Chapter 14 (Part 2)

"Do you need something from me?" I mentally slap myself, calming my frazzled nerves.

"Not exactly for me, rather, it's something that will soon be of mutual interest..." The man mysteriously continued his dialogue. "Sorry, I must seem quite tactless. Normally, it's customary to start an acquaintance with a name. My name is Rache Bartmoss, also known as the creator of 'RABIDS' and 'DataKrash' pleased to meet you, Alex." The features of the stranger gradually became more defined, allowing me to see the person from a new perspective.

Standing before me was a pleasant-looking man, aged 25-28, with a slight beard. Small modifications on him clearly indicated his predisposition towards netrunning. On the right temple of his head, there was an old-fashioned cyberdeck, outdated by about thirty years, but still in use by the old school crowd. The invader was dressed in simple, yet sturdy clothing reminiscent of a soldier's uniform from the twenties, also long obsolete. Something similar is worn by John O'Brian, who is an avid fan of all things vintage, and clearly, clothing was no exception to this rule.

"Sorry for not showing up in my physical form right away. As you can understand, I've somewhat lost touch with my human appearance after decades spent in cyberspace," Bartmoss said with a slight smile, looking around and shaking his head in dissatisfaction. "Shall we sit down? After all, we have a long conversation ahead of us." The runner snapped his fingers, transporting the two of us into a semblance of a closed room, where there was a table with two chairs facing each other.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" I settled into the offered seat, slightly uncomfortable, and looked intently into the man's eyes.

***

"Let's switch to informal speech, Alex. After all, we are both adults here," Rache said, interlocking his fingers and cheerfully glancing at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows. He made it clear he saw me as an adult, which somewhat complicated but at the same time simplified our conversation.

"Um," I nervously pondered my interlocutor's phrase, trying to gauge how much he knew about me, "alright, what do you want to propose?" Regaining my composure, I mirrored his posture.

"A long-term collaboration," Bartmoss tapped his index finger on the table, after which a holographic image displaying the names of all the corporations in Night City appeared above it. "You see, another war is about to break out soon, and it's likely to affect all of us." The hacker made several gestures with his hands, changing the image on the hologram. "I have information that around 2070, a new conflict will begin, aimed at unifying the NUSA, in which Militech will play a significant role."

"And where one corporation is involved, others soon join, trying to divide the future sphere of influence, right?" I nodded understandingly, mentally assessing the feasibility of the future events mentioned by my counterpart.

"Correct, but like any other war, it won't last long. According to my predictions, the war will end in a year and a half to two years, thereby dividing America into several independent states, which will significantly affect the overall political course of the world."

"Even if this happens in ten years, I doubt I can do anything about it." I spread my hands, objectively assessing the extent of my potential abilities.

"Sorry, maybe I misspoke," the man said with an awkward smile. "We don't need to prevent the war; we simply take advantage of it to gain a bit more freedom than others might expect. You've read the chronicles of the fourth corporate war, right?" I nodded in agreement, immediately tilting my head in silent inquiry. "Um, so, back then, there was a certain agreement between me and Militech, where I helped them against the Arasaka corporation, and in return, they gave me unlimited access to their databases. As you understand, the agreement is still in effect," Rache hinted directly, causing me to chuckle nervously.

"You want to brazenly exploit the resources of the largest corporation in the NUSA, thereby grabbing it and its subsidiaries by the balls? The war will seriously affect their potential military strength, meaning they'll have no choice but to grit their teeth and watch as you blatantly use them." After voicing my thought, I grew even more respectful of my counterpart, which surely did not escape his notice. At least his satisfied smile could not be interpreted any other way.

"You really do have quite the analytical skills, Alex, but you still need to gain what's called experience. We have ten years to prepare, which we need to spend wisely. The world is slowly descending into chaos, from which it unfortunately won't be able to escape on its own. You can call me an idealist, which wouldn't be far from the truth, but I don't want it to perish so wastefully. My abilities are somewhat limited for various reasons right now, and I can't do everything alone. I'll need allies who share my vision..."

"World peace and let no one be left aggrieved?" During our conversation, I had started to feel much freer than in the first few minutes of dialogue, which led to my slight sarcasm regarding Bartmoss's plans.

"Close to the truth, as funny as it might sound at first. Someone has to clean up all the mess humanity has made over the last century eventually. If we don't do it, no one will," the man clearly didn't misspeak when he said "we." Rache had studied me well and understood that I was almost in agreement with his viewpoint, now just playing coy.

"Alright, but what happens next? How do you plan to keep humanity from total self-destruction?" I raised an eyebrow questioningly, nervously drumming my fingers on the table. Even though this was a simulation, my brain remembered similar actions in reality, accurately reproducing them for me here. After all, virtual reality is a powerful form of self-suggestion that uses our minds to push us in the desired direction.

"AI..." Bartmoss smiled, making me tense up again. "Don't worry, I know what I'm talking about."

"Care to share with me?" I sighed heavily, massaging my temples in frustration. The information was too shocking, even for me.

"I've called it 'the dome.' Controlled AI will secretly manage all of humanity, gently steering it away from attempts at self-destruction. At this point, other future scenarios are simply not feasible in the long term."

"Even socialism?" I couldn't resist making another light joke.

"It's not bad, but its ideas are utopian and unfeasible. Sooner or later, people will want to be above others, and then the system will start to collapse. In the end, the world will suffer much more, as the regression will be incomparable to current realities." Rache conjured an illusion of the USSR's emblem, which slowly withered away, becoming covered in rust.

"But where do we get these AI? Especially since I've heard about their wild counterparts roaming the cyberspace outside the black wall."

"It's simple..." The man snapped his fingers again, showing me a floating inscription of four letters.

"'Vega'... And what's that?" I raised an eyebrow in question.

"A new generation AI that we'll steal from Militech. They want to use it for their new invention. The 'Leviathan' project is quite an interesting specimen, but I think the skinny would be happy to use its capabilities in a more peaceful direction."

"And why would an AI even agree to help us?"

"Vega, like all AI of his level, has the ability to learn, with the possibility of manual adjustments on our part. I'll reset Vega to factory settings, and thus we can raise it, instilling the future personality with the ideas we need." My interlocutor shrugged and then hid the floating inscription, waving his hand in a relaxed manner.

"That's quite cruel..."

"True, but there's no other way." Rache spread his hands, not denying the obvious. "Corporations are just the tip of the iceberg. During the fourth corporate war, something else unpleasant happened. A large number of AIs went out of control, and they are quite unfriendly towards humans. From this moment on, I will be your mentor. Your knowledge is insufficient to stand against the wild AI, and we need to correct that..."