The Hahn family purchased their first computer when Bao was two years old, and almost from the time that he could speak he could operate the machine as well as anyone in his family. By the time Bao was five he was writing simple code. By the time he was ten, he had a new computer of his own. By the time he was twelve, he’d created several video games. His skills soon led to trouble, however. Like most people with his programming abilities, Bao’s curiosity led him to hacking. At first it was innocent pranks, but when he broke into the system that controlled electronic freeway signs and started posting nasty messages, the police began to take notice.
Bao ended up completing his GED from juvenile detention before he turned seventeen years old, and under the strict control of his parents, started working for local businesses in the community. He wrote software programs to make the businesses run more efficiently and created websites for them. Once his parents’ control over him slackened, however, Bao started getting into trouble again. During a thirty-day stint in county jail, Bao’s situation was brought to the attention of the Sheriff. Instead of continuing the cycle of letting Bao out of jail just to see him return, the Sheriff recruited him to help him track down and arrest other hackers.
With a new challenge, and a nice steady paycheck, Bao no longer had the desire to create problems. As he was entering his third year with the Sheriff’s office, an interesting offer came to him from a company called Insight Resource, Inc. They wanted him to help them set up a computerized surveillance system for a town they were building in Utah for some kind of experiment. Bao readily accepted the offer.
After working for Insight for just a couple weeks, the rumors of the company inserting spies into the experiment started to circulate. Bao wondered why such a thing was even necessary, but he immediately applied. He would get to design his own house, drive his dream car, and still receive his salary on top of what he earned by filling vending machines. During the interview process he learned that spies were necessary to report developments. Were the people getting along? Was crime beginning to increase? What was economic activity like? These were the questions that only people inside the experiment could truly answer. That was the official answer. The real reason, Bao’s supervisor claimed, was to cover Insight Resource’s ass in case things went awry. If their people noticed anything screwy going on, Insight could then report it to the scientists and wash their hands of any liability. Either way, Bao was excited to get out of the office.
Bao was just finishing up a report about his initial impressions about the town. He conjectured about what might happen to the subjects. He proofread the report one last time, attached it to an email, and clicked send. Such reports from Bao, and dozens of other spies, were summarized, analyzed, and combined into one concise report that went to Insight executives. Once analyzed by people at that level, another report was written and sent to the PhDs who were in charge of the experiment.
Now that things were underway, it was the spies and their reports that would inform organizers of how things were going. They wouldn’t be the eyes and ears of the operation—there were thousands of cameras and microphones for that—but they would be the human element that computers can’t simulate. Although the spies would do their job, much to Bao’s chagrin, and the disappointment of almost the entire spy network, the things they reported would go largely unheeded.
The two large suitcases and the large Army duffle bag were lined up in a perfect row. He’d been a messy child, but Travis Snedley was now a neat freak. His time in the Army had something to do with that, but it was mostly due to his impatience with disorder. Ironically, he was about to embark on a new adventure where his main purpose would be to create disorder.
Travis was tall, nearly six-feet-two, and was solidly built. He was also a very graceful athlete, which was probably a result of his childhood ballet classes. While growing up, his classmates called him a “ballet pussy,” but no one would dare call him that now out of fear of ending up in a hospital. Not that he was a particularly vicious person—he didn’t just strike out violently at random—he just didn’t suffer rude or stupid people anymore.
He looked at his watch and unconsciously tapped his foot on the wooden floor. The cab driver was going to be late. And if the cab was late, he was going to be late to the airport. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called the taxi dispatcher again, who assured him that the driver was close. Travis ended the call and exhaled loudly. He wouldn’t let this ruin his day. He promised himself he wasn’t going to lose control today.
Perhaps Travis was so serene because he’d grown up in an upscale Miami suburb. His father had been a holistic doctor to the stars and his mother was a world-renowned nutritionist who pioneered what became one of the most successful paleo diets in the world. Travis obviously never lacked for anything, except perhaps for some attention and guidance. When he acted out, his parents had him medicated. To fill his time, they put him in ballet and gymnastics and other things that led to his being teased unmercifully by his classmates.
He came to forgive them for this, however, when he was able to utilize that training to become a highly skilled martial artist. Despite his devotion for martial arts, Travis’s passion was politics. During his freshman year at Columbia, he heard about a program that was sponsored by a very secret, but very progressive group. They were recruiting young people, directly out of high school and without any type of criminal record, to join the military. The group wanted people who could qualify for military intelligence jobs so that they could gain access to top secret military intelligence.
Much to his parents’ dismay, Travis joined the Army during what was supposed to be his second semester at the prestigious Ivy League School. After basic training, Travis attended Advanced Individual Training in Arizona. He then joined a counterintelligence unit that was eventually deployed to Afghanistan. While there, under the relative freedom of combat, Travis accessed some highly secret files and downloaded them onto a thumb drive. A security breach was detected and Travis was caught and court-martialed. Before being caught, Travis was able to upload the information to Wikileaks, a website devoted to revealing secret documents of governments throughout the world.
Travis was caught red-handed, but his father’s lawyer was able get off with a slap on the wrist. He was sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he ended up serving just over a year of hard labor. To him, however, it had all been worth it. Giving a year of his life was nothing. He was a hero to radicals and anarchists all over the world, especially in the United States. Upon returning to his parents’ home in Florida to rest and recuperate, Travis was contacted by a group back in New York. One of his friends from Columbia had given them his name. They wanted him to lead a group that would infiltrate a social experiment out west. They would fly to Salt Lake City, would be driven to a desolate area across the mountains from where the experiment was to take place.
Now, here he was, about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. If only the damn cab would come.
PART TWO
PUTTING DOWN STAKES
CHAPTER 6
The morning after the meeting at the amphitheater brought many changes. The weather had been unseasonably warm, but the morning air was brisk with a threat of snow. The bigger change was within the town itself. No longer did the large Insight Resource tents dominate the north side of Main Street. It was as if the circus had been in town and was suddenly gone the next morning. The stores, restaurants, and venues that had been run by the experiment’s organizers people were now gone without a trace. People must have been up all night working, packing, and transporting many of the new residents thought. In their place were the shops, stores, and restaurants run by participants of the experiment. Those business owners would now provide the goods and services for the townspeople.