Lock In (Lock In, #1)(86)

“The client experiences lock in,” I said.

“That’s right,” Tony said. “Now obviously it makes no sense to do this in the usual client-Integrator relationship. But then”—he looked down at Bell—“this isn’t the usual relationship, is it.”

“Bell gets his life back and Hubbard is trapped inside, forever,” I said.

“And that’s not even the good part,” Vann said. She got in very close to Bell. “Here’s the really good part. Bell is a known Integrator for Hubbard now. So why not just … let that roll?”

“Have him say he’s Hubbard?” I asked.

“Have him be Hubbard,” Vann said. She looked up at Tony and me. “We back off on the warrants, let Schwartz take the fall, and install Bell at the head of Accelerant. And then he starts dismantling the company. Sells it off, piece by piece. And with the profits from the sales, he invests in Hadens. Starting with your dad’s new thing, Chris.”

“Oh, right,” I said. I leaned in on the table, toward Bell. “My father just reached a deal with the Navajo Nation to fund a nonprofit competitor to the Agora,” I said. “The Navajo have an immense server farm. More than enough room for the entire Haden nation. Staffed by Navajo techs. Affordable and accessible. And technically not in U.S. territory. We’re announcing it tomorrow at the march. To make the point that the Haden community has another option besides being strip-mined by someone trying to corner the market.”

“Just think,” Vann said. “Cassandra Bell announcing it, Marcus Shane standing on one side, Lucas Hubbard on the other. Coming together for every Haden. And then Hubbard dismantling his company, a piece at a time, to keep funding the goal. Until there’s nothing left.”

“It’s a dream,” I said, standing back from the table.

“Yes,” Vann said.

“A more than slightly unethical dream.”

“More unethical than bombing competitors, attacking federal agents, and planning to assassinate a Haden activist?” Vann asked.

“Well, no,” I admitted.

“Then I’m fine with it,” Vann said. “And the only people who will ever know are in this room right now. Anyone have a problem with it?”

No one said anything.

“Then these are the options you have, Hubbard,” Vann said, returning to Bell. “Admit who you are, and tell May and Janis what happened to Johnny Sani. You’re guilty but your company will survive. Keep doing what you’re doing and we flip the script. Bell gets his life back from you and then takes over your life. And you watch everything you’ve ever done fall apart. Make your choice.”

Bell sat there, silent, for more than a minute.

Then.

“At first it was more a thought experiment than anything else,” Hubbard said. And it was definitely Hubbard. Even cuffed to a chair the swagger was there. “I had written the code and modeled the network, designed for a client to integrate full-time. There was no point to it other than curiosity.

“But then Abrams-Kettering came along and the business model I’d been working on was changing. Other businesses started to panic but I knew there were opportunities there. They just needed to be directed. In a way that was effective but untraceable, and not reproducible. If I used the network I designed, I knew I could manipulate people and events in ways that other businesses couldn’t. And in a way that couldn’t be traced back to me.

“It was Sam who pointed out that Medichord had access to Navajo Nation medical records, and that those records weren’t part of the U.S. national health database. We could find a test subject there who would be otherwise invisible—no records elsewhere, nothing to track. We found two. Johnny and Bruce. We moved on Johnny first. He was…”

Hubbard stopped, realizing how what he was about to say would sound to Johnny Sani’s family.

“Say it,” Vann said.

“He was mentally deficient,” Hubbard said. “Easy to fool. Easy to control. We set him up in California through a Chinese company Accelerant had a minority stake in. Our contacts with him were through one-of-a-kind threeps. Everything untraceable even though Johnny wasn’t smart enough to figure it out. Overcautious. We kept everything small as possible. Only Sam and I knew everything.

“When the network was installed we tested it first for a few minutes at a time, then an hour or two. We became comfortable using Johnny for more things. Driving him on simple tasks. A little corporate spying. Some bits of sabotage. Nothing really significant. Simply testing the capabilities.

“We figured out that Johnny was limited. Not in his brain—that didn’t matter when I was driving him. But the same lack of identity that attracted us to him limited him. Having no identity makes it harder to move in our society, not easier.

“With what we learned from Johnny, we started working on commercial network models. We own Lucturn, and we had the database of networks to work with. I came up with the interpolator method to hack into the networks and leave a door open. All we had to do was wait for the right opportunity.

“Then Abrams-Kettering passed and the walkout and march were planned. It was the right opportunity to destabilize the market and pick off companies we wanted.

“I knew Nicholas Bell was an Integrator. I’d known people who used him. And I knew that when Abrams-Kettering passed, he would be looking for a long-term contract. But I didn’t want to approach him directly. I had one last job for Johnny Sani. I drove him out to D.C. and used him to contact Bell, posing as a tourist. I used him to get into Bell’s mind.