Seeing consensus that his companions were not ready to leave this technological innovation, Jonathan takes a seat in a conference chair. He remembers similar reactions when he first saw moving pictures and movies, even listening to gramophones, people got emotional. This trick is just the same thing but more advanced.
Sekhmet seems particularly riled with the computer.
Wondering where Hathaway is going with these questions of the computer, Jonathan adds, "Excuse me, Kendall. What was the date when you had that breakfast?"
Sehkmet remains quiet as the questions continue, visibly angry and trying to control it.
As the others get up to leave, she stands up
"This is an abomination against Ma'at. Summoning the spirits of the dead, or a facsimile thereof is WRONG! You are toying with things you do not understand! You MUST stop this immediately or I WILL be back to stop you"
With that, she proceeds to smash any and all electronics here in the room or that she has seen on her way in here.
She then lets loose with an intimidating roar to make sure that she is understood and stalks out of the room after the others.
"Thank you, and can I ask when was the last time you left your home? You know to head outside into a public space"
Sehkmet smashes the controls on the table, the screen, a few laptops, and the speakers and microphones.
Mason looks to Jonathan to gauge his response.
Hathaway greeted the others as they came to join them, He nodded at
Benjamin from as he came in.
::"Interesting information about that flower, it may be related to this."::
Then he watch the faces of the rest of the team as the dead woman on the screen respond to his and Jonathan's questions. He was happy that he got the response he needed came, but before he could say anything Sehkmet response to seeing the ghost of the dead girl on the screen was dramatic to say the least. Coming down from full berserk mode Hathaway said to Sehkmet.
"Calm yourself my dear, Sehkmet, we all share you horror at this turn of events. But I am sorry to say, your just destroying the means to display this Digital Ghost. Its data come soul, is held easeware."
He hands his card to the Staffer who showed them this.
"Please send the reaper bill to my office, I will cover all costs"
He turns to Jonathan and the others.
"Whatever that is, it has no idea its dead, because someone has altered its memory. Which means intent in this act, beyond just copying a mind or soul. I suspect the other two girls may have come to the same fate. The question we are asking is, how and why, on that latter one, you would only need one girl for an experiment why three. Two fails and one success? perhaps. Next the how, this is no simple task, mapping a human mind. And why drown them unless...."
She thinks a moment.
"You were seeking to hide the fact they had already drown. Water in the lungs, we need to check its river water in their lungs."
He goes to make a phone call. He asks his frasnic team to check the water in the girls lungs was river water if not then he want to know what is in them.
Then he says.
"If we are done here, We need to go see the bodies. Benjamin are you happy to tell us about the flower in the car."
Jonathan gets up from the conference chair after Sekhmet's rampage holding the gaze of Mason. "Thank you very much for your time, Mason. Please ensure that you and those who saw us here remember only Lord Hathaway and an unremarkable entourage. Please have any recordings of our presence destroyed due to Lord Hathaway's desire for privacy."
"Please upgrade this conference room at the expense of Lord Hathaway. Perhaps, he will invest and signal to his wealthy friends the opportunity of your company."
"Are all those instructions crystal clear, Mason?" The vampire asks the mortal while reaching out his hand to shake it goodbye.
Henrietta is taken aback by Sehkmet's actions, but holds her tongue, understanding the avatar's frustration. She leaves the room with the others, her gaze lingering for a few seconds on the remains of the now-silent screen where Kendall had appeared moments ago.
Mason accepts Harker's instructions with a bow and a stammering "Of course."
Everyone who was in the e-Phemeral visit steps into the street and climbs into a stretch limousine, where Benjamin and Helen await.
Hathaway picks up the autopsy reports and checks to see of they checked the water in the longs.
"I have sent my team to sucore the one body not yet interred, My thinking is this everyone. The three woman has some kind of process done to them, possibly submerged in a liquid of some kind. Where they dead or where put in a state where they could be taken to the river and disposed of. So that it looked like they droned there. This is just a set of assumptions on my part. But the flower, its use, the thing back there had memories only going back to the party. And had been tampered with to have new fake ones. The process by which they clone minds is a one way trip."
He looks out the windows thinking.
"And it is a they, if they have found a way to make the singularity work the money and power that could given them is beyond anything this world has known. I know I looked into it, its uses and miss using. Imagine a world run by AI ancestors. Where the Embedded are controlled by Ethereal AIs. They could create virtual hells and heavens, to punish or reward the next generations. A digital pope overseeing billans in VR hell. And then there is space exploration, AI crews flying generation ships to the stars. Taking their culture out into the cosmos. Soul less AI driven van norman machines, building worlds full of complaint organic slaves."
He looked back at them for effect
"And this is what has always worried me about the singularity, That Those ascended to AI would see organics as just tools, Things to use. While they remove, hope, love, care, from themselves. If Empathy can be deleted what will we become. This is why my ship does not have a complicated AI. Because thinking like this, Well I can see how Sehkmet range is totally justified to be honest. And as my friend Frank Herbert put it, “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." He know what he was talking about.
He hands on the top of his silver cain he looked back out the window, deep in contemplation. Then he adds.
"This will not be the 1st time I have ended rechearch like this"
And he leaves that hanging.
”don’t forget that the last victim was conscious and freely accompanying our suspect before she was put into the water”
"Really!, Thank you, Sehkmet, I missed that, so the drowned before being in the water is not the case. But still how was this done? There has to be a lab somewhere, a means of human to AI transposition."
While waiting for the others to join them, Helen pulls out her laptop to look up recent registries of studies and archeological permits in the Amazon, including what organizations or foundations might be funding said studies.
"Helen, Benjamin." Jonathan greets the two in the waiting limousine SUV. "It sounds like your visit to the university bore fruit." Well, it was a plant of some kind.
After Hathaway's hypothesizing, the vampire suggests, "well said, my good man. I think the next best physical lead is to find this Dylan Foley chap. Hathaway's information about his background implies that he found something supernatural."
"Hathaway, do we have enough time before dawn to visit this fellow's haunts?" The vampire asks.
"And this is what has always worried me about the singularity, That Those ascended to AI would see organics as just tools, Things to use. While they remove, hope, love, care, from themselves. If Empathy can be deleted what will we become. This is why my ship does not have a complicated AI. Because thinking like this, Well I can see how Sehkmet range is totally justified to be honest. And as my friend Frank Herbert put it, “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." He know what he was talking about.
"But Kendall was quite insistent that she was capable of emotion. Is she just an AI playing at being human? Or is she something more?"