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Book 2 - Chapter 5
🕑 Added 2020-05-13 08:35:14 +0000 UTCPagan Island, Pacific Ocean
The ship’s conference room was very similar to the operations room Max had built in the missile silo, although it was two times as large, and located on a partly finished command level of the ship. Beside it, and a few offices, the rest of the level was mostly empty space. Anybody who had some leadership role in the entire organization they created was present, but nobody knew exactly what the meeting was about.
The Boko Haram gruesome video hit the news stations and the Internet last night, when all those involved were safely back on the island. As Max predicted, the whole world was in a state of outrage, at least the official TV stations were. The public, if judging by all the comments on the Internet, reacted in total opposition to that. A bad thing happening to bad people was okay in their books. The most negative outcry came from those stations and websites maintained by terrorist sympathizers, which were condemning the brutal killings of the innocent freedom fighters.
Not that anybody at this table cared about dead terrorists. Michael did what he had to do, and if that action has set them on a certain path, it was a path worth taking. The general opinion was that all those who did not like it, could go, and good riddance.
“Thank you all for coming here,” Michael said standing up. “The reason why I called this meeting was a realization that came to me as we were returning from Namibia. Despite our recent victories and all those people we saved, if one was to step back and look at the larger picture… we are not really making any change.”
There was a loud murmur around the table, which Michael stopped by raising his hands.
“Please, bear with me, and let me explain,” he said, and the room quieted again.
“This entire endeavor was started for an entirely different purpose, and that purpose has expanded in scope since then. Reaching space and creating a better society was what we agreed upon, and that is still our objective. On the other hand, we are trying to help people in need of our help. We have the ability and resources to do so, and we cannot turn a blind eye and let atrocities happen. For all that, doing that on an individual level will never be able to scratch the surface of all the bad things that transpire every single day. Our problem is that we mainly react to events, and to do anything meaningful, we need to be more proactive.”
“How in God’s name are you planning to do that?” His father asked.
“By introducing a paradigm shift; changing the way things are done and motivating people to help,” Michael answered.
Jack shook his head, “Michael, most people don’t give a damn as long as their little corner of the world is out of harm's way. Those who genuinely want to help others are few and far between.”
Michael nodded. “Yes, I realize that but what if we could pay them to be helpful?” He smiled and looked around the room. “Computerization and technological advancements have changed everything, but nobody is seeing some of the advantages in certain fields; everybody is used to how things were done before. We are living in a digital age but are still playing by analog rules.”
“Mike, if you can make an even small difference on a global scale, I’m all for it,” Dave said.
“All right, here is how we are going to do it,” Michael said and turned towards Max’s hologram. “How much money do we have?”
Max looked taken aback. “A few billions here and there, it changes constantly since we are spending a hell of a lot.”
“We can work with that, but we will need more… a lot more.”
“Why, do you want to buy something?” Max asked.
“I most certainly do,” Michael replied. “I want to buy people’s attention.”
“I still don’t have a clue of what you are talking about,” Max said, and by their looks, nobody else in the room did either.
“First, I need you to get us as much money as possible,” he said, still looking at the AI. “We have already taken from those we’ve defeated, but that is a drop in the bucket for what I have in mind.” He took a moment and a deep breath. “Criminals, drug dealers, dirty politicians, hidden accounts; nothing should be safe from you anymore. Invest in the stock market, get insider information, steal from, and blackmail those undeserving. I don’t care how you do it, but take as much as you can.”
Every pair of eyes in the room gave Michael a shocked look.
“I know some of those actions may be morally ambiguous, but how things stand now… it is not working; so let us drastically change our tactics. Max, I want you to create a database of all terrorists, slavers, mass murderers, everyone we would normally go against. Then create a website, in fact, create one for every country; under each name on that list, write what he has done to deserve to be on it. And then, put a price on his head. At the same time, make a phone app, one that will help in tracking those on the list. With real-time location, confirmed sightings, and the price tag. Since anonymity is one of their greatest weapons, let’s make them into celebrities; pull them out in the open as walking piggy banks.”
“But who will hunt for them?” Pete asked.
“Anyone interested in collecting bounties can register on our site. Max, also create an Internet bank; one that those in power cannot shut down. The very thing they would do if we went to regular banks; our accounts would be frozen for eternity under thousands of lawsuits. Through that bank, we will pay for all the confirmed captures.”
“Some of those people will not be on any other wanted lists; there will be no way to hold them,” Alice said.
“Then give governments an incentive. A percentage of the bounty for keeping them locked up. There are tons of mercenary groups, ex-soldiers, who are looking for work; now they can work for themselves. All world governments are hungry for money; the smaller ones will accept this with open hands. Hell, most of them will organize their own special troops into hunting teams; filling up their coffers is one of their main drives. For all that, there will be some rules that everybody will have to follow if they want to be paid. For example, injuring civilians in the process of capture automatically disqualifies the contestant, and the emphasis should be on the live captures.”
