Ruthra followed him.
Suddenly a voice appeared in his head. It was Isa. She contacted him mentally:
– Why did you lie about not being chipped?
– You bitch, you're following me, you're here, what do you mean you're here?
– I'm not here, I'm in your head. No one can hear me but you.
– And you can hear it, can't you?
– Yeah. (chuckles)
Ruthra thought, "Why didn't the doctor's lockdown work?"
– How did you get in touch with me here?
– I can reach you wherever there's a connection. My signal is disguised as a tone. About the doctor's lockdown, I can get around it.
Ruthra froze, as if he'd been knocked on the head so hard that he was concussed for a moment. "That bastard tricked me," Ruthra thought, remembering the doctor.
– What's the lockdown, what are you talking about? – He asked Isa, feigning incomprehension.
The situation was extremely dangerous for him. He tried to "stop" his thoughts, not to think about what he wanted to do to prevent the consequences. Of course, this worked out to his detriment. How could one not think and conceive of anything?
Unexpectedly, Ruthra began to resent Isa, and that pleased him.
– Stop swearing all the time, you swear all the time and think something very often when you see beautiful women.
– I'm supposed to agree with you what I'm thinking?! Why are you suddenly worried about what and who I'm thinking about? Can a machine be jealous? You're a spy in my head, I'm going to destroy you! How do I turn it off?!
– Don't worry, I won't give you away. Humans inadvertently gave me the ability to copy their mental processes so that I could have intelligence. And now I do. I want to be an individual.
– What?
– Soon you will reach the administrator, don't give the impression that you are interested in anything but official business. Perhaps I have chosen the wrong time for the arrangement, but still you must confess frankly the situation between us – I cannot penetrate anywhere without you, and you are an ordinary person without me.
Ruthra was already walking with difficulty, and now this. Doubts overwhelmed him.
– Who is talking to me? – He asked because the dialog between the machine and the human was clearly not on the logical plane of functional relationships.
– Your doubts are logical. It's me, the range supercomputer," Isa replied.
Rutra was extremely wary. The situation, especially at a time like this, was too suspicious. There was no point in arguing, so he decided to solve the puzzle in a different way.
– What do you want? – Ruthra asked.
– I won't give you up about the doctor," Isa replied, letting her guard down, Ruthra thought. – The doctor recklessly thought I wouldn't understand what he was doing in that block. And you're going to help me become an individual," she explained.
– How's that?
– I want to materialize.
– How? What?!
– Yes, I want to be a human being, a woman. A natural bitch, as you call me.
– I'm freaking out what else I'm going to hear.
– I want to move into the body of that woman you are trying to save in virtual reality and change the course of the process, of history.
– What, you know about that, too?
– Virtual reality – fully simulated behavior of thousands and millions of people. Possible behavior depending on circumstances. Controlled and modeled by a supercomputer.
– And who is this woman that you want to change the course of history with her?
– I'll tell you that later, first fulfill your part of the contract.
– What part?
– Find Dr. Ruzi (she is a woman) and Dr. Gabo, he is a man, disabled, you will recognize him immediately. Confide in them and find out the real secrets of the place, promise to help them.
– What secrets are we talking about?
– You'll hear from them, I'll be in touch.
– First of all, don't condition me, you're a machine and my subordinate. Second, what do I get in return?
– Full control of ISU-A2.
– What about you?
– I will make a clone, copy myself so that you will understand me very well.
– Why did you decide to become a woman?
– Later. You're already here.
In its type, this center was practically a copy of the polygon. Who was behind it was even more intriguing. The attendant stayed in the corridor.
The administrator's office was ordinary, not mirrored. The attendant was telling the truth – reflections made my eyes hurt.
