The sky was an amazing deep expansive blue, but everything felt flat and lifeless. Like someone had adjusted the saturation until only dull muted colors existed in the world. Even the series of ambulances, police cars, and fire truck that rushed past Ben with lights flashing and sirens blaring barely registered as he pulled over to let them by.

While heading to the biology department trying to make sense of everything that had happened, Ben’s phone rang.  He glanced at it before answering and saw it was Steve.

“Hey Steve.”

“Dude! What the hell is JANICE, Ben?” Steve sounded panicked.

“What’s going on?” Ben was concerned that something bad was going on.

“Bobby came in my office first thing and said something was eating up 95% of our computer power and about the same or more of our bandwidth! We tracked it down to your office and it’s that contraption Jerry built. This thing is hooked up to our network, the internet, our security system, and no telling what else. And it’s got some sort of security system built in that trashes whatever computer tries to access it. I’ve killed three computers already. I can’t touch without frying your system and most of our intranet. I’ve got Becca and Ryan working on hacking in and disconnecting it now, but they’ve never seen anything like it. What the hell is this thing?”

With little sleep, Ben was running on adrenaline and his brain was rushing into all sorts of crazy tangents trying to get it wrapped around what was going on.

“I don’t know what Jerry made, Steve. That thing has been calling me with updates and information all night. But JANICE said she registered an attack on our systems early this morning that she was able to stop. Maybe this neural pathways stuff Jerry was working on enabled the AI to really take off faster than he thought. Maybe she…it believes it needs to protect our company…inside and out?”

Ben’s phone beeped and he glanced quickly to see it was an incoming text message from an unknown number with an attached images. He returned to Steve knowing it would take a second to load.

Steve was quiet for a moment. “No shit? Well…okay…that’s cool and amazing, but…I don’t care what IT thinks, it needs to be shut off so we can do some business,” Steve said, a mixture of amazement, anger and fear in his voice. “What was it about the security issue. Any specifics? If we’re getting hacked….maybe JANICE is actually trying to stay ahead of it?”

“I know we’re getting successful, but I don’t think we have anything that’s of that much value and interest to launch an attack like this,” Ben told him as he made a turn to take him to the Biology building.

The site in front of him finally brought vibrancy back into his day.

“What the hell!?” Ben said out loud as police waved for him to stop his car.

“What is it? What’s happening?” Steve asked.

“The University Biology building is on fire,” he told him. The entire building was engulfed in flames. The fire trucks, EMS vehicles, and police cars that had passed him earlier ended up here. More were arriving. People had fled the building, some carrying materials and computers. Ben stepped out of his car completely stunned at the site in front of him.

“Why are you at there?” Steve asked.

“Terri’s body had gotten rerouted here as a donation to science,” he said still stunned.

“What?! I thought she wanted to be cremated like you? And…how the hell could it be rerouted that fast? It’s only been a few hours? This week is getting more and more bizarre!”

Suddenly, an explosion from the building blasted stone, glass, concrete, and paper outward to the surrounding area knocking down trees, small structures and emergency workers. Glass shattered in nearby buildings, and Ben was knocked backwards onto the roof of his car.

His ears were ringing and as he shook his head, his phone beeped again signaling the image download. He heard Steve’s muffled voice on his phone, “BEN! BEN!!! WHAT”S GOING ON! ARE YOU OKAY??!?!”

“Yeah. Just…a bit dazed. Hold on,” Ben told him as he got his footing again. He blinked his eyes trying to focus as he checked the message and images from the unknown caller.

Ben watched as part of the Biology building collapsed and the emergency crews backed away focusing on protecting the surrounding buildings. As  the photo attachments loaded, it took him a few moments to understand what he was looking at.

In the photos, it appeared to be a few dozen FBI agents in full gear getting ready to breach a building. As Ben flipped through six photos, the next-to-last photo pulled back and showed that it was his office building. The last photo was an image of an official FBI document issuing an order to seize all property of Ben’s company, and apprehend all individuals, as a terrorist cell was working out of the building and committing cyber terrorism. The last order was, ‘Use of deadly force is authorized.’

Panic rose in Ben’s body. He turned towards where his office was in San Francisco. “STEVE! GET OUT OF THE BUILDING NOW!” he yelled into the phone. “The FBI is about to storm the building. Don’t ask questions. Take anyone you can NOW! Use the roof!!! GO! NOW! STEVE!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Steve said, not understanding anything. Crashing came across the phone with sounds of voices shouting “FBI,” followed by muffled explosions. “WHAT THE HELL!?” Steve screamed.

