Save Me from Dangerous Men (Nikki Griffin #1)(105)
“Absolutely,” I agreed. “What do I know? I don’t even have a smartphone. Anyway, Care4 has been selling more basic versions of the system for years, all over the world, which must have demonstrated the high demand for its products. So somewhere along the line, they decided to go all in on AI-driven surveillance software. Your company has been working practically around the clock to get this revamped version up and running by the internal launch date: November 1. In Retentis was always at heart a software project.”
Oliver didn’t look sold. “We have multiple internal launch dates every year. Every company does. What does that matter to anyone outside Care4? And what does that have to do with terrorism?”
“That’s not the point. Terrorism was never the point. Teach a computer to recognize a face, to pick a person out of a crowd, and it doesn’t care whether it’s looking at bin Laden or Mother Teresa. You can use it for anything, good or bad.”
“So?”
“Karen warned us that people would die. And that got the FBI on the wrong track immediately. Because that’s how they’re trained. That’s what they’re trained to look for. An airplane going down, a truck being driven into a crowd. After nine-eleven the Bureau’s whole focus changed to terrorism. They’re so preoccupied with stopping plots that this threat seemed to fit neatly into their worldview and they never really questioned it. Assumptions, again. They saw what they wanted to see. They thought Care4 was concealing crucial information about some plot out of greed, not wanting to alienate any of its international clients. That was never what Karen meant.”
“What did she mean, then?”
“These people—in the pictures—they’re the victims. Or they’re about to be.”
“Why?”
“Care4 hadn’t accidentally collected info on some terrorist plot. It was selling a state-of-the-art AI system that would allow totalitarian governments and dictatorships all over the world to locate and round up the people they most hate and fear: men and women who risk their lives to expose injustice and corruption. The physical cameras are already up and running—God knows those places have no shortage of cameras all over. Everyone was just waiting for the network to go live so that computers could begin flagging faces and pointing to them in real time. And then security forces and secret police squads could just pluck these people right off the streets. There would have been huge sweeps in all these countries, beginning the day the system went live. No one would have known why journalists and activists were suddenly disappearing across the globe. And over time, the Care4 system would snowball, steadily teach itself to become increasingly accurate, to scan metadata and social networks to find friends, families, supporters, sources. All over the world, political opposition, the press, everyone standing up to these governments would be tracked, located, and whittled away.”
Oliver’s voice was slow and puzzled. “Why would Care4 do that? What’s in it for them? Why risk breaking the law?”
“What law? They’re selling a product, not telling people how to use it. Morally, it’s a different question, but the rationale is the same reason that just about any company does anything—profit. Don’t get me wrong, Oliver, I don’t think that Care4 wanted people to die, but they also weren’t willing to give up lucrative security contracts all over the world to stop that from happening.”
“That’s a lot of guessing.” He sounded doubtful.
“Maybe so.” I fell quiet, thinking. “The way I see it, Care4’s attitude was basically similar to that of the U.S. gun lobby. Selling as many guns as possible is what matters, and they’re not responsible for what buyers do with them. Stop a bank robbery or rob a bank—it’s all up to the individual.” I reflected. “I’m sure some countries would have used the system to stop terrorism or crime. For all I know ours is one of them.”
“So how do you know that all of the countries aren’t using this for good? Who says anything bad will even happen to these people you’re talking about?”
I didn’t hesitate. “One of the men in the photographs Karen got her hands on was an Egyptian blogger who had supposedly jumped off a roof. Police said suicide, his family said murder. Guess who was right? These countries weren’t just waiting around for Care4, naturally, they were going after anyone they could find in the meantime. They just happened to get to this poor guy without needing the In Retentis network. If it’s not a ‘suicide’ these countries always label anyone they kill a terrorist or security threat. You would think they’d never killed an innocent, none of them, ever.”
Oliver stood and looked at me skeptically. “So explain Karen Li’s death. That still doesn’t make sense. If my company isn’t actively trying to hurt anyone, how could they have been involved with whatever happened to her?”
I nodded somberly. “I couldn’t figure that out at first. Even if they were morally bankrupt and had no general problem with someone being killed, why would they risk the heightened exposure that comes with a dead body? Especially an American citizen killed on U.S. soil?”
“And? Why?”
“Again, a common enough reason for human motivation. They felt they didn’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean, no choice?”
“What do you know about Karen Li?” I asked.