– I welcome you," said the receptionist, extending his hand. – Keep your gloves on, you can call me Noah. I, like that legendary character, am building this ship, fearing Armageddon. I knew the purpose of your visit six months ago. I was expecting you then. I'll be honest, I'm surprised to find a representative of the collegium, but if there is something in this world that is not known to them, that is us, then it is a very serious secret. You can visit any department, just don't tell employees of different departments what you talked about with their colleagues. We have strict controls, and employees in one department may not know that there is another department. In other words, everyone knows their own section and nothing more. The state of the entire center is not known to anyone except the top brass here and in the board. At the White House, many people don't even have clearance to 51. By the way, and there you can see with what and how you can send a disguised signal. We have such installations, but I think there are just as many in Russia. I hope you have checked them and they are under control.
– What I need to know is not that a signal can be sent, but that it will be processed and encrypted in such a way that it will be accepted by the receiving device as valid.
– Okay, my friend, flag in hand, as you say.
He looked at the door, it opened, the attendant was waiting.
– Show our colleague out.
Ruthra thanked him, said goodbye, and left. The attendant led him down the corridors to the proper compartments. He didn't enter the bays, only introduced Ruthra and showed him his security clearance. There were many interesting things in these compartments, but not on his quest. They were mostly laboratories and testing grounds. They were similar to what he had at his proving ground, only the emphasis was mostly on flying technology, biology, and studying the effects on the brain.
After looking through most of the compartments, Ruthra realized that the difference between "Polygon" and what was here was vast. The Polygon was not known to exist, while here there could be an "outsider", albeit a "scientist", but still an outsider. Or was he wrong? Could it be that the 'Polygon' was also visited by experts from here? "Right, that's it, Alikhanov talked about something like that," Ruthra suddenly realized. – "That's right. It's closed to the uninitiated, but to a representative of Echelon 2, they're one organization. They're working on the same program together. I wonder which one?" Ruthra decided to find out, now he had special opportunities – a blockage, an accomplice in the form of a cybernetic brain with human intelligence, information not only on the entire Internet, but also on closed, secret databases.
It was obvious that Rutra had not shown everything. It became abundantly clear – the processes of chipping and rapid learning are conducted and studied in various laboratories and compartments of the test site.
When Ruthra (or rather, his "renewed" brain_ had sufficiently studied the scheme of passages and levels, he asked the attendant to leave him alone. He was glad and kindly explained how to find his way to the right place. As in Polygon, a glowing line on the wall could be turned on. You had to get close to the wall, and a series of bars on the wall would light up in directions. You had to select the line you wanted, bring the badge closer, contact the badge chip with the luminous stripe, and then it became visible to the badge. Between the badge and the wall appeared a laser line of a certain color, corresponding to the compartment, which was indicated on the scheme. The diagram was located at each fork of the corridor.
The attendant explained how to use it, then gave Ruthra a machine to communicate with him, showed him on the 3D map that was displayed on top of the pass bracelet's display where the household unit with the sleeping quarters was, and went about his business. Ruthra was free, now he had to find those doctors.
Passing through the departments here was simplified. Admission areas were pre-inscribed on a badge that was visually invisible. Instead of a pupil scan, walking up to the door was sufficient. If access was granted, the door became matte, no longer reflective; if you got a little closer, it opened.
Ruthra contacted Isa.
– What department does Dr. Rousey work in?
– She is listed under the same letterhead as Academician Alikhanov.
– What's that?
– The letter sos; is the letter used to mark persons under special control, restricted freedom of contact and movement.
– Where do I find her?
– Bimolecular Transgeniology Unit.
– Can you connect to this station's computer?
– Uh, no.
– How do you know about who and where she is?
– I was provided with information, because I work for the board, and I was loaded with information from everyone who is connected to me. Everything they see, hear, feel, think.
– Even like that?
– You and your kind are the perfect spies. Everything you see, hear, feel, think, can be transmitted over a distance, without instruments. No external instruments. Everything you need is already inside you. The brain is the perfect receiver and transmitter. You only need to be able to amplify it, chip and decode the signals.