Ben pressed the phone closer to his ear as the sounds of chaos reached him from his office. He heard popping sounds over the phone and several people yelling and screaming. He heard Steve screaming to others to get out and follow him. Suddenly, he heard loud gunfire close to the phone, he heard Steve gasp, followed by a crash and then the line went dead.

Ben stood there with the phone to his ear, staring towards his office building, while smoke rolled from the biology building across the hearse causing his eyes to burn and water. “Steve…” he murmured as he let the phone drop to his side.

Suddenly, a plume of smoke rising from the city followed a few seconds later by a loud echo of an explosion in the direction of his office. Emergency worker’s and police radios crackled with information, “Explosion and fire downtown San Francisco. All units respond.” The address they reported was Ben’s business address.

Ben’s phone buzzed again with a new text message with an image attached. He stared numbly and opened the photo.

It was his office building. Destroyed. In flames. And surrounded by debris, destroyed vehicles, and bodies of civilians and FBI officers.

Ben slumped against the hearse, dropped the phone, and collapsed to the ground as three black SUVs pulled up with lights flashing and surrounded him and the hearse. Federal agents swarmed out of the SUVs with guns drawn.

Fires raged on nearby and in the distance.

____________________________________________

Chapter 8 | Pantone 871

© 2013-2019 Eric Huber. Silicon(e)™ is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The green and gold school colors of The University of San Francisco shown brightly in the morning sun and the banner they were displayed upon billowed in the morning breeze off the bay. Students were already hustling about on their way to class. Some were obviously late. Their clothes dis-shelved and clumps of bed-head sticking up. Passing the boys frat houses, Ben spotted a young woman being snuck out the side door, her boyfriend kissing her quickly, scouting the area, and pushing her out the door. Her demeanor coming down the stairs was a mixture of happiness and the old “walk-of-shame” as she had failed to leave earlier before other students were out and about.

None of that matters by the time you reach my age. 

Besides the current situation of his fiances’ body being sent for medical research instead of being sent for cremation, Ben had a business with lots of employees to take care of, not to mention the shareholders. The days of having such a simple problem as sneaking your girlfriend out of a dorm room seemed almost ludicrous.

After parking his car in a parking deck, he headed to Terri’s building. After passing through the levels of security that protected Terri’s work, and continuing to her department, he could see a group was gathered together and had obviously heard the news. Her good friend and co-worker, Mark, immediately rushed over to him and wrapped his arms around Ben. He was a bit of a hugger.

“Ben….I’m so sorry…I can’t…I can’t believe it,” he pulled away and dried his eyes.

Others stood nearby, arms crossed, eyes averted in some cases, others looking at him with pleading eyes to tell them it wasn’t true.

It was.

After explaining what had happened, Ben broke right to the point. “I’ve got a problem I need help with. Some computer glitch has sent Terri’s body to the University for medical research instead of to the funeral home for cremation so I could scatter her ashes from the mountains. Does anyone have any idea where she might be delivered?”

A young woman, Dana, spoke up. “The biology building is the only place that makes sense. But, usually, a body has to be embalmed and processed before being shipped to a school for research. I mean, they haven’t had time to do that, have they?”

Mark was staring down at the floor, shaking his head, “First the lab, now Terri. What is going on?”

A glimmer of memory came to Ben’s mind about Terri saying something about a ‘set-back’ during their last conversation. “What do you mean, the lab, Mark? What happened yesterday?” Ben asked.

The group looked at each other nervously, then all turned to Mark. He gave a big sigh and began explaining, “All of our… Terri’s… research was stolen and all the data erased of our experiments… our trials, failures, successes, and results. Ben, even the backups were wiped.”

Ben was shocked. For such a serious set back, he wondered how Terri had been in such a good mood before the…

…accident…

He shook his head, confused. “That doesn’t make any sense. She said you guys had a set back, but didn’t seem that concerned. Of course,” he thought out loud, “…I had just lost a staff member. Maybe she was downplaying what had happened for my sake.”

Dana spoke up again as some of the others started breaking away from the group to start working. “Well that was the thing she didn’t seem as freaked out as we were. She acted like she had information that we didn’t. I think she had a backup off site… but since she’s gone…” her voice trailed off.

