The rapid ascension of Thimk was astounding. Equally astounding was the direct impact on Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and the rest. Thimk’s general AI operating system, along with an open hardware architecture based on ARM, created a kind of computing black hole. It pulled in and shredded anything and everything. The former giants of the industry, once seemingly unstoppable, were now abruptly in steep, inescapable decline.
The outcry was deafening as companies, regulators and consumers globally cried foul, yet their actions, legal and whatnot, were in slow motion as the world voraciously devoured the new technology.
This had set the table for what was now to come. Without control of the camera to analyze the user’s eye movement, Tommy’s methods could not be deployed. But his stature and freedom to operate within Thimk, along with the lack of security checks and balances afforded by a multivendor community, allowed Tommy to experiment and then implement, without the mainstream Thimk development community even being aware.
Developers at Thimk often joked that computers and users had now unwittingly switched places. The machine controlled the user and not the other way around. Any sense of control was merely an illusion. It was of course an overblown characterization of the truth. Or, it was. Until now.
” Sebastian, I want to run this test on you tonight so we need to work a little late,” declared Tommy.
“What do you feel like having for dinner?”
“I was thinking of going for Sushi.”
“Oh. You’re a big Sushi fan?”
“Not really. Once in a while. I just feel like …..” Bassie paused his seemingly innocuous conversation with Tommy and spun to face him. “Fuck me! No fuckin’ way. I fuckin’ hate Sushi. What the…? You sonofabitch!”
Tommy smiled. Satisfied and triumphant.
Bassie replayed the last ten minutes on his laptop. It was fuzzy but there was something there. He could feel it. But, it didn’t matter whether Bassie could figure it out or not. His team up in South San Francisco had his every keystroke and eye movement captured by their secret computer, the undetectable middle man. It was now the beginning. The puzzle would be solved, and quickly. And through Bassie’s laptop, which had incredible access into Thimk, they would now deliver the ultimate gift to their leader.
There were various unanswered questions, but the Russian technical team armed Alex to ask certain questions. Individually, these questions seemed harmless enough. But over a period of a couple of weeks, collectively, the answers provided by Tommy filled in the blanks. Tommy had also become more friendly with Bassie, as he regarded Bassie as a unique talent in his own right, quite possibly the most prodigious software programmer on the planet.
But Tommy’s answers were not given to Bassie entirely on his own initiative. Oddly, Mr. Ma encouraged the sharing. It was strange to Tommy. He had only been encouraged to share with Bassie but no one else. Tommy had used his keen ability to read human behavior and it was clearly not as a result of indifference that Ma had become so cavalier about sharing with Bassie. It was clearly something quite deliberate.
“What is really going on? There is some reason you want me to give the technology to Sebastian. It has become so obvious.” Tommy challenged Ma at the routine checkin, this time at the house of an old Chinese couple.
“I have failed in my ability to keep you in the dark. But I guess Beijing knew that I would, because they told me so. They said if and when this happened, to go ahead and tell you the whole story.”
“What story?”
“Your friend, Bassie, Sebastian, whatever. He is not what you think. He is a Russian agent. He doesn’t even know how to program!” Ma laughed heartily, ending with a deep smoker’s cough.
“That can’t be! I have seen him program. He is incredible. I literally watched him write code. Many times.”
“You believe you did. But you were mistaken. His computer is special. And there is a whole team of programmers, excellent programmers. They are writing that code. Real time, and it had you fooled.”
“I don’t believe that. Anyway, how would you know?”
“Nearly every device that runs the Thimk OS has circuits that we have added. They are all made in China so we know what we are talking about. Those circuits allow us to gather much communication throughout the world. These Russians are using our devices and they are totally unaware that it allows us to monitor their every move.”
Tommy was dumbfounded. On the one hand he felt betrayed and used. On the other hand he couldn’t help but be impressed. He never thought his own government to be technically capable of such a thing. He didn’t want to admit it, but underneath it all, he was proud.
“You can never breath a word of this. You understand? The information you now have is deadly serious, if you get my meaning.” Tommy nodded.
“So now what?
“They will try to bend the Americans to vote for the Republicans. Let them Think they have achieved their plan and that it will be successful. But you will turn everything by one hundred eighty degrees. Understand? They will think their efforts cause republican votes. But their efforts will do just the opposite.”
“It’s easy. They will be completely fooled. I know what to do.”
Ma waved and the old man in the next room disappeared momentarily and returned with a bottle and two glasses. “Tommy. We never had a proper drink together. This is a special day. For you, for me. For China. Please.
Tommy smiled broadly. He hated Baiju but he couldn’t refuse. It was a special day.
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