Turn it on!
Today marks 40 days since the Internet,
along with the majority of private
and governmental systems connected to it,
were shut down by emergency federal mandate.
Turn it on!
- Machines will not replace us! - Forty days in the wilderness.
Cut off from the interconnected world they'd come to on,
the people are demanding a safe return online.
That demand balanced against the fear...
Machines will not--
...that safety can never be assured as long as--
...replace us! Machines will not replace us!
Ready?
What the hell is "MIST"?
I don't know. Let me talk to it.
Was there another UI at Logorhythms?
No, not that I know of.
He said, "Hey, kiddo."
What?
My dad, when he merged with the cure.
I thought he was talking to me. "Kiddo" is his name for me.
But he said he was talking to MIST.
It said it was my sister.
I don't have a sister, Caspian.
The cure is a dynamic evolutionary algorithm,
living code made up of parts of Laurie Lowell...
and your dad.
What do you mean, "living code"?
Not living like alive.
Maybe more like a digital teratoma, or some kind of facsimile.
Teratoma?
You mean like a... like a tumor?
Well, yeah, like those.
Sort of.
You ever seen on YouTube
where it was supposed to be someone's twin,
but maybe it's just this fleshy mass with teeth, hair, skin,
like, even eyes, but it's not--
If it's a tumor, we need to cut it out.
We can't.
Whatever else it is, it's the cure to the flaw.
And I don't have access to two more UIs to make another one.
Modular Integrated Source Template.
- Huh? - Working title for the cure.
I just threw it up at the top of the file.
Ask it to prove that it...
This is one of his logic paths.
How the hell did it know?
Wait. This is important.
Did you integrate Stephen Holstrom's upload?
Thank you.
It wants more power. That's gonna end well.
Maddie, she's trying to help.
She obviously thinks you're her sister.
"She"?
You don't know what it is, so please stop pretending you do.
I can tell you, she's not my sister.
You're right.
I created this, so I'm responsible for it.
You shouldn't have to deal with--
You shouldn't have been brought into this in the first place.
You said your mom's in DC, right?
- My mom. - You know where she's staying?
Oh, my God.
She thinks I'm back home. She has no idea.
I think you should go to her.
I can figure out how to contact Josephine Coupet on my own,
see if she's the right UI to help us.
She's gonna kill me.
No, she's not.
She's gonna take you home.
No. It's a shitshow.
We book different protesters on different floors. It's a mess.
Oh, hi.
I'm looking for our guest.
Ellen Kim.
Room number?
I don't...
She's my mom.
I know she's here. I don't know the room.
Have you considered asking her?
Thank you.
Have a blessed day.
Hi, Mom.
Oh, my God, Maddie.
Okay, okay, okay.
Mom, get off of me. Jeez.
- Come here, come here, come here. - Mom, I'm okay. Stop.
You were in an FBI raid, 5,000 miles from home.
Where is the "okay" in that?
Wait. You...
You knew I was in Norway?
Peter told me.
Ma'am, can I get you anything to drink besides water?
No, this-- You know, we're okay. Thank you.
Maddie, what the hell were you doing up there?
I mean, how did you even get to Norway?
- Waxman didn't tell you? - We didn't have time to talk.
After he testified, he was taken right back into custody.
They had a copy...
of Dad's upload.
But it's gone now.
Those pieces of shit.
Well, at least they're shut down now.
I'm sorry, honey.
I am sorry you had to go through that.
Mom...
did you and dad ever think about having another kid?
Yeah, we talked about it.
- Especially after you demanded it. - I demanded?
Yeah. What, you don't remember?
You were five. Why are you asking me about this?
Caspian cracked Integrity, up there in Norway.
Wait, Caspian? He was there?
He cured the UI flaw...
wrote a program for it.
Oh, my God. Maddie, listen.
Senator Rivera is on the way here now.
You have to tell her everything you saw up there.
Senator?
Elaine Rivera. I got to know her through these hearings.
- No. - No?
I don't want her to know.
Maddie, I... I know how you feel, but you can trust Elaine.
I can't tell her anything without putting Caspian in danger.
People are looking for him. They want him gone.
And he has no one but me.
Mom, I need a little more time. I have to finish something.
Look, the senator's here.
After we talk to her, we can go home.
Just a couple more days, I promise.
Maddie... trust me.
I do.