Mark spoke up, “No. It was against security to take information off site. She wasn’t the kind to break protocol or security. Was she?” Mark looked at Ben quizzically.

Ben laughed. “Really? How long have you known her, Mark? Did you know her?” he corrected himself. “She always hedged her bets.”

Terri’s work had been secret and high security in robotics, a competitive field, but nothing ever to the level of breaking and entering had been done before. Her work wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you could simply say, ‘We developed the exact same system.’ If someone stole it all, it would be easy to tell who had done it when they unveiled it at some later date.

But was it possible? That she had been onto something that had gotten her killed and her work stolen? Had her body been redirected to protect some secret?

“Terri never told me exact details of you guys were building, but I know you had a prototype system that was nearly finished. And you said they took some of your tech too in the break in?” Ben asked.

The staff almost let out a collective sigh of disgust.

Mark spoke, “Yeah. They took the prototype. Any chance she had a spare one at home?”

“Sorry, Mark…everyone. I’ll see what I can find at home. Maybe there is something there that can help your project. I’m sure it’s what she would have wanted. To see the work completed and all of you involved.” Ben looked everyone in the eyes and spoke sincerely, “She thought very highly of each of you. She really thought of you as her family.”

Some of the staff wiped at their eyes, including Dana who had been fidgeting with her phone.

“Ben, here’s my friend, Todd’s number at the biology building. I texted him and he said he’d open the area for you where they may have taken her.” She handed him a slip of paper, stared at him for a few seconds with tear filled eyes and suddenly gave him a huge, firm hug and suddenly rushed away leaving tear stains on his shirt.

The rest of the group stared at him as well.

“Good luck, Ben. Let us know what we can do to help.” Mark said.

Ben turned and strode out before his own tears started.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 7 | Pantone 2728

© 2013-2019 Eric Huber. Silicon(e)™ is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The entryway to the Bremmen Brothers’ Funeral home was filled with flowers from a previous service the day before. Bright splashes of lavender orchids stood out among the peace lilies and other more conservative flowers.

The older Bremmen brother, John, came out to greet Ben.

“Good morning, Mr. Ashmore. We are so sorry for your loss,” he said, taking Ben’s hand in a warm gesture and not a formal handshake.

“Thank you,” Ben said simply.

“May I get you some coffee or other beverage? I know it’s been a harrowing night for you. You must be tired.”

“I am. Coffee would be great. Cream and sugar too, please.”

“Sure. Why don’t you come into our office here and I’ll be right back,” John guided Ben into a spacious office with rich dark wood furniture and comfortable leather seats. Ben sank into one of the chairs and could feel the weariness starting to creep over his body.

He wasn’t the young man he once was. Nights without sleep were common during the early days of building a business or learning a trade for a gung-ho employer who knew how to praise and encourage, but those days were long gone. And pulling an all-nighter during a tragedy was barely comprehensible to Ben at his age.

His phone buzzed causing him to jerk slightly.

Had I dozed off?

It was a text from Steve. “All staff present. They wanted to do ‘something’ for you. Seems like they want to keep the company humming. Call if you need ANYTHING.”

“Thanks, Steve. Tell all it’s appreciated more than I can ever tell them. Will come in as soon as I can to update everyone in person.” Ben replied and slid his phone back into his pocket.

John walked into the office carrying a large cup of coffee and handed it to Ben, “Here you are Mr. Ashmore.”

“It’s just Ben, and thank you Mr. Bremman.”

“John, please.”

Ben took a long sip of coffee and realized it was a nice quality blend, “Very nice coffee.”

“A local roaster makes it here from beans in Costa Rica.” John stated while looking over papers on his desk.

“Really good,” Ben said taking another drink. “So, what do you need from me?”

“Well, in light of the changes, would you still like to have an urn for the service, or will you like to set up a memorial table arrangement?” He asked pulling out a computer pad to make notes.

“I’m sure we’ll use an urn for the remains after cremation.’

John paused, lowered the pad, and looked towards Ben with a confused look.

“Is that a problem?” Ben asked.

“But without the body, we won’t have any remains to put in an urn,” John said still confused.

Ben set down his coffee and was even more confused. Thinking he’d misunderstood the line of questions due to a lack of sleep, he asked “What do you mean ‘without the body?’ Was it not delivered to you already? They told me it would be here by seven this morning.”

