Fractions_ The First Half of the Fall Revolution - Ken MacLeod [142]
‘You’re telling me they’re just gophers?’ Kohn sounded indignant. ‘That’s not what I encountered. These things think, man.’
Van sighed out a cloud of smoke. ‘Comrade Kohn,’ he said, ‘please, let us be objective. Your experience was subjective. And drug-mediated. That is not to say,’ he went on hastily, ‘that it was necessarily invalid. The situation may indeed be as you perceived it. If so’ – he shrugged – ‘time will tell, and soon. The fact remains that they are in a very real sense artificial intelligences, and ones to which you have an access which is for the moment unique. It is imperative, now that the final offensive is opening, that you contact them again and persuade them to keep a low profile. Will you do that?’
Moh turned to Janis as if searching her face for something. She didn’t know what answer she gave, if any. He turned away, looked at the table for a moment.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘When?’
‘Now,’ said MacLennan, standing up.
Moh had instructions. While he was trying to contact the Watchmaker entities, Van was to liaise with the Army Council by landlink…
‘And what about me?’ Janis asked.
The big officer paused at the door, frowning.
‘Och, just guard them with your life,’ he said, and disappeared down the stairs. The door slammed. A minute later they heard the helicopter take off.
Van went out and came back with an armful of televisions which he placed in a semicircle with a couple of chairs in the middle. He tossed a remote control to Janis.
‘Keep zapping the news channels,’ he said. ‘Watch the local ones for the subtext until they start to come over to our side. For hard coverage go for the globals. CNN is fairly reliable on such occasions.’
Janis settled herself with a mug of coffee to hand and glanced at Moh, who was gazing out of the window. Van bent over the terminal.
‘You’re very confident about taking some local stations,’ she said wryly. ‘You really expect to get that far in the first hours?’
Van looked surprised.
‘Don’t you understand…Oh, I’m sorry, we never explained it. If the system has decided it’s time for us to strike it means we can take the country in the first hours. We intend to proclaim the republic on the six o’clock news from London. If things don’t go smoothly, the news at ten. If we’re wrong, or the system is flawed, then—’
He spread his hands.
‘You’ve been wrong before,’ Moh said. ‘Four defeated offensives in fifteen years doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.’
‘We didn’t have all the bugs out of it,’ Van admitted. ‘Call those campaigns user-acceptance testing.’
‘With live data,’ Moh said.
Van’s lips compressed for a moment. ‘I understand the offensives would have been attempted anyway,’ he said. ‘The costs would have been higher without the system. And remember: the system learns from its mistakes.’
‘As does the state,’ Janis pointed out. ‘And if you lose – if we lose – the best we can hope for is winning a bloody civil war.’
‘What do you think you’re having already?’ Van snapped. ‘The Hanoverian forces are being bled constantly by what you call the troubles. The local militias are mostly cynical mercenaries without conviction. The best of the autonomous communities will welcome an end to the war of all against all. Strikes and demonstrations are frequent in the major cities. This is the most violent and unstable country in Europe. You hear much about the NVC, but to be honest we are well behind the ANR.’
‘That’s what I like to hear,’ said Moh, settling again by the terminal. ‘All we have to worry about is the Yanks coming in and bombing the shit out of us. Again. Well, I’ll try to convince the electric anarchists out there to keep their heads down.’
Van offered him the gun leads and the glades. Moh took them, his other