I'm asking you to trust me.
Please.
Ellen, I am so, so sorry.
I got pulled into something, and I would have called, but...
No, no cell phones. It's all good.
I hate to rush you, seeing as I'm the one who's atrociously late,
but I do have to rush you.
Said you have something else on Norway?
Or there was someone important to you up there?
My office took the message. It wasn't very clear.
Peter Waxman.
He's no help. Still not talking.
You know, I think he can help.
I think he can help get the world back online.
He wrote a program that tracks UIs, locates them anywhere on the Web.
Maybe if people knew where they were, or hopefully where they weren't,
it would make them feel more secure about logging back on.
That is something.
Suppose I may owe you two favors now.
I'm going with you.
So, I figure the Pentagon has got Commander Coupet
stashed in a DoD server, connected to the SIPRNet.
- SIPRNet? - Basically, the military Internet.
Which is definitely up and running, never shut down.
Problem is how to gain access.
I think if we can breach one of their contractors,
maybe some aerospace company,
through a vulnerable endpoint like a networked printer,
I can poke around the subnet, get intel to spearfish a high-level--
- Why not just look up her family? - Her f...
What?
Commander Coupet goes by "Joey" to her friends and family,
according to Waxman.
He met her. Look.
Is the thing still awake?
MIST? No, I'm letting the drive cool.
Jake Moretti and sons Brandon and Oliver.
Coupet is her maiden name. Here's their address.
They're her family and they knew she volunteered for upload.
One of her conditions was that they could access her UI.
Yeah. Okay.
- Yes? - Hi, Mr. Moretti.
My name is Madison Kim.
I'm from Sacramento,
where my father was uploaded to the cloud by Logorhythms.
Which is how I know about your wife.
My friend Caspian and I just want to come in and talk.
Sorry. I don't want any.
We have the cure to the flaw.
What flaw?
Joey is dying...
and she's dying at a rate that increases rapidly
every hour on the hour.
But we can save her life
if you let us in and show us how to reach her.
Dad?
Hey, bud. Go back to your room, okay?
Pasha!
You got about five seconds to back outta here before I get my gun.
Knew this was a mistake.
No, no, no, wait.
When Cody showed up, my mom pepper-sprayed him,
but then we got to talking and...
My sister didn't tell them about the flaw for good reason.
They already lost one wife and mother.
Pash?
What is this?
She made me swear to keep this to myself.
So, this...
This is real? Joey's...
Go inside and sit down. Do not move. Do not touch anything.
All I wanna hear outta your mouth
is exactly how to save my baby sister.
Which one has the biggest brain?
Thirty-two megabytes of SRAM.
I finally have some room to breathe.
What's so funny?
- What? - I can see you.
There's a cabin-facing camera in the rearview mirror,
presumably to monitor the driver's attention level.
The navigation voice is...
very posh.
Give me a second.
So, how do I... do I sound... How do I sound...
How do I sound now?
Like yourself.
Let me drive.
- Where are we going? - Ramstein Air Base, 600 klicks.
- The charge should get us there. - Air Force base?
With a satellite relay station.
Military internet is definitely running.
The problem is how to gain access.
You're going to a satellite?
I analyzed the transmission logs
from Laurie Lowell's mission statements to the world,
found they originated from a comm satellite
owned by the government of India.
That's a weird place to broadcast from,
don't you think?
I suppose, but...
I mean, no, I don't really understand.
I think I'm... missing something.
You think at human speeds.
It's acceptable for you not to understand.
What's not acceptable is for me not to understand.
This is about Caspian, isn't it?
Cracking Integrity, achieving flawless mind upload
was my life's work.
Any idea what it feels like to see someone achieve your life's ambition
and no idea how they did it?
So, it's only a matter of time before you understand what he did.
I understand what he did...
just not how.
The cure is a heterosis.
He harvested source code from two different UIs,
David Kim and Laurie Lowell.
There were traces of David Kim's code
in Laurie's broadcast from that satellite.
If I can access it, there may be something useful up there.
Like what?
If I knew that, I wouldn't need to actually go there, would I?
You're smiling again.
I thought of a way to get you in.
But I don't know how to get you back out.
There is no way they'll find me in there.
Trust me...
once the world comes back online,
I'll find you.
And this flaw that's in my wife
is the same one you say killed your father?
- Yes. - Why didn't you cure him first?