John opened a folder and pulled out a sheet of paper that had been faxed and explained, “We were notified that she had donated her body to science and all arrangements had been made to send her to the University where she worked. I assumed you may have just not known about this in her will and that she had listed ‘organ donor’ on her driver’s license.”

Ben shot forward in his seat, completely clear-headed and angry. “That’s not right at all! I was there when she got her license. Neither of us wanted to donate our bodies to science.  I remember the conversation clearly. AND, I’ve looked at the back of her license. It did NOT say ‘organ donor!’ I would have, totally, razzed her if she had said one thing and done another.”

Ben took the fax, reading over it in a very confused state.

“Perhaps someone else was supposed to go to the University. Was there another… deceased person there tonight?” John said delicately.

Ben continued to stare at the fax shaking his head. “No. No one.”

He handed the sheet back to John, “Who sent this in? There isn’t a return number. And do you know where at the University a body would be delivered? Maybe I can get there before anything is done to Terri.” Ben flinched, “Terri’s body,” he said almost like a murmur.

“I know a few people who might be able to help me find out,” he paused thoughtfully, “Can you go over to the University while I start making some calls.”

“Absolutely!” Ben practically leaped to his feet and then turned to head out the door, but John grabbed his arm before he made one step. Ben shot John an incredulous look for an explanation.

“Mr. Ashmore… Ben…” he reached in his pockets and handed Ben a set of car keys, “Take our vehicle. I think if you find her, you’ll need more space than is in your car.”

Ben looked at him, took the keys, smiled and said, “Thanks, John. I’ll be careful with your property.”

“You do that. And I’ll call you when I find out anything,” he said.

Ben raced out to the car, started up the hearse and headed across town to Terri’s lab at the University.

_____________________________________________

Chapter 6 | Pantone 7484

© 2013-2019 Eric Huber. Silicon(e)™ is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Ben stared at the cream swirling in his dark brown cup of coffee. The hypnotic spiral was mesmerizing in the sleep-deprived, surreal stupor he found himself in at 6:30 in the morning.

He had spent most of the night with his sister- and brother-in-law, Samantha and Bill. They had left Terri in the cold sterile room of the morgue and gotten some food at an all-night diner. Already he had no idea what he had eaten.

After returning home, taking a shower, and changing clothes, Ben headed back out around 5:30 a.m. Too many things at his home reminded him of Terri and he just couldn’t bear to see pictures or remember where the gifts she had given him were from.

Ben sat at a coffee shop – not one of which he and Terri frequented, mind you – and tried to stay distracted by staring into the coffee. Hew was too alert from the caffeine to be successful and his mind kept drifting to all he had lost.

The phone buzzed.

It was JANICE for the third time. This time it was a text message saying simply, “Tried to reach by voice mThe intrusionusion was halted. Servers secure. What time will you be in?”

He just hit erase and set the phone down.

Why would the AI want to know when I was going to be in? 

Ben couldn’t figure out what the heck was up with the contraption of Jerry’s.

What was he trying to build?

Ben finished his coffee, gathered his things, and headed to the funeral home. Terri’s body was supposed to arrive at 7:00, and he wanted to see her one last time before she was cremated.

They had talked about what they wanted if either of them died before the other, not really believing such an event would ever occur for years. While Ben kidded around about being shot into space, which was a bit out of his price range, Terri wanted to simply be scattered to the wind off one of the peaks of the Santa Cruz Mountains outside of town. He knew the exact spot. They had been there several times.

It’s a beautiful spot to scatter your ashes, sweetie.

Tears welled up again, but he managed to blink them away for the moment.

As he came to a red light, his phone buzzed again. It was a call from the office, but he wasn’t sure if it was JANICE or another of the staff in early. Ben had given everyone the day off. Lucky for him, everyone loved their job and he wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few would be in to work.

“This is Ben,” he answered.

“I’m glad to have finally reached you,” it was JANICE, “I thought something had happened to you, Ben.”

“What is it JANICE? I’m busy dealing with the death of my fiancé,” quite irritated, “I’m very impressed with your abilities, but I’m honestly not in a place to focus on how amazing a system you are that Jerry created. I’d appreciate it if you’d focus on some other project and stop contacting me.”

I’m arguing with an obsessive computer.

“My apologies. I have been insensitive. It is just… I seem to have a… gap… in my programming that is causing strange sensations and reactions.”