“You are making this sound like a game,” Al mused.
“Then look at it as a game, one where scumbags are the prize, a real-life Pokémon. We can even make a reality show out of it; this week’s captures, most bounty in a month, there is no way people will not watch it.”
“But that still includes a minority of the population, those that are willing to hunt, as you say, are only a small percentage,” Anna interrupted.
“Ah, but we will make it interesting for everybody. Most of the people in the world have some kind of device with a camera in it, they can download our app, and if they capture an image of someone on the wanted list, they get a small fee. It can be anywhere from one dollar to ten thousand dollars. They don’t need to expose themselves to the danger of actually capturing them, simply taking an image and revealing their location,” Michael said and continued. “Max, every satellite you have available, and every camera on the street, use them to scan for facial recognition. Create a division within Genesis Corporation with an assignment to make phones. The Chinese have been making them for years on the cheap, so can we. We can put phones in as many hands as we can, the nano-factories can churn them by the thousands. Brand them as… ‘OneWorld’ phones, and give them away for free, especially in places like Africa. With solar power batteries, and free minutes every month—connecting to our satellite network. Put an HD camera in them so everyone who captures a money shot can get some spending money. Open an account in our bank for everyone who wants to be a part of it, and it will pay out anywhere in the world, in any currency.”
“That is going to make people advocating privacy have kittens,” Al grinned.
“Let them, people are having their picture taken every single day anyway, this simply monetizes the whole thing. Even the knitting old ladies will want to play this game.”
“Michael, no matter how many precautions or rules you make, people will still die in pursuit of this,” Elizabeth cautioned.
He closed his eyes, “I know, but people are dying on a daily basis at the hands of those murderers. They are like a disease that is attacking our entire species. This is not a cure, but it’s better than letting the sickness consume the entire body.”
He looked at the others, “so what do you think?”
“It is different, I don’t know if it will work, but it is going to start some waves,” Alice answered.
“Human rights movements will scream at the injustices done towards those innocent terrorists,” Al joked.
“I like it,” Tyron grumbled. “Do it.”
“The number of satellites and additional infrastructure that will be needed is considerable. Just a pure computational power to run it would make ordinary supercomputers cry, but it can be done. You were not joking when you said this will take some serious money; we are talking billions upon billions, but it is still in the sphere of possibility… I’m game.” Max said.
“Just as we were coming close to satisfy all our demands for construction materials, you pull something like this,” Dave murmured with a sorrowful look on his face. “I will need an addition to my budget for more recycling plants.”
Elizabeth and the others nodded their heads in agreement with his plan.
Michael put his hands on the table and gave a vicious smile.
“Then it’s settled, Max, let the games begin.”
***
The next days were not easy on anybody, with the sudden influx of more than two hundred ex-slaves; there was a dark cloud of sadness on everybody’s mood. Luckily, more than twenty medical doctors and psychologists jumped in to help those people who were adjusting to newfound freedom. Around thirty of those liberated from Boko Haram’s camp, and half of the girls from Dietrich Von Gürtner’s harem were already flown home and reunited with their families. The rest had nowhere to return to, their homes were destroyed, and those places were marred by sad and painful memories, so they stayed.
Everybody was checked by the doctors, and medical nanites did wonders for all physical injuries. Be that as it may, as one of their leading psychologists said, it will take a long time for the emotional scars to heal. Especially for the raped women rescued from Namibia, they needed to accept what happened to them, and move on with their lives. Regular therapy sessions and support groups will help, yet they will always remember.
The Boko Haram video also provoked a great response from the various terrorist organizations all over the world; the most antagonistic were those of remaining members, who swore an undying revenge. For now, they were just all talk, and Michael decided not to do anything too aggressive. When all's said and done, they had many things to do on the island. Just the same, the time of those who threatened people with terrorism will soon come.
Out of the people that stayed, almost fifty were children under the age of eighteen; more students for the island’s school. Since some of the slaves were from different parts of Africa, they tried to object to that. Questioning why would the girls need schooling when they just needed to marry and make babies. Michael told all the new people that everybody was equal in their community, the school was mandatory, and everyone needed to work; there would be no freeloaders. In a way, he was setting ground rules that would affect future generations. Those that did not agree with that were offered transportation to any place in the world. Five of these disgruntled individuals took him up on that offer, all young men who had considered themselves warriors unwilling to change their ways. They were returned to their village in Nigeria, given some essential supplies and nobody ever heard about them again. Michael again repeated that everyone here was by his or her own free will and if they wanted to opt-out, he was happy to oblige.
