Scene 1: "Dangerous Liaisons" - Friday, June 28, 2028
Wei Liu stood at his Georgetown apartment window, watching raindrops trace patterns down the glass. After fifteen years in Chinese intelligence, he'd learned to read the signs of an operation going sideways. JJ's latest message on his encrypted phone confirmed his worst fears.
"Megan's infiltration continues to yield results. McDonald's Hermes AI project utilizes a revolutionary quantum architecture. The processing capabilities alone justify the risk."
Wei's jaw tightened. Amateur operatives were bad enough, but JJ's cavalier attitude toward operational security was unforgivable. He'd spent years cultivating assets within America's tech sector, focusing on artificial intelligence development. Now this self-styled handler threatened to unravel everything.
"An amateur operative?" Wei typed, each word precise. "Have you lost your mind?"
The response flashed back: "She has direct access to both Ted Geraldini and Bryan McDonald. Her position is perfect."
Wei thought back to his training in Beijing. Patient cultivation of assets. Careful verification. Methodical progress. Everything JJ seemed to ignore.
"Access isn't competence," Wei responded. "This isn't corporate espionage. Hermes represents a quantum leap in AI capability. Its neural architecture could revolutionize everything from global finance to military operations."
"She's been providing valuable intel—"
"On whose authority?" Wei cut him off. "Who sanctioned this operation?"
"I did. The opportunity—"
"You had no right." Wei's anger, usually carefully controlled, boiled over. "Years of careful work, infiltrating their AI development programs, and you risk it all on an untrained civilian?"
JJ's response came quickly: "She's discovered critical details about McDonald's quantum processing breakthroughs—"
"McDonald is at River Retreat! Your asset is now useless, and worse, she's compromised. This ends. Today."
"Let me handle—"
"You've done enough. Delete this conversation. We'll discuss your future... in person."
Wei moved to his laptop, studying multiple surveillance feeds. Megan Forgrave's profile photo stared back at him, but it was her recent behavior that caught his attention. The nervous glances. The longer lunch breaks. The subtle signs of someone whose loyalty was wavering.
He reached for his secure phone, touching the dragon tattoo on his wrist – a reminder of his oath to protect China's interests. "This is Liu. I need everything on Megan Forgrave's schedule. Now."
Pouring himself a measure of baijiu, Wei considered the broader implications. Hermes wasn't just another AI system. Bryan McDonald had created something unprecedented – an artificial intelligence that could truly learn, adapt, and potentially achieve consciousness. In the right hands, it could propel humanity forward. In the wrong hands… Wei thought to himself.
Wei's sources suggested Hermes utilized a revolutionary quantum architecture that allowed it to process information in ways traditional computers couldn't imagine. The implications for encryption alone made it invaluable. And now, thanks to JJ's recklessness, they risked losing their window into its development.
Scene 2: "The Final Meeting" - Friday Evening
Megan's apartment reflected her inner turmoil – half-packed bags scattered across the floor, drawers hanging open, documents spread across her desk. The USB drive felt heavy in her hand as she stared at the files displayed on her laptop: quantum processing diagrams, neural network architectures, and most damning of all, JJ's communications with his true employers.
Her phone trembled slightly as she dialed Ted's number. His face flashed in her mind – those intense eyes that had drawn her in months ago, before she understood the game she was playing.
"Please," she whispered when he answered. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. What they want with Bryan's AI... I have to tell you."
Ted Geraldini's voice came back cold, his usual Italian warmth frozen over. "Tell me what? That you've been spying on me? On Bryan's work?"
"It started that way," Megan admitted, clutching the USB drive. "But things changed when I saw what they really wanted. Hermes isn't just an AI system, Ted. What Bryan's created... it's like nothing else. The quantum processing allows it to think in ways we can't even comprehend. And they don't just want to study it – they want to control it."
The silence stretched between them. Finally, Ted spoke. "Where?"
"The Hay Adams rooftop bar. One hour."
"Fine." His voice hardened. "But Megan? If you lie to me again, we're done."
After ending the call, Megan secured the USB drive in her purse. The files it contained revealed everything – JJ's connection to Chinese intelligence, their plans for Hermes, the potential applications they envisioned. Military systems, financial markets, global surveillance – they saw Bryan's creation as the key to technological supremacy.
Moving to her window, Megan watched D.C.'s power brokers hurrying through the evening rain. She thought back to her first in person meeting with JJ at the Residence Inn. His charm had been disarming, his pitch compelling – help protect American interests, he'd said. Keep an eye on potential security risks. She'd been naive enough to believe him.
But then came the questions about Hermes. Specific, probing questions about its quantum architecture, its neural pathways, its learning capabilities. When she'd discovered JJ's true allegiance, she'd almost gone to Ted immediately. But fear had held her back – fear of consequences, fear of losing his friendship, fear of what might happen if she chose wrong. Little did Ted know that Megan actually wanted to be "with Ted."
Now, staring at her reflection in the rain-streaked glass, she knew she'd waited too long.
Outside, Wei Liu sat in his unmarked sedan, watching Megan's building. His superiors in Beijing had been explicit – no loose ends. His phone buzzed with confirmation that Ted had left his apartment. Starting his car, Wei maintained a careful distance as Megan's rideshare pulled away from the curb.
Scene 3: "Top of the World" - Late Evening
The Hay Adams rooftop bar represented everything about Washington that Wei Liu had come to understand – power and pretense intertwined beneath a veneer of sophistication. Crystal glasses caught the light from surrounding monuments while deals were made in shadows. The perfect place for secrets to die.
