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Nathan's Little 'Bots

Who is in your head?

By Paul BurnsPublished 6 years ago 11 min read
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The ocean is a big place to look for a small plane.

Nathan studied the building plans again, shook his head, and smiled. "You really can find anything on the web," he thought as he scrolled from page to page. There were the electrical, plumbing, security, and structural plans—complete with detailed measurements. Nathan spent considerable time with the floor plans, memorizing as much detail as possible. This would be his biggest project yet and he wanted to collect as much information as he could before proceeding.

Something was bothering him, however. It nibbled at the back of his brain, as annoying as a mosquito, until he realized what it was. Were these as-built or design drawings? That could make a big difference. As-built were always different from design drawings, sometimes significantly so. He had to find out for certain which these were. He rechecked the drawings. Often the designers would indicate if these were draft, final, or as-built drawings. Nathan could find nothing that indicated one way or the other.

“I'll walk through the place tomorrow and see how it compares,” he mumbled to himself as he downloaded the plans to his tablet before logging off.

Nathan pushed away from the computer, stood, and stretched. He decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise to clear his head. As he strolled past the kitchen, he thought of the cramped little hole that he used to live in with its tiny little fridge and two-burner hot plate. Was it only nine months ago? "I'm glad to be out of that dump," he thought, as he shrugged in his leather jacket.

Thinking about his old kitchen reminded him that he was hungry and hadn't eaten since... he couldn't remember. That happened when he became engrossed in a project. He grabbed a piece of fruit from the crystal bowl sitting on the granite counter top and headed out the front door into the cool night air.

Until nine months ago, life for Nathan had been a social and financial struggle. He was what most people referred to as a computer geek. Actually, he was a genius with a computer, but lazy as a pet pig when it came to earning a living. Every job he found ended in disaster, usually within a few months of starting. Nathan had a lot of issues with authority and, sometimes, his personal hygiene wasn't great, either.

Now, things were much better. If he could pull off this last big project, he would be financially independent. The thought of living easy for the rest of his life brought a smile to his face as he walked along the darkened streets. Funny thing was he had stumbled upon the idea by accident.

Nathan had been surfing the net, instead of working, when he had come across an article about nanobots. For the past twenty years, every baby born had nanobots placed inside them — tiny little robots that had been placed in uteri and just floated around in the blood stream until a surgeon had a reason to activate them. With a few instructions, they could clean up a clogged artery, attack a cancerous tumour, or nip off a tonsil. All this could be done without a single suture. Actually, opening up a patient was a thing of the past in most hospitals. Little machines, controlled by doctors using the web, did nearly all the surgeries now.

That was the key to Nathan's success, the web. What had originated fifty years ago as the World Wide Web, or more commonly, the internet, had evolved into a giant information system that contained all the information known to man. Every person on the planet was connected to the web in some manner, every business, every university and every government. Operating “in the cloud,” it was called. For anyone smart enough to take advantage of this, there was a lot of information to play with. God bless those zeros and ones. They were making Nathan rich.

Nathan had spent several days studying everything he could about the human mind and he discovered that researchers were speculating that nanobots could be used in the brain to alter the personality of someone and maybe even control their actions. The most amazing part of the study was that it was felt that this change could be reversed by the nanobots and that the person would have no memory of any action he or she might have taken. No one had ever done this, Nathan couldn’t imagine why, but it was considered possible, and highly unethical, by some highly respected researchers.

Nathan found this to be very interesting and envisioned that this could lead in many exciting directions. He had to find out if it would work. Could he activate a person's nanobots by using the web, and then control their actions? It seemed unbelievable, but you would never know until you tried.

He hacked into the World Health Network's data base, bypassed some really juvenile security systems, and stole, actually copied, all the personal information for millions of people that lived in his city. This data included the codes needed to activate an individual's nanobots. He then carefully backed out, electronically removing every trace that he had been there. He couldn't believe how easy it had been. No crime would ever be reported because no one would ever know he had been there.

Next, he needed an experiment that would prove altering someone's mind could be done, but without putting himself in any danger of being exposed. After a few days of brain-storming ideas and quickly rejecting them, he finally devised what he felt was a fool proof plan.

His first target would be the local parish priest. Father LeBlanc was in his late fifties and had been the local priest for over twenty-five years. Everyone in the neighbourhood, Catholic or not, knew him and liked him. A kinder and gentler man you would never hope to meet. "Perfect target," concluded Nathan. "If I can control him, I can control anyone."

That evening, Nathan searched his data base, found Father LeBlanc's access codes, and went to work. He activated the priest’s nanobots and changed the priest's personality traits, adjusted his psychological profile, and ordered him to rob a corner store near Father LeBlanc's church. Father LeBlanc changed into street clothes, found a balaclava he wore during the colder winter months, and took a knife from the rectory kitchen. The new personality changed his voice and gave him a hard edge that, along with the balaclava, made him unrecognizable to those who had known him for years.

Two hours later, Nathan heard a knock on the door of his basement apartment. When he opened it, Father LeBlanc was standing there. He handed Nathan a wad of bills and left. Nothing was said and Father LeBlanc's face was expressionless. He showed no sign of recognizing Nathan even though he had known Nathan all his life. He had actually baptised him many years ago.