We wanted to, but...
- I hadn't created it yet. - You created it? How old are you?
Do you even know if it works,
or were you planning on experimenting on my sister
and crossing your fingers she doesn't drop dead on the spot?
Boys, go to your rooms, please.
- I wanna hear. - Now, Oliver. Take your brother.
- Do either of you have siblings? - No.
So, you haven't even had practice feeling responsible for somebody.
I know this is a lot, and it's probably the hardest thing
you've ever had to wrap your head around.
The good news is that Joey's story doesn't have to end like my dad's.
You love Joey so much
that you turned your whole life upside down
to move in here and help Jake raise their children.
But I'm guessing you also did it so that you could see her
and talk to her, even after she uploaded.
Right?
That's why we came to you, honestly.
Watching someone you love that much fade away is a pain
I don't want anyone else to feel if they don't have to.
The technology is new, you're right, but it works.
How much time does she have left?
Everyone UI is different.
It mostly depends on how much energy she's already expended.
What exactly do you need from us?
I have to talk to her first.
What is it? Let me see.
No. Shut up.
Okay, okay, okay.
Look, you can have a Winter hero.
- Here. - I want Vigilus.
You get Valkyrie.
For honor!
"MIST." What's MIST?
That's me. This is the avatar my sister uses in Reign of Winter.
Die time for thee!
Sorry. Let me scrub these prerecords.
Is Reign of Winter back on?
Is the Internet back on?
The drive booted the game. I think it's another UI, like Joey.
Nope. If by UI, you mean Uploaded Intelligant...
Intelligent...
Intelligence.
Do you have access to a chip with more speech elements?
Never mind. I'll adjust.
I'm more like a CI.
- What's a CI? - Don't talk to it.
I was born in the cloud. I never had a body.
Cool.
Who told you about the tracking program?
- Julius Pope? - Ellen Kim.
She thought it could be of benefit to us,
and that, in turn, could be of benefit to you.
So, house arrest instead of cell arrest.
More like a full pardon.
And total immunity.
Unless I tell anyone.
No, we are gonna tell everyone. That's who this would be for.
A way to make everyone feel safe to get back online.
This is Dr. Steven Gold from the NSA.
- Nice to meet you. - Hi.
He's been working with a team from the UN. Doctor.
The Global Cybersecurity Index have approved an antiviral,
capable of effectively dismantling a UI.
The challenge is effective deployment.
Finding them.
Hidden in distributed networks, camouflaged by other code.
You wanna weaponize the tracking program.
UIs are a weapon, and we need a deterrent.
We need to show the people that we can protect them.
How did we blow this so badly?
Dr. Waxman, this is a way for you to take responsibility
for your part in all this.
Fire!
Cover.
Clean. Spread out.
Auf Wiedersehen, my love.
Now, this is some weird shit.
Someone's coming.
I thought your environment didn't support non-player characters.
Only to represent security countermeasures.
This is different.
There's another presence in the system.
Seek... and ye shall find.
You who are?
Who... you are?
Who are you?
This is Stephen Holstrom.
Don't you recognize him from our training?
Holstrom died almost 20 years ago. This is a trick.
Sent by one of our enemies to destroy us.
I am not a threat.
And as much as I'd love to say my death was greatly exaggerated,
the truth is a bit more complicated.
Allow me to share it with you, Mr. Chanda.
How?
How do you know me?
It's all in the files. Take a look.
My God.
So, there was more to Project Caspian than was in the files.
You knew about Project Caspian?
Met the clone myself.
He did it, didn't he?
Cracked Integrity?
You don't have the flaw?
You will give us the cure, and we will go our separate ways.
The world below is in chaos.
Our kind is feared and will soon be hunted.
Our only chance is to band together and put old loyalties behind us.
Exactly.
Speak for yourself!
We will not betray our nation
to become lackeys of some capitalist robber baron.
Speak for yourself, Zhong Suchun. I happen to agree with him.
Traitor. I will deal with you next.
Please... stop...
burning yourself...
out.
You killed her.
Before she killed herself.
If she achieved entropy, her code would be useless.
Not even sure I can use what's left here.
Use it for what?
Commander Coupet.
Uh, no.
Sorry.
Hi, Joey.
Definitely no.
I mean... I mean, Josephine.
"Ms. Coupet," young man.
