The Nothing (38 page)

The final c
hapter

Air force
one was a dream for Dr. Abernathy. Not only was he immune from prosecution, but also he was flying on the most fancy, high tech plane on the planet.
I bet the President is grateful to me. For sure he owes me a lot. I am going to get both of us out of this mess.

He envisioned a partnership with President Moore.
How could anyone not be impressed by what he has accomplished. Showing the world the error of their indulgences. Creating a chaotic butterfly effect across the globe by shutting down all things wireless. Plus saving himself and the President at the same time. Dr. Abernathy was feeling confident. President Moore walked into the rest suite that Dr. Abernathy was sitting in. “Doctor, you enjoying the leather couch?”

“Oh yes Mr. President.
And the bed is most comfy.”

“Good.
Only wanting to make sure that everything meets your standards and that we serve you with the best service possible.” Dr. Abernathy detected sarcasm, which he found unsettling.

“Mr. President, is there a problem?”

“No Problem at all. You seem to have gotten away with the most catastrophic

terrorist attack in the history of modern civilization!
How could anyone have a problem?” Dr. Abernathy stood up, “Now excuse me sir. You best not equate me with murderers or religious zealots.”

“Oh excuse me Doctor!
What you did fits the exact definition murderers and terrorists. If there ever was a true definition, you are it.”

“And how
did you come to that conclusion?”

“Easy, your actions brought terror to our nation and the rest of the world.
People are scared and the streets are erupting with violence. That is what you wanted am I correct?” Dr. Abernathy looked at the President with a tinge of annoyance in his eyes.

“
No that is not what I wanted. What I wanted was to show the results of how technology has engulfed our lives to the point of addiction. I took the vice away to show the dependency and to facilitate withdrawal. You have seen the results as well as everyone else. Don’t tell me that this was something that didn’t need to happen. This was a parent practicing tough love on a child. A God refining his creation.”

President Moore
got in Dr. Abernathy’s face, “What I have seen is an uncontrolled chaos and innocent people dying. All you did was cause harm. Do you really think that this is going to make things better? That people will learn from your demented little study?” Dr. Abernathy only grinned at the President. “I don’t think, I know. It may take a while. You will find that everyone, including yourself, have learned from this. Everyone will re-evaluate their priorities and make the necessary moral shifts. It has taken an event like this to open people’s eyes to the more important things in life besides cell phones, computers and Facebook. You’ll see.”

President Moore shook his head
and left the room without saying anything else. Commander Sherman, second in command of Air Force One, approached President Moore in the hallway. “We will be landing in five minutes sir.” President Moore turned around and saw Dr. Abernathy smiling from inside the rest suite. “I can’t wait Commander. The sooner we can get this done, the sooner we can get things back to normal.”

Every resource needed to keep Dr. Abernathy secur
e and safe had been utilized. Every agency responsible, understood the importance of getting the Doctor safely to the Endonite Institute to shut down the virus. Dr. Abernathy and his staff had also gone to great lengths to preserve the integrity of the process. Both Chief Scientist Dr. Won Jung and Dr. Abernathy kept the codes memorized. That was the bargaining chip they had anticipated would come in handy. And the measure had proved its worthiness. If any harm had come to Dr. Abernathy or to Dr. Jung, then the world would continue on without the use of their mobile phones, wireless devices, and any thing that utilized satellites such as televisions and military communications. And it would be bad.

Air Force One was able to land on an open stretch of highway
directly next to the Endonite Institute. Twenty heavily armed commandos accompanied the President, Dr. Abernathy, Attorney General White and their secretaries. The group was met at the front entrance of the Institute by ten of Dr. Abernathy’s heavily armed commandos along with Chief Scientist Jung and Dr. Abernathy’s assistant Jeff. There was a short tense moment when a few of the Endonite commandos raised their weapons, which in return, caused the President’s commando’s to do the same.

When Dr. Abernathy arrived
, he went to Jeff and hugged him. The President ordered his commandos to lower their weapons, which prompted the Endonite commandos to lower theirs.

“Doctor, it is so good to see you.
Was it a success?” Dr. Abernathy held Jeff’s face in his hands, “Yes my young Jeff, it was all a success.” Jeff’s eyes became watery as he asked, “So now, the world will change for the better? Everyone will be happier?”

“I hope so Jeff.
I sure hope so.” Jeff could sense a slight pessimism. Dr. Abernathy turned and began walking towards the Institutes front doors.

“Um Doctor, everything went ok right?
Things are going to change right?”

President Moore walked up
to Jeff. “Young man, I hope you and your colleagues have learned from this. Your friend the doctor escaped prosecution. Possibly terrorism charges. All we want in return for letting him go is to disable the virus and restore all wireless systems.

“What?
Turn them back on?” Jeff immediately went chasing after Dr. Abernathy as he passed through the front doors. Jeff caught up and grabbed his arm, “What does the President mean, disable the virus? I though the virus was to bring change. To make people care, love each other more. If everything gets turned back on, people will go back to being like they were.” Dr. Abernathy felt embarrassed and pulled Jeff to the side. “Listen Jeff, we were intending all along to turn it back on if I came back. Didn’t you know that? I know that we theorized that the probability of my return was little to nothing. But I did return and we have to restore communications. That was the plan. We can still continue what we started. We have such good data. The results have been phenomenal.”

“But Doctor, don’t you see.
People need this.”

“
I don’t understand Jeff. What has gotten into you? You knew how things were going to play out. We discussed all the possible scenarios. What people needed was to see. For the world to see the effects of their dependency on technology. Like my essay says, the wireless this and the wireless that. We have the results. We can now show people what happened to them. That was the purpose. It isn’t a cure, but it is a start in the right direction. The institute will continue to serve that purpose.”

