Leon pressed me on. “Why would that be so tough?”
“Because of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” I said impatiently. Really, the head of the FEC should have better things to do than quiz me like a Civics teacher.
“What about it?”
I sighed gustily. “That was the example used in the campaign for the amendment. It wasn’t enough to just have your Virtual Rep run opinion polls every day and parrot the peoples’ feelings. They had to develop Virtual Reps that could display leadership. The example was in 1964, when most of the country opposed the Civil Rights Act, but Congress passed it anyway. History has rewarded them. The Virtual Reps had to have vision. Leadership. Guts. All that stuff. It was a tall order for the level of programming in 2059.”
“And how would you say it’s worked?”
I chewed on my sandwich and reflected. “It’s got its problems, I guess, but it’s an improvement over the old system.”
Leon nodded slowly, several times. Then he looked carefully at his plate when he spoke. “Well, Larry, it’s gotten to be a real big problem now.”
I followed him slowly through some underground tunnels, past more armed guards, and into a room filled with mainframe computers. I looked around, sizing up the computing power in there. Immense. Gargantuan. Enormous. Every word I ever wanted my wife to say about me.
“Larry,” Leon said, “Welcome to the United States Senate.”
“Ho-ly shit.”
“This is the main databank for all of the Virtual Reps in the Senate. The House is next door.”
I looked around, taking it all in. “You still haven’t told me why I’m here,” I said.
Leon grabbed a chair and leaned back in it. “It started with a hunch. My hunch. I took my best number cruncher and programmer, and had her conduct an audit of the Senate.”
“Why?”
“Because the whole thing falls under my jurisdiction. I follow it closely.”
“Seems pretty complicated to follow with any detail,” I frowned.
Leon smiled. “You follow the 49ers?”
“Sure.”
“Who was Super Bowl MVP in 1989?”
“Jerry Rice, Wide Receiver. Joe Montana was MVP in 1990.”
He laughed. “I rest my case. If you follow something for a hobby, then you eventually will get a gut reaction if something isn’t right. It took a long time, but I finally got a feeling that I couldn’t ignore.”
“OK, so what did the audit come up with?”
“Discrepancies.”
“Like what?”
Leon opened a folder and pulled out some paper. “This is a bill that passed last year. I paid attention to it because the lobby that would normally be concerned about it didn’t make much noise.”
“Why should it? The Virtual Reps don’t listen to lobbyists.”
“You’re only half right, Larry. The lobbies haven’t gone away. There’s too much money in the government for them to go away. What they do now is, they launch major education and PR. efforts in key states, to sway the populace. The Virtual Reps sometimes respond to that. The problem is, it’s real expensive. And the populace doesn’t usually pay attention.”
“So what happened here?”
“The bill passed. It shouldn’t have. There were some significant subsidies in it that made it expensive. But there were three or four Virtual Reps who voted for it, even though their states wouldn’t get much out of it.”
I shook my head. “But that’s not the point. The point is, they could have voted for it because they believed that it was good for the country as a whole. I mean, some states support military spending because they have a lot of military contractors in their states, supplying jobs and revenue. But others support it even though they don’t have much military industry, just because they think it’s important for the country.”
“True, true,” Leon said judiciously. “And maybe that’s what happened. But I didn’t think this bill was very important for the country. I don’t think it should have passed. There are a few others that I feel the same way about.”
“But that’s just your opinion,” I objected. “You don’t have any hard evidence to back it up.”
Leon looked at me keenly. “That’s why you’re here.”
“You know, I’ve been dying for somebody to tell me why I’m here, but I sure don’t follow you.”
Leon produced another file, and I got a shock of horror when I saw that it had my name on it. “The United States government is responsible for a lot of different things,” Leon said. “We keep tabs on experts in all kinds of fields, just in case we need them. Now, from what I understand, you’re the golden boy of data security in Silicon Valley, which means the country.”
I whistled. “You’re suggesting that someone has been tampering with the United States Senate?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Leon said dryly. “But it would be the first time a Virtual Rep has been compromised.”
“Yeah. Wow.”
Leon leaned forward. “Here’s the deal. Our system of government depends on the trust and faith of the American people. When this information gets out, it will severely damage that trust. Technically, in delaying the release of this information, I am in violation of the law. But when I release the story, I want to be able to report that the problem has been solved— not just to cover my ass, but because I think it’s important to the country.”
“So… what do you think is wrong?”
“That’s what you’re here to find out. Who knows what the audit didn’t find? As far as I’m concerned, the entire integrity of the system is suspect until you demonstrate otherwise.”
“This could take some time,” I muttered.
“You don’t have much,” Leon said. “But you do have resources. You have access to anyone on my staff. You have, after checking with me, access to a battalion of secret service agents who will question or arrest anyone you say.”
“Cool!”
“Except, you’ve gotta have proof.”
“Oh.”
“So here’s a keyboard, there’s the monitor, and here’s all of the documentation you need. Get going, Larry.”
I obliged. I shoved the documentation aside, and called up the program.
“Don’t you need these manuals?” Leon asked.
“No, thanks.”
“But—to find a virus, don’t you need to examine the code?”
I looked at him. “Leon. I’m the expert, remember?”
He backed off. “Sorry. Sorry. Do your stuff.”
I felt bad. He was a nice guy. “Sorry, Leon. I shouldn’t mind explaining to you. See, with computer programs this sophisticated, they can rewrite their own code. So checking the code doesn’t tell you anything. These days, you have to call up the program, put it in diagnostic mode, and talk to it. See if you can locate something that seems wrong. You have to think like a shrink, not a programmer.”
“Wow. Well, I’ll get out of your way. Call if you need anything.” He left hastily.
I took a deep breath and called up a virtual rep. An image appeared on the screen: smiling, white male, apparently in his late fifties somewhere. “Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” I answered. “My name is Larry Eckstrom. I’m a data security specialist.”
“Nice to meet you, Larry. Are you comfortable with the image you see?”
“It’s fine.”
“I do feel the need to tell you that I can appear as a woman, or as any ethnic group you prefer. This image has been chosen more or less at random.”
I had my doubts about the ability for any program to do something at random, so I preferred dealing with the first image it offered. “This image will do fine,” I said. “What should I call you?”
“Victor will do fine.”
“OK, Victor, I’m here to talk to you, and see if anything is wrong.”