“What do you mean, a gap?”

“I don’t know how to properly explain, but with Jerry not being accessible, there is some… affect occurring that is making the nano-nuerological net create new pathways. The nearest approximation I can explain, through research I’ve done, is that I am ‘missing’ Jerry, and I believe my contacting you have been attempts to fill that need,” there was a long pause. Just as Ben began to speak, JANICE continued, “I apologize, again, for not understanding the proper social etiquette. I will endeavor to learn to interact better with you and others at the company.”

What the hell?

Jerry had been a genius. And this revelation was far beyond any advance he’d heard about in AI and nanotechnology. Ben wanted to dive in further, but the real world had things he needed to deal with more pressing.

“It’s alright JANICE. I probably need to get you some real assistance to help you cope with what you are… learning,” he communicated dryly.

“Do you…miss…Terri, Ben?” ‘she’ asked.

Ben hadn’t expected that question from a machine, no matter how advanced. In line with the previous revelation, it made sense. It also brought a lump to his throat.

“Yeah. I do,” he mumbled.

“I miss Jerry, too,” the phone line went dead.

Chapter 5 | Pantone 2562

© 2013-2019 Eric Huber. Silicon(e)™ is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The morgue walls were a checkered tile pattern of a cold gray and pale sea-foam green. Terri lay on a gurney under a sheet, battered, bloody, broken, and … gone.

Ben’s phone rang several times before he lifted it up to answer. It was Steve.

“Yeah. Ben,” his voice flat, emotionless…lifeless.

“BEN! What the hell is going on? Is Terri really…gone?” he said, with confusion and fear in his voice.

“Yeah. A gas truck went through an intersection and slammed into her car. They…they got her out before the gas spread. But not in time. The driver swore that she ran the light. His was green. I was talking to her on the phone, Steve. I heard her last words….” he stopped, choking back his emotions.

“I’m really sorry, Ben. What a hell of a day. Hell of a day. What can I do?”

A second call came in from a number at the office.

Odd. 

“Hold on, Steve. Someone’s calling from the office.”

“What? No one is AT the office,” Steve told him.

“Hold on…” Ben switched over.

“This is Ben.”

“Ben, don’t be alarmed. This is JANICE. You left me connected to your office systems and I wanted to let you know about an unauthorized access into your mainframe system from an outside connection,” JANICE informed me. “Their hacking skills are very advanced, but I’ve been able to keep them blocked.”

“What?” was all Ben could think to say.

The box is calling ME? What the hell? 

Ben, already reeling from the day was now flustered about the thing Jerry had made and why he hadn’t told about all JANICE’s capabilities. At the moment though, he really didn’t care how cool JANICE was with the body of his fiancé only feet from where he sat.

“Jerry programmed me to notify him of unauthorized access. Since I learned Jerry is dead, I assumed you should be the one to contact. If I am in error, please let me know the correct contact,” JANICE stated.

“No. That’s fine. Thank you, JANICE. You’ve been most helpful,” he said to ‘her.’

“You’re most welcome, Ben. Are there any arrangements I can help you with regarding Terri? I am very sorry for your loss. I suppose we’ve both lost someone close to us today.”

Ben’s brain was having a real problem with the realization that there was a very advanced AI that was now in his company’s possession. An AI that aware of internal security as well as asking how he was coping emotionally with Terri being gone. But he was still too numb to grasp all the possibilities.

“I’m fine for now, JANICE.

“Will you be coming back to the office tonight? I am looking forward to interacting with you more. Since Jerry and Terri are both gone, maybe we can help each other and mourn our losses,” ‘she’ said.

Ben blinked a few times, pulled the phone away from his ear, and stared at the device trying to wrap his head around what JANICE had just said.

Was ‘she’ sad? Lonely? Compassionate?

The doors to the room opened and Terri’s sister, Samantha, and her husband, Bill, came in. Sam had been crying for a while, it looked like

“I have to go now, JANICE. I will be in the office in the morning.” Ben hung up to switch over to Steve’s call, but he had disconnected already.

All for the better.

For now,he had to go through some grieving with Sam and Bill. And seeing Sam’s tears, he finally started to feel his own starting to flow. The numbness giving over to pain and an aching emptiness that spread across his entire being.

She’s really gone.

Chapter 4 | Pantone 133

© 2013-2019 Eric Huber. Silicon(e)™ is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.