Finally God showed us footage of a wealthy family with their own yacht. They were presumably upper-echelon execs for some corp. The family was perfectly nuclear, one mum, one dad and two children. They were gathered round an alien that looked just like Ambassador.
All the members of the family had the same beatific expressions on their faces that Morag and the other hookers had had when I found them sheltering Ambassador. There was a bright light and a loud noise, the picture turned to static and then slowly returned. I recognised the effects of a multi-spectrum stun grenade. There was the sound of suppressed weapon fire. The alien was down. We saw a gunman walk into the cabin and calmly double-tap each member of the family. The next shot was from the water and we could see the yacht burning. The gunman was in the water, watching the burning yacht and waiting for pickup. The big screen split to show the encrypted comms communication.
‘Targets eliminated?’ Rolleston asked over the comms.
‘I murdered them all,’ Rannu answered. Even through the medium of the comms line I could hear the remorse. All of us were looking up at where Rannu was sat on the catwalk above. His face appeared on the screen as Mudge did a close-up on him.
‘That’s how I knew she was right,’ Rannu said.
‘So how is showing one of your people murdering a family supposed to prove anything?’ Rolleston asked.
‘Because we’ve demonstrated you ordered it,’ Mudge snarled.
‘"We’ve demonstrated"?’ Rolleston asked. ‘You’re one with God now, are you?’
‘Don’t change the subject,’ Mudge said.
‘What subject, Howard?’ Rolleston asked scornfully. ‘This is all very clever. Shame really. Had you spent this amount of time and energy trying to help humanity instead of engaging in wild flights of ego and vanity that will ultimately make us more vulnerable, you may have helped end the war. Let’s start with a few obvious things. I have done and ordered done a lot of horrible things. That is my job, and although I rarely have to justify it to myself in this way I guess I do it for the sake of humanity I watched Bran tuck both her pistols into holsters on her thighs. She picked up her laser carbine and was perfectly still. I knew she’d be calibrating the smartgun and running through the weapons diagnostics.
‘Oh come on,’ Mudge scoffed. ‘You’re an evil little prick who likes having power over others.’
‘No!’ Rolleston said. He’d finished readying his load. He stood up, talking directly into the lens that was recording him. ‘See, this is the problem with petty-minded individuals like you. Things aren’t right so you want to destroy everything, tear it down, find someone to blame without thinking about what comes next. We’re trying to build something, and because it requires sacrifice you want to whine about it and lash out. You make me sick.’
‘Build what?’ I asked quietly. Rolleston ignored me.
‘Well, guess what? All you are is a dupe. Did I order that family killed? Of course I did. Did I order all of Them killed? Yes. Why? Because they’re the enemy! Sixty years of warfare, humans wiped out wherever They found them, remember? What you call Ambassadors, you ignorant wretch, are what sane people call infiltrators.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Morag shouted as she made her entrance onto system-wide media.
‘What is?’ Rolleston asked. ‘I’m sorry that family died. I’m sorry the other prostitutes that you worked with died when you abandoned them, but did you see their faces? They were being mind-controlled by Them, just as you have been.’
‘You know that’s not true,’ Morag said more quietly. I think she’d just got a glimpse of herself on the screen.
‘Really? Deny you don’t have a fragment of one of Them in your head?’ he demanded. Morag opened her mouth and then closed it again. ‘Nothing to say? This is very well done, but at the end of the day you have shown us nothing that couldn’t be fabricated. Yes, there are things here that have an element of truth, but all the best lies do. After all, we only have God’s assurance that it isn’t lying.’ He turned to Josephine. ‘Ready?’ She nodded.
I texted a query on their location to God. As I did, Rolleston cocked his head and smiled. He’d intercepted my communication. I received an answering text from Rolleston himself. I didn’t open it. God told me that Rolleston’s assault shuttle was about to land two floors above us. I looked around the node. Rannu looked as impassive as ever. He nodded to me from his position on the catwalk. Balor was leaning against the wall near the docking arm. He looked bored. I managed to get Buck and Gibby’s attention and signalled that violence was imminent. I moved over to where Pagan and Morag were.
‘They’re nearly here,’ I said. Pagan nodded grimly. Morag looked scared.
‘You did it,’ I said to them both. Morag managed a weak smile.
I tried to signal Mudge, but he was too busy arguing with Rolleston, or rather trying to convince the rest of the system that Rolleston was the bad guy here.
‘We can’t fake that amount of evidence,’ Mudge said.
‘You have unlimited processing power, and this is all mediated, so why not?’ Rolleston replied.
‘So nothing is real?’ Pagan asked.
‘I’m saying this obviously isn’t. It’s a complex and very well done illusion. Because, as we all know, the truth is nowhere as simple a creature as you would like it to be and it is always subjective. So all we are getting is what you want people to see Corporal Simm.’ It took me a moment to realise that Simm was Pagan’s real name.
‘Those are pretty words, Major,’ Pagan said. ‘We’ve tried to make everything as open, transparent and objective as we were able. Yes, there may be subjectivity, but that’s better than the lies that you and your Cabal have been telling us for years. I mean why are we wrong, despite having evidence, and you right, because you say so? That doesn’t make any sense.’
‘You’ve already admitted to having nearly infinite processing power. What was your aim, Corporal Simm? To make God omnipotent in the net?’ Rolleston asked.
Pagan went quiet for a few beats as the realisation hit him, and then said, ‘You knew.’
‘You were compromised by GCHQ and the NSA. Since we’re being so truthful, are you going to answer the question?’ Rolleston said.
I knew at this moment the rest of Pagan’s co-programmers were using God to find out who’d compromised them, and if the opportunity was available deal with them. Hackers had a well-developed sense of revenge.
‘Yes, that was our aim,’ Pagan finally answered.
‘So, basically anything’s possible with your alien program?’ Rolleston asked.
‘In theory, but I would invite hackers everywhere, government or otherwise, to examine God.’
It would still be mediated and you have the power,’ Rolleston pointed out.
Something occurred to me. ‘If you knew about them and you knew they had the power to create something this dangerous-’
‘So you admit it’s dangerous?’ Rolleston asked.
‘Why didn’t you shut it down?’ I continued.
Had I been, in-system I would have, but Simm and his little conspiracy weren’t compromised by the infiltrator when I left, so as far as we were concerned they were just a group of arrogant and deluded hacker has-beens. It took their collusion with one of the enemy, their treason, for them to become dangerous. What? You think They are incapable of subtlety? You think They don’t have intelligence, psyops, information warfare? Just how naive are you people exactly?’
‘You were stealing their work and using it to help develop Demiurge,’ Gregor said. This time Mudge decided not to put his hybrid features up on the screen.
‘No…’ Pagan moaned and sat down at the bottom of the steps leading to the catwalk.
‘I feel that you should all be aware that Major Rolleston and Private Bran have landed,’ God said helpfully. I came off the wall where I’d been leaning.