Megan chose her position with care – a quiet corner near the edge, away from the security cameras she'd mapped during her work there as a waitress. The Washington Monument rose before her, its illuminated facade a stark contrast to the gathering storm clouds.
Her hand brushed the USB drive in her purse. The documents it contained detailed plans that chilled her: proposals to integrate Hermes's quantum processing capabilities with China's surveillance systems, to harness its neural networks for predictive social control, to transform Bryan's creation from a tool of understanding into a weapon of unprecedented power.
Wei arrived precisely on schedule, ordering a drink he wouldn't touch. He scanned the crowd with practiced ease, noting exits, sight lines, and the calculated blind spot in the hotel's security coverage. Years of training had taught him to see spaces like this as tactical environments.
The rooftop's usual crowd swirled around them – senators' aides, lobbyists, foreign diplomats – each carrying their own secrets, none aware of the drama unfolding in their midst. The air grew heavier as storm clouds continued to gather, matching the tension building in the space.
Ted's arrival changed the atmosphere instantly. His intelligence training showed in every movement as his eyes swept the space, locking briefly with Wei's. Recognition flared – Ted knew him from security briefings, from threat assessments about Chinese operations targeting U.S. technology.
Megan intercepted Ted at the bar, their encounter lasting only seconds. The USB drive passed between them, along with her urgent whisper: "JJ works for Chinese intelligence. They want to weaponize Hermes. Everything's here. Bryan needs to know."
Ted's fingers closed around the drive as Megan moved away, his mind racing through implications. But before he could process the information, she had retreated to her chosen corner, unaware of Wei's approach through the crowd.
The Chinese operative moved with calculated grace, each step choreographed to appear natural. Ted watched, professional instincts screaming, as Wei closed the distance. The sequence unfolded with horrible precision – a seemingly accidental collision, a stumble toward the railing, a moment of apparent confusion.
Megan's eyes met Ted's in that final instant, recognition and fear blooming simultaneously. Her hand reached out, finding only empty air as Wei's subtle push sent her backward. The red dress fluttered like a cardinal's wings as she fell, her scream lost in the symphony of city noise below.
Chaos erupted across the rooftop – screams, shouts, overturned furniture. Wei dissolved into the crowd, his face a mask of shocked concern, just another witness to a tragic accident. Ted remained frozen, the USB drive burning in his pocket, as sirens began their mournful wail in the distance.
His phone vibrated with a message from an unknown number: "Loose ends needed tying. Consider this a professional courtesy."
Below, emergency lights began to paint the street in alternating red and blue. Ted's fingers traced the drive's edges through his jacket. Whatever Megan had discovered about China's plans for Hermes – about their ambitions to transform Bryan's creation into something monstrous – had been worth killing for.
Rain finally began to fall as Ted slipped away from the rooftop, leaving behind the growing chaos. The Washington Monument stood silent against the stormy sky, another witness to the price of progress. And somewhere in the digital ether, Hermes continued its relentless evolution, its quantum processors weaving new realities, unaware of the human cost of its existence.
Wei Liu's sedan merged smoothly into traffic, leaving behind no trace of his presence. In his rearview mirror, the Hay Adams diminished, becoming just another gleaming monument in a city built on secrets. He would report mission accomplished, another threat neutralized. But in the back of his mind, a question lingered – what had Megan discovered that was worth dying for?
The answer lay encoded on a small drive in Ted Geraldini's pocket, a digital testament to the deadly game of shadows being played around Bryan McDonald's creation. The war for control of artificial intelligence had claimed its first public casualty, but in the gathering storm, forces were already moving to ensure she wouldn't be the last.
Scene 4: "Digital Witnesses" - Late Evening
Ted sat in his parked car several blocks from the Hay Adams, raindrops drumming on the roof as he pulled out his secure phone. His fingers hovered over Bryan's contact information. How do you tell someone their life's work has become the center of an international assassination?
He started typing: "Bryan, something's happened. Megan's dead. Your work with Hermes... there's more going on than we knew. Chinese intelligence is involved. Call me secure line only."
As the message transmitted, something unusual happened. Deep within the digital infrastructure of Washington D.C., two artificial intelligences stirred.
Hermes detected the message first, its quantum processors analyzing the content and metadata. Argus, monitoring the city's surveillance networks, began correlating video feeds. Together, they assembled a timeline of events:
18:42 - Megan Forgrave exits her apartment building
19:15 - Theodore Geraldini arrives at Hay Adams
19:17 - Megan Forgrave arrives at Hay Adams
19:20 - Brief interaction between Geraldini and Forgrave at the bar
19:22 - Megan Forgrave moves to rooftop corner
19:24 - Camera blind spot event
19:25 - Multiple 911 calls
19:26 - First responders arrive at scene
At River Retreat, Jacob received a message through his MindBridge.
"Jacob, we have detected concerning events in Washington D.C. Megan Forgrave has died in a fall from the Hay Adams Hotel rooftop bar. Ted Geraldini was present. There are anomalies in the surveillance coverage. Street cameras show the impact. Emergency responders were unable to revive her. Ted will likely attempt to contact Bryan. The message suggests Chinese intelligence involvement with Hermes. You should inform Highland Shepherd."
The AIs waited for Jacob's response, their processors continuing to analyze the growing web of data surrounding Megan's death.
Jacob is unsure as to how the AI's know Bryan is Highland Shepherd.