One thing Michael realized was that when an AI sets his mind to do something, things are done exceptionally fast. Within the first week, Max has already created a bank and the whole system for their future customers. There was one small issue though, Michael wanted to name it 'Justice Bank' as it had a nice ring to it. Max countered that they had to take a longer view since even in space, they will still need the bank; so he proposed the name of 'Solarian Bank'. Nobody wanted to give in so they put the whole thing to the vote, and by popular acclaim, Max won. The 'Solarian Bank' was the official name, but the Justice division would pay the bounties, it was a good compromise.
The bank would never take a fee for transactions and people’s personal phones will verify accounts by using phone cameras and fingerprint scanners. Max could have made their bank like any other, collecting money for every transaction, and ripping people off. However, as he said, it was simply changing numbers in a file, something a child could do, and he didn't feel it was right to bill people for something as ludicrous as that. In any case, he was only supervising it; the MIs ran all the day-to-day operations. Since it was open to anyone, they even had their first customers; most people loved to get something for free.
The bank's virtual vaults were straining under all the extra income Max was busy amassing, stealing, scheming, and liberating others' ill-gotten gains. Most of it was distributed to thousands of accounts all over the world, in various banks, not that they would complain. Moreover, they were falling over themselves to legitimize the 'Solarian Bank’, their eyes filled with money signs.
The bounties websites became active. At first, they did not get much traffic, however, within a week the situation changed when news stations smelled a good story. The commentators and various government representatives were outraged that such things could exist, they were against the law and unconstitutional since most of the people on the list were not convicted felons and their guilt was not established. They were asking for the websites to be shut down, which was, of course, impossible, Max made sure of that. Every day, people were submitting their credentials for bounty hunter licenses, and the downloads of the app went through the roof. As both actions gave an option of opening a 'Solarian Bank' account, the number of customers increased exponentially. Anyone could download the app, register, and turn the camera toward the crowds; even that action earned you money, the equivalent of a few cents. Yet, it quickly became a new fad. When someone managed to catch a person of interest on the list, larger amounts of money were deposited into their accounts. It was a rush to see a map on your phone and on it, these little points, representing wanted criminals; moving on it with small bubbles informing of their name and how much bounty they were worth. As Michael said—walking piggy banks.
A month after that, the world was in for another upheaval, except this one was on a more positive side; excluding certain groups that saw it as the end of their world.
Max, working with several medical doctors made a series of stunning medical discoveries. Finding cures for several incurable diseases. Everything that was discovered was put freely on the Internet, which gave most of the pharmaceutical companies’ nightmares. They could not cure those illnesses, but they were selling drugs to lessen the effects. They tried a smear campaign to discredit new discoveries, but the few Chinese companies were already making the medicines and placing exorbitant prices on them. So Max utilized nano-factories and started making them in bulk. Doctors Without Borders, International Medical Corps, Médecins du Monde, and several similar organizations accepted and distributed the medication to those in need of them. Plus, with every shipment of meds, they sent the solar ‘OneWorld’ phones to be freely given to those in remote locations.
Michael remembered when he held one in his hands for the first time; a device very similar to numerous touchscreen phones on the market. It was very hard to damage one since they were intentionally made as rugged as possible. With five-inch front screens and solar chargers on the back; if one left it for ten minutes in direct sunlight, it was charged and ready to go. They could not be opened or had any moving parts, and once you registered, it was yours forever. It would not work for anyone else except for making emergency calls, so stealing one made no sense. With free global Internet access, Max provided, one could be in the most remote corner of the world and still watch their favorite TV show on a small screen or contact his family with high definition video chat.
Max even made it possible for people to order them online through the Genesis Corporation site. With a symbolic price of one hundred dollars and a disclaimer, that every dollar earned went into producing the units for those that could not afford them. In no time, there were so many orders that the nano-factories had a backlog of months in advance. People absolutely loved cheap high-quality phones.
Consequently, all recycling plants they owned stopped selling any extra materials they produced, every single scrap was needed. Dave bought a dozen new e-waste recycling plants and even a few garbage dumps, for reprocessing the materials in the refuse. He had hundreds of receiving centers where people could walk in, carrying something they did not need anymore and get a fair price for it. All of it found its way to the island and into their nano-factories.
Those few months the island looked like a beehive, everyone was working on something. The former slaves’ were getting new educations, the scientists were starting new projects, and Max was the grand conductor of that entire hustle and bustle.
From the exterior, the geodesic dome didn’t change one bit, while on the inside the ship was getting its shape, one bulkhead at the time.
Comments
Giseler
Wow, i really love this chapter. I hoped it would never end 😉. But all good things come to an end, sadly. Now unto the wait for wednesday 😭...
Unkown Novelist
Love it. Thanks for the chapter!
Danielle Warvel
Yes! I’m feeling the anticipation rising like the start of a space shuttle’s engine’s! ^^