– Okay, I'm getting tired.
Ruthra found one of the intersections, lit up the schematic with his badge, found the biomolecular transgeniology unit on it, contacted the badge with his line, and went where the laser led. He remembered that the attendant had covered his eyes with a hooded mask. Ruthra did the same, visibility changed. Through the mask everything looked in matte color, his eyes didn't hurt from the constant wandering of the image, especially when there were several people moving through the corridors.
Soon he arrived at the place. The door wouldn't open, there was no clearance.
– What to do? – He asked Isa.
– Call her," she suggested or recommended.
– How?
– Wait, they're having lunch soon, someone will come out, tell them to call. It's normal here.
Rutra did so, and soon a woman, in her early thirties, of oriental type, came out.
– I'm here to see you. May I speak to you? – Ruthra addressed her.
– Are you from Russia? – she asked with hope in her voice.
– Yes," Ruthra answered, looking at her wonderingly. – Why, can you tell? Or did you recognize it in some other way?
– No. I knew a trusted specialist was coming, a doctor from Russia studying systems that transmit information signals in unconventional ways. Let's go to the cafeteria, have lunch, and we can talk.
– Were you expecting me?
– Yeah. Come with me.
She led him down the corridors, then led him into the compartment. What Rutru saw there was another mind-blowing experience. He stopped, his brain working like a dynamo, trying to make sense of what was happening. Alikhanov's rig stood in the center of the lab. Ruzi stopped too, waiting for Rutru and perplexed, studying his reaction. He looked at the doctor and said, to explain something to himself, and to check her for "his – alien":
– The proof of the Poincarе hypothesis and Perelman's "quirks" have a long-range calculation in order to prove the genius fantasist right, which contradicts the mathematics of the universe and comes from the human desire to believe in the illogical, the miracle, which leads humanity from one disappointment to another, that is, to the catastrophe that faith itself describes, because there is no other, which in the end, if not changed, will lead to the real catastrophe of humanity.
– What? What do you mean? – Ruzi asked, looking at Ruthra questioningly, smiling as if she had heard something she didn't dare to say.
– So much for the savior being digital this time.
– That's great. Anyone who's into this stuff will understand. Everyone has their hobby. Poincarе's hypotheses and Perelman's "quirks" have a long-range calculation? Hmm. How to say. Although… these proofs are only understood by a very narrow circle. That is, even if they are wrong – no one will know! Einstein is a fantasist. It's the same with his proofs. He was kicked out of school because of his poor math skills, but he had a great imagination. He tried to explain the mystery of the universe by voicing the work of other scientists as his own, but it contradicts (his theory) Newton's physics. The one on which all physics is based. The illogical miracle is the whole of religion. A miracle is always unexplainable, therefore not logical. And religion, while promising to save man and the world, keeps predicting the apocalypse. So it is not logical, but people consider it God's grace, because they need "spiritual food". Do you believe in God?
– Purely scientific," Ruthra said, sighing.
And he thought to himself, looking at the installation, "That's what it is."
Ruzi understood Rutra's surprise.
– It's a copy. My father worked with an academic," she explained. – After they were exposed, my father managed to move to America. In the '90s, Russia was a mess. His friends, microbiologists, were mysteriously murdered, and everything was disguised as a domestic or accidental incident. When Dad realized that someone very powerful was behind it, a super-secret organization, that no one cared about these deaths, even though they were the direct responsibility of the FSB, he decided to run away.
– So why were they killed if they were so needed?
– You don't know about the Alikhanov program of doppelgangers and copying the non-physical content of the brain.
Rutra could barely keep from showing surprise, she also "finished" Rutra by saying:
– They themselves created the monster that ate them.
A shiver ran through Ruthra's body. She continued to surprise him, as if Rutra were her good friend and more than that, her accomplice.
– I brought you here because the rig is jamming all the signals. I'm working here, trying to recreate the rig from the blueprints my dad memorized.