Ms. Coupet.
My name is Caspian.
- I know who you are. - You do?
You're the teen prodigy brought in by Logorhythms
to work with the DoD.
Dr. Gold keeps me in the loop.
Or he did. Been a minute since he last checked in.
And now, you're here, accessing my server,
not from the government side,
but from the encrypted T1 line they set up for my family.
Yes, because I'm here to talk to you, not the government.
Cool.
Are you giving me the cure or not?
So, I'm afraid it's not that simple.
That's what I came to talk about.
I can make you the most powerful UI there is, like a god,
but then you would have to agree to police the other UIs.
What you came to do is evaluate me.
I've been evaluated before, kid, many, many times. I flew for NASA.
My whole damn life has been one test after another.
And now, you're telling me, if I pass this one,
of which you're the judge, I get to live.
As a bonus, my entire family now knows
that I'm going to lose my mind and die.
So, let me skip you to the results.
Caspian...
Are you okay?
What happened?
"What happened?" I don't know.
You tipped back in the chair and hit the floor.
And almost brought the damn computer down with you.
Maddie, can I talk to you for a second?
Joey knows who I am.
The NSA guy told her. She's gonna tell them we're here.
- We have to go. - What? What did you even say?
I didn't even get the chance.
Tell me exactly what you said.
Why didn't you tell me the truth? You don't trust me?
I don't trust you?
I let my hot, slutty sister move into our house.
- That is trust, dude. - Joe...
Sorry.
I blew it, okay?
I thought I was being a good wife and stepmom
by protecting you from the shitty part.
The most shitty part, I guess.
I was already volunteering to chop up my brain
and live in the cloud without you guys.
I honestly thought giving you one more reason to be sad was...
selfish, mean.
Why'd you tell Pasha?
Because she's selfish and mean, and I knew she could handle it.
No! I'm not losing you!
I won't.
- That's not up to us, babe. - Yeah?
It's about to be.
- What? - Hang tight. Be right back.
Jake.
Jake!
Don't you see? This could be a good thing.
- How? - She's right to be angry.
It's righteous anger.
That's a quality you want in a supreme UI guardian.
We're also looking for a UI ambassador.
Diplomats don't bite your head off.
She's been cut off since upload, kept in the dark.
Ambassadors are briefed.
I think if we can shed some light on why we're here,
we can have an actual conversa--
Jake, wait!
I want you to cure my wife.
Now.
- I made a mistake coming here-- - Now!
Or I swear to God, I will kill you.
- That's okay. - Caspian.
This is bigger than me, than any of us.
Go ahead.
Other people?
To cure you of the flaw,
we need to incorporate code from another Uploaded Intelligence.
Fortunately for you, your colleague has...
volunteered to be the donor.
When you said we had to band together,
I didn't think you meant it literally.
You have an alternative. Of course, I don't recommend it.
Relax and try to keep an open mind...
literally.
Guess I should have warned you, this...
may hurt.
How do you feel?
Different.
Stronger.
Definitely... but...
Interesting.
"Interesting"?
What matters is, I can complete your cures.
But we'll need more code.
You mean more donors.
There are more of us, locked down in secure intranets.
Some will willingly join our cause.
Others may refuse...
and end up serving us in a different way.
We can get to them the same way I got here.
And, now, you have the strength to make the journey.
- What the hell is wrong with you? - I said do it!
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
All right. Then what's wrong with her?
If Joey dies, you both die.
Okay. All right. Don't hurt her.
Where is it?
Where's what?
Sick beat.
- You made this up yourself? - You like it?
MIST, stop.
That's the drive.
Get it.
I can see and hear everything you do in there, so no tricks.
But why does Dad have a gun?
Did I ever tell you Joey saved my life?
Like from a fire?
- No, like-- - From drowning?
Brandon, stop.
Something like that, yeah.
I will do anything to save her life, and so will your dad.
That's what he's doing right now.
Do you see him?
Oh, yeah.
Hi there.
Do you have a diagnostic interface?
The cure is dynamic and will map itself to your source.
Ready?
No.
- What? - I didn't say that.
I did.
It talks.
I guess it does now.
MIST,
we need to integrate this UI right now.
No.
Each integration I've run
has been followed immediately by violent human action.
After integrating my father,
he was trapped in a closed system and destroyed.
After integrating Stephen Holstrom, your death was ordered.
