“I’m sorry to report, sir, the only thing I was able to see was a small portion of the plate, enough to ascertain that the vehicle was not from Colorado. I can report with eighty-four percent certainty that the only occupant of the vehicle was the driver. This of course does not account for passengers not properly seated in the vehicle.”
“You mean you wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was lying down in the backseat?”
“Correct, sir.”
“Could it be an evacuee from Hurricane Luther?”
“No, sir, not likely.”
“Based on what exactly, Hal?”
“I have narrowed the license plate down to three possible states, none of which the hurricane had any impact on.”
“What are the three states?”
“Iowa, Kentucky, and Mississippi.”
“Hmmmm. Hal, until further notice, I want you to notify me immediately of any out-of-state vehicles coming near the property.”
“Of course, sir.”
Howard had never even considered that an out-of-state vehicle would be in the area. He had not seen one on the road in years. Most people simply could not afford to put gas in their vehicles. Instead, they used mass transit, rode mopeds and bicycles. It wasn’t uncommon to see vehicles on the road; it was however, uncommon to see an out-of-state license plate.
Howard had managed to calm down and stop tapping his fingers. “Anything else, Hal?”
“Yes, sir. Several months ago you instructed me to remind you today to make arrangements to visit Meredith.”
“That will be all, Hal. Thank you.” Howard said sharply.
“Very good, sir. I would be happy to review the rest of your schedule over lunch.” Hal went silent and began to study each room of the mansion to see what tasks needed to be assigned to his robots.
Howard did not respond to his assistant. He wanted to scream at Hal for putting him in such a foul mood. He knew that to do so would only raise his blood pressure and serve no real purpose. The elevation of Howard’s blood pressure would be known immediately to Hal thanks to the thousands of tiny nanobots coursing thru the billionaire’s blood. Hal knew every intimate detail about his creator and alerted him of any medical concern, no matter how small.
His trusted assistant, while very lifelike, was only a sophisticated machine, the first one of its kind. Howard built the A.I. himself and still tinkered with him. Howard was already approaching his first billion when he completed Hal. When he decided to sell the first true A.I. the world had ever known, his net worth skyrocketed into the tens of billions. From year to year, he moved around on the list of the richest people in the world. He was currently at the top of the list.
The A.I. came with a hefty price tag; only major corporations and a few of the world’s governments could afford it. Hal’s siblings ran much of the day-to-day operations at Apple, Google, and Facebook. Only two other private citizens in the world had a copy of the A.I. The first was his friend, Bill Gates, the other being Mark Zuckerberg. Wealthy billionaires around the world tried to buy one of the systems, but Howard refused to sell it to private citizens outside of the United States. Howard sold not one, but two of the systems to the U.S. Government. The first one was at the Department of Defense and kept tabs on the military forces deployed in the Middle East. The Central Intelligence Agency operated the second.
Howard even shocked the country when he donated a copy of the A.I. to the Office of the President of the United States completely free of charge. This was out of character for Howard, who had never once donated any of his vast income to charity. When public schools began to fire teachers at an alarming rate and replace them with “dedicated volunteers” the nation had looked to Howard Beck. Howard simply ignored them. When public schools in many states were no longer public and required parents to pay tuition, the public demanded that Howard intervene. Howard could easily donate half of his wealth and still be third on the list of the richest people in the world. Howard coveted his first place spot and couldn’t believe people seriously expected him to just give up the crown.
Howard had great respect for the nation’s leader, whom many thought had a successful campaign based in large part to the financial backing of Howard Beck. Howard did not understand politics in the slightest, how people could say one thing and do another defied logic. He thought that anyone who lied to their constituents even one time should be booted out of Washington and replaced with an honest person. Much to his amazement, politicians were as dishonest as the day is long and did whatever they pleased. The one thing he did know was that his good friend was the most honest, loyal, and trustworthy man he had ever known. Once Howard Beck got behind his friend, he would not stop until he was in the Oval Office. He wanted to be the first to visit the newly elected president sitting behind the Resolute desk.
Many tech companies had tried to duplicate the A.I. and all had failed. The only person in the entire world who understood how the system worked was Howard Beck. The A.I. he designed required no human hands to conduct maintenance. The system was designed to run at all times, running self-diagnostic checks and even repairing itself if needed.
Howard was a very solitary man; many considered him a recluse on the same level of Howard Hughes. He seldom left his fortress of a residence and had operated his multi-billion dollar empire, Beck Enterprises, from the safe confines of his estate in the Rocky Mountains for many years. Howard had long ago been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which explained why he wasn’t fond of people in general. With some of the greatest men in history thought to have Asperger’s, this did not bother Howard in the slightest. Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, and even his friend Bill Gates were all thought to be among the ranks of Asperger’s. While most people considered Howard distant, rude, arrogant, and just downright odd, Howard celebrated having Asperger’s and considered himself to be in the company of intellectual giants.
Howard hated to be around people and most people were not fond of being in his company. When someone has an IQ of one hundred ninety-five, it is difficult not to feel inadequate around them. Howard had little patience in trying to hold a conversation when he had to explain things over and over, no matter how far over someone’s head he was speaking.
The only conversations Howard liked to be a part of were the ones with Hal. Since he created Hal, he not only considered Hal his closest friend, but also thought of him as one of his children. He often enjoyed introducing his assistant to the infrequent guests of his home and business associates to see if they would understand the clever meaning of Hal’s name. Few made the association to the HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ones that did get the connection impressed him. Howard had a tough time giving his A.I. a name; he almost decided to name Hal after Data, the android from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the end, he chose Kubrick over Roddenberry and the name fit like a glove. He had even thought of giving Hal the voice of Douglas Rain, the voice actor who played HAL in the movie. Hal was given a male, British accent. Howard knew that to do so was cliché, but Howard was a true sci-fi nerd and loved the proper and dignified voice. Howard constantly teased the president that he needed to give his A.I. a proper name. The president simply referred to his digital assistant as “Computer”. He joked with Howard that he couldn’t very well name his A.I. after the homicidal computer from 2001; the American people, and more so the press, would not be in on the joke.
Howard continued to sip his coffee in anger and tried to talk himself out of the plans he needed to make. He did not visit his wife at all last year, and it was time for that to change.