This is the fifth scene of Algorithmic Timestamp: Mara finds the Temperdu dispenser behind District Zero and just about escapes an automaton with instakill orders. Immediately after, Elliot calls telling her that his timestamp has changed. Temperdu expects him to die today.
Algorithmic Timestamp #5: Location Obscured
Algorithmic Timestamp #7 (scheduled for 2 May)
Mara Sterling called the only criminal she had ever worked with. Lex Twelvesixty was a difficult and dangerous man, but also the only one who could help her right now. When she heard a click on the call, she knew he was listening. “I need the house obscured immediately,” she said. Then she waited. Silence. He didn’t need more information, but he wouldn’t act unless he knew what was in it for him. She knew what he’d want, too, and while she didn’t like it, she’d do anything to protect her son. “I’ll do anything you want,” she said. Another click. He was gone.
She messaged Elliot. The house is safe. Do not leave until I say so.
Lex would delete her house from the land and property registries that algorithms relied on for a variety of city services. He would also throw up a screen in front of the facade that would make it seem as if there was nothing there but a patch of dirt. Doing so would break a few dozen surveillance laws, but Mara had some leeway with that given that she worked for the police. She was more worried about how much time it would give her. Temperdu had actively threatened her son and the city was constantly self-correcting. There were plenty of local storage devices that roamed around, always searching for discrepancies between databases and reality.
A thought dropped into her mind of a location only two miles away. The thought had a sense to it, almost a taste, that she recognized as not her own, but Lex’s. It always disconcerted her when he did this, because it meant he had a gateway into her mind that, although he had only ever used it for untraceable messages like these, could equally be used for worse things if he wanted to. A reminder that, to some degree, he had leverage too. Mara immediately changed course for the location. Her hand still hurt and blood trickled down her knee, but she’d need more of Lex’s help if she wanted to understand what Temperdu really was.
She had only met Lex two times in her life, once when she’d gotten him out of jail for tracing down a serial murderer the police just couldn’t catch, and another time in Swan’s Corner, the most bourgeois neighborhood of the city. He had changed his appearance so dramatically that she almost hadn’t recognized him.
This time, however, they met in an abandoned warehouse filled with barrels and crates. He didn’t look nearly as good as back in Swan’s Corner, with deep bags under his eyes and greasy hair draped over his shoulders. “It’s done. Should stay obscured a day. Maybe two,” he said, already anticipating her question.
“Ever heard of Temperdu?” she asked. When he narrowed his eyes, she knew he had him on the backfoot. He didn’t know, and he didn’t like not knowing. “It’s an algorithm that predicts when you’ll die,” she continued. “I think it makes sure its predictions are accurate. It know that it has infected the city’s transport systems at the very least, probably other systems too. They come in the form of physical plugins,” she said and she showed him the few plugins she’d grabbed from the dispenser.
He grabbed the plugins and turned. She followed him between rows of barrels down a metal staircase to a narrow room lined with screens and interfaces. In the corner, a bed and stacks of smutty magazines. When Lex changed his identity, he didn’t just change his documentation and appearance, he became a new person with new habits and new ways of living. She much preferred the version of him who’d lived in Swan’s Corner.
“The plugins are unconfigured,” he said. “Only thing I could find is the name of a man named Felix Renard. Probably the creator.” Several screens were running through information as he spoke. “His last known location was here.” He pointed to a screen that showed a small park between skyscrapers. “Obscured, clearly. Strange thing is, it’s been obscured for half a year. There’s no way you can trick the city for that long, unless…”
“Unless you’re deeply embedded in all the city’s systems,” Mara said. The full extent of Temperdu’s reach struck her like a physical punch. So much of everything had become automated over time, in an almost accidental process, through millions of independent decisions in favor of automation together with algorithms built on top to manage everything.
There had been warnings about the risks of a potent algorithm with malicious intents breaking through, but for decades those warnings hadn’t materialized into an active threat. Over time, people grew comfortable with automation and allowed everything to be automated even more. But now a threat had materialized.
“Renard is dead. He left a message,” Lex said. He stared at a screen overhead.
A voice filled the room of a man with a slow French accent. “Temperdu has grown beyond my control. It has created a subscription service that updates the timestamps of its customers once they start paying for it. Why it needs recurring revenue, I do not understand. Clearly its aims have grown beyond me. The pleasure I felt in having created such an immaculate program has now left me. My life is empty. I am empty. My timestamp has changed to today. It understands I will try to delete it. Such a perfect…”
Then the sound of a body dropping to the floor. The recording stopped.
Algorithmic Timestamp #5: Location Obscured
Algorithmic Timestamp #7 (scheduled for 2 May)