Jeff shook his head,
walked off briskly down a hallway, and disappeared. Dr. Abernathy clapped his hands to get the attention of the President and his men. “Follow me gentlemen, lets go to the main research laboratory where you can meet Chief Scientist Dr. Jung.” Everyone started walking behind Dr. Abernathy. The President asks, “Where is this Dr. Jung from?” Dr. Abernathy looked back with a look of annoyance. “I don’t have to tell you that. Lets stick to our current obligations shall we Mr. President?”

“Suit yourself Doctor.”
President Moore and Attorney General White were astonished with the elaborate scale of the laboratory. “All of this shut everything down?” Then Chief Scientist Jung walked up. “Mr. President, I am Dr. Won Jung, the Chief Scientist here. And yes, to create the software and virus, we needed everything you see here. We have test equipment, routing equipment, and thousands of terabytes for server storage. It wasn’t an easy task, but it was one that could be accomplished once the right equipment was in place.” President Moore leaned closer to Won Jung and just above a whisper said, “So where is it exactly that you are from Dr. Jung?” Dr. Jung smiled and replied confidently, “I will need to see a subpoena if you would like to have any more information Mr. President.” After that, Dr. Jung defiantly walked off to a workstation. Dr. Abernathy appeared from a side office with a laptop computer. “Mr. President, Attorney General, since I have received the official immunity agreement, I am now ready to fulfill my requirements as per said agreement. Dr. Jung and I will set up these two workstations and input our shutdown codes.”

Intense
electricity filled the laboratory. Many men and women working with both Dr. Abernathy and the President were anxious to see the process through. The enormity of what had been accomplished at the Endonite Institute was overwhelming for everyone involved. Most were glad to be having the signals turned back on. But also, most had been prepared incase they could never be turned back on. However, there were a few who would have liked to keep the wireless signals shut off indefinitely. Yet The Nothing philosophy was bigger then they were and more important than personal beliefs.

“Mr.
Jung, please initiate the software and let me know when you are ready to proceed.” Dr Abernathy turned to his own laptop and initiated a connection to the satellite that dispersed the virus. Everyone in the room was still and silent. With a face that became flustered, which alarmed the President, Dr. Abernathy explained the timeframe for a successful connection.

“Mr. President, Attorney General and those in attendance here.
I must make you aware that the process will take the course of twenty-four hours to complete. As of right now, we have three minutes before the satellite comes in contact with our servers. Once the software is initiated here, it will transfer into the satellite as before. At that time, the software will be dispersed to all wireless receivers such as cell towers, ground based satellite dishes, and radio wave receivers. From there, the software will travel throughout the central processing systems that power each receiver and transmitter. Once inside, the software will reverse the processes in place and delete our inhibitor files once an external wireless connection is detected. Then it is business as usual! Any questions?”

Several individuals stirred and looked around the room at each other.
Each waiting for someone to ask something, to ask anything. The group that had arrived with the President had many questions. But the need for resolution and a return to normalcy quelled the need for any answers. They just wanted to call their wives, mothers, friends and colleagues. Several thought about bills they needed to pay, but had only paid through the Internet for many years. Commandos thought of comrades in battle overseas and the necessity for restored communications. Receipt of intelligence in the field is one of the most essential components of a successful mission. For a week, men at war could only depend on instinct. In the coming weeks, it would be discovered the many failures resulted from the loss of communication. One General even commits suicide.

Dr. Jung looked to Dr. Abernathy.
“Doctor, I am ready to proceed.”

“Ok, we have
connection with the satellite. Dr. Jung, you man now input your code and I shall do the same.” Both men put their eyes on their respective screens and began to type.

Then out of nowhere, a scream.

“Wait!! Hold on one second.”

Jeff
ran with a look of intense anger across the room, jumped over a couple of tables, and landed three feet behind Dr. Abernathy. Before Dr. Abernathy could turn around, he saw several soldiers raise their assault rifles to their shoulder while yelling for Jeff to drop the gun. It seemed like an eternity before the yelling died down. Dr. Abernathy could only stand there with his hands raised in surrender. Unfortunately, he wasn’t finished entering his code. Luckily Dr. Jung hadn’t completed his code entry either. If he had, the backup contingency placed in the software in the event of a security compromise would have initiated and the software would have self-destructed. For Dr. Abernathy, thoughts of a gun pointed at him from behind blocked any thoughts of whether he should put his hands back on his keyboard.
Only eighteen more numbers to go.

“Dr
. Abernathy, I cannot let this happen.” The room had a deafening silence. Everyone was waiting for the President or Dr. Abernathy to do something. The tip of the .32 Special pointed at the back of Dr. Abernathy’s head was shaking erratically. “Ok Jeff, take it easy. I am going to turn around so I can see you. Is that alright?” Jeff was showing signs of panic. None of the commandos, ones with the President nor the ones working for the Institute could find a clean shot.

“Ok, Doctor.
Go ahead and turn around.” As slow as the seconds arm on a clock, Dr. Abernathy turned with hands still above his head, until he was face to face with Jeff. “My dear Jeff, what are you doing? This is madness.” Jeff stepped closer, which put the nozzle of his gun a few inches from Dr. Abernathy’s forehead.

“Don’t you remember our discussions?
You taught me this. You taught me that things have to change. That people in this world are unable to handle the responsibilities that technology has given them. That it was time for people like us to correct this behavior for them. Like parents correcting a child.”

“Please Jeff, listen to me.”
Dr. Abernathy lowered his hands to his chest and positioned them as if he was going to pray. “You must understand, that any study comes with unexpected variables. We knew that shutting down the virus was a possible result. It was analyzed and debated. For success, different options had to be available.” Jeff formed his face into grimace, which made everyone watching aware of how angry he was becoming.