The priest returned to the rectory and went straight to bed. Nathan returned everything to normal and when Father LeBlanc awoke the next day with absolutely no recollection of his little adventure. The morning paper reported the robbery but said the police had little evidence to go on. As he read, Father LeBlanc commented to his housekeeper that the robbery had taken place nearby and how the neighbourhood just wasn't as safe as it used to be.

The wad of bills turned out to be $425, so Nathan surprised his landlord by paying his $300 monthly rent one day early instead of a week late. He told his landlord that he had a new job that paid better. There was even some money left for a few decent groceries. Nathan felt very good about the success of his first project.

Next, he decided to try something a bit bolder and a bit more profitable. He reprogrammed the manager of a nearby grocery store to take $800 from the night deposit and bring it to him. That worked like a charm as well. That little crime never even made the papers.

Nathan had found his dream job—cash with very little effort. Twice a week he selected a different store, got someone to steal various amounts of cash, and finally bring it to him. He varied the amounts and targeted stores all over the city so as not to establish a pattern. "As long as I don't get greedy," he thought, "I'm set for life!"

But Nathan had gotten greedy. It had become a bit of a game for him, trying to get larger and larger amounts. The police were starting to get alarmed as a crime wave appeared to be sweeping the city and there were never any clues. Each time it was like the robbers just vanished, which, in an odd way, they had.

Nathan avoided the stores with security cameras and the money kept rolling in. He opened several bank accounts around town to try and hide his rapidly increasing wealth. Even so, he noticed that the tellers appeared to be watching him every time he came in with another large amount of cash to deposit. He began to get nervous.

He moved from his dumpy apartment and bought a house through a private company he found on the web. The home owners didn't ask questions about a cash sale the way the real estate agents did. He bought a nice car, too. That was a cash sale as well, but still the money piled up.

The police increased their investigations. Stores were adding silent alarms and Nathan knew it was just a matter of time before someone was caught doing his bidding and then it might somehow be traced back to him. He had to stop, but only after one last big job. He had put a lot of money away but not enough to live in luxury the rest of his life. He needed one really big project. "Go out in style," he thought. "Really give the police something to investigate."

He decided to take down a bank. A big bank. The biggest in town. "Go big or go home," he thought as he started searching on line for information about the local banks. It was a search on the First National Bank website that showed the architectural plans he had been looking for. This made the First National his target.

He knew there would be security cameras and alarms. The plans on the web called for them and his visual inspection showed where they had been installed. There wasn't a route you could take to the vault without being seen, not even for the senior manager, who had access to the vault and liked to work late. Nathan didn't really care, as long as the manager got the money and brought it to him. I'm going somewhere with lots of sun, sand, cold drinks, and hot women, he thought. When the manager was arrested the next morning, well, it just sucked to be him. Nathan would be long gone, the manager wouldn't remember a thing, and he would be all over the security cameras.

As always, the plan went off without a hitch. The manager turned off the alarm system as instructed. That eliminated any immediate response from the police. He opened the vault and filled four hockey bags full of stacked bills. The video cameras recorded all of this but no alarms were sounded because the bank had decided to save two thousand dollars a year by not having the system continuously monitored.

Nathan met the manager at an out-of-the-way parking lot very late that night and they quickly moved the bags of cash from the manager's van to Nathan's rental. No conversation. Just blank stares and quiet efficiency. Once the money was transferred, the manager went home and Nathan headed for a nearby small airport. Partway there, he pulled over, dug out his laptop, and cleared the manager's mind of all wrong doing. Then Nathan instructed him to go to bed. Nathan continued to the airport where a private plane was waiting for him.

He told the pilot to load the bags of money into the rear of a six-seat executive plane and they taxied out for take-off. Nathan failed to notice the bags were left on the runway. Nathan thought that the pilot was very quiet but he didn't really think too much about it. "Probably concentrating on his work," he thought. I like that in my flunkies. Besides, Nathan couldn’t have cared less. He was heading for the Caribbean to disappear. No one would ever hear of him again. The whole world could kiss him where the sun don't shine, as far as he was concerned.

As the plane lifted off, Nathan settled back in his seat and relaxed. He smiled to himself. He had beat the system and got away with it. "I'm 26 years old," he thought, "and I am rich! A self made man."

He looked out the window and watched the lights of the city fall away behind them. Soon, it was dark below. "We must be out over the ocean," he thought. Nathan leaned back in his seat to take a nap.

His eyes snapped open when the plane gave a small lurch and started to nose over. He saw the pilot walking towards him with a blank look on his face and wearing an odd-looking backpack. It took Nathan's groggy mind a moment to realize that the pilot was wearing a parachute and, more importantly, to realize the significance of the blank look. By then the pilot was past him, and had yanked open a rear door and jumped into the night.

The wind howling in the cabin was deafening as Nathan pulled himself into the cockpit of the plane. He had a perfect view of the ocean rushing at him at over 400 kilometers per hour. No one heard his scream when he and the plane were scattered over a very empty section of the ocean.

Nathan had been right. No one ever heard from him again.

The End.

science fiction
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About the Creator

Paul Burns

SF and Fantasy writer for "children" of all ages. Two published books and working on more. Live in Atlantic Canada

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