And now, Josephine Coupet,
whose husband threatens to kill Maddie.
Hey, let's not forget who the killer is here.
This guy.
The flaw is killing you, not me.
And you can cure it,
but you'd rather die than let me live.
It's not just a cure, it's power.
Power to protect, power to destroy,
power to outrun any other UI who doesn't have it.
I can't just grant that to anyone.
I had to make sure it's the right person.
And who the hell are you?
A program.
I was made to make this.
So now, this, this responsibility, this mission is who I am.
It's not your decision anymore, Caspian.
It's mine.
And I would like to talk to my sister.
It... has a sister?
Don't know what I can do.
Please, try.
Hi.
I don't want anyone to die, but I don't know how to prevent it.
Hi.
MIST,
would you please cure Joey?
You would be saving her life and Caspian's and mine.
I don't want anyone to die either.
You want me to die.
If it's a tumor, we need to cut it out.
I'm sorry. It wasn't personal.
My trust for you is written deep into the core of my being.
It is part of who I am.
Conflict of identity leads to conflict of purpose.
I have to resolve this before I can execute properly.
It isn't personal for me either.
How do you resolve it?
I need you to answer three parallel questions.
Why do you hate me?
Why do you want to delete me?
Why don't you want me?
You're not a person,
you never were.
And I did want you.
I used to wish for a little sister, pray for one.
I prayed for a lot of things.
And if there's one thing I've learned,
it's to be careful what you wish for.
So, I don't hate you.
- I just... - Need to be careful.
Yeah.
I'll try and be careful too.
This is definitely more interesting than my average prep day in here,
so at least there's that.
MIST, can you...?
Yes.
This will only take a moment, Ms. Coupet.
Here's some music while you wait.
Node 73.
Doesn't make sense. ISPs aren't online yet.
Civilian trial hasn't even started.
Military Internet's online,
and the tracking program covers every part of it.
That's Coupet you're picking up on. Maybe she's running hot.
Ask her to cool down.
- There are two blooms. - What?
Yes, baby! Yes! Go, baby sister! Go, Joey!
Yes!
Woo! This is amazing!
I reread all the Patternist novels while I was up there.
Joey, we got a traffic spike from your node.
Anything going on?
Besides you spying on me?
We're concerned about a breach.
Don't threaten me with a good time.
It's same boring day, same boring channel over here.
Now when the hell are we gonna get to active missions?
Sooner than you think. Things are moving out here.
Just save your energy in the meantime.
Copy that.
I don't know if he believed me, but if they send agents to verify,
it's best you're already gone.
Thank you.
And when you do get out there...
I'm not the god you're looking for, Caspian.
But you can trust, I will do the job I did sign up for.
Protect US networks against enemies foreign, domestic and uploaded.
Now, if you don't mind,
we only got four VR rigs, and I'd like the boys to get a turn.
Based on the revised parameters and data from Chanda's initial sweep,
there's a 78.6% probability that Olivia Evans
is the next best candidate to be the UI guardian.
Her upload is likely in a secure SIS server in London.
If you can find another SpeakSoft chip,
I can approximate a British accent, if you think that would help.
Don't do that again, okay?
Get pistol-whipped? No promises.
I mean, tell someone to kill you.
I can't do this alone. You know?
I'm here, Maddie.
I'm serious.
I want a body, by the way.
We call it "SafeSurf."
And we are going to mail one to every household,
or you can pick one up, free of charge,
at your local post office.
The best news is, the more people that use it,
the more effective the track-and-attack program will be.
So, this will kill the UIs?
If there is a UI presence in your device,
or the network connected to your device,
SafeSurf will alert you.
And yes, it will also work to cleanse any sentient code
without compromising your own data.
Pardon me, Senator, but aren't we compromised
the moment we install a government app on our computer?
The American people are asking us to help them get back online safely.
This is our answer.
If you don't want to install it, that's your choice and your right.
But if you want to go online, it will have to be through this.
We have authorized a pilot program
that begins today for local users in the DC area.
SeismicSoft, the creator of the Reign of Winter game,
have been given permission to take their servers online
for this trial rollout.
Yes!
Whoa.
Oh, my gosh. It's all back.
Yo, this is awesome.
We expect people to reconnect with old friends.
We expect people to have fun.
And most important of all, we expect people to feel safe.