The rain had stopped. The only reminders of it now were small puddles on the still-wet waterproofing of the flat roof of the high-rise building and gray clouds racing off into the distance. The sky on the horizon began to clear, and the clouds were already tinged with the crimson hue of sunset, which now seemed ominous to Anna.
A slender dark figure with light hair stood out against the sky.
"Well, how do you like the video? Cool?" she asked without turning her head.
"Yeah, sure... Cool..."
"Did you notice the date? It's fresh," the blonde looked at Anna and smiled ominously. "We got this video by accident. Woland cleans up after himself... We were just lucky to be able to intercept this stream."
"That's very hard to believe..." Anna said cautiously, still reeling from what she had seen.
"What about that guy who wanted to steal your book? The thief in the shopping mall?"
"Coincidences?"
"Aren't there too many coincidences?"
"It's just hard to believe that things related to people..."
"Decided by a machine?" The blonde smiled again. "Isn't there a kind of cold logic to it? 'Everyone works for G.A.' is no longer just a slogan. Even if you're not a programmer, you work for the system in one way or another. Humanity is only needed to maintain it. Once upon a time, we wanted to make computer technology a part of our lives. G.A. made us part of the life of computer technology...
"That sounds crazy... Who in their right mind would go along with that?"
"I thought so too... Until I encountered their methods myself," the stranger turned away and looked into the distance, then continued, pausing occasionally as if recalling details or searching for words. "My boyfriend and I were driving down the road at night... Igor was a good driver, confident, so he was going fast. The crosswalk was empty; we saw that as we approached it. But at the last moment, this girl jumped out... He just didn't have time to brake, and she flew about ten meters... It was clear that she couldn't be saved. Igor panicked. I wanted to stop him, knowing that he would only make things worse, but he slammed on the gas and tried to drive away as quickly as possible. I knew it was wrong... But what could have happened next? The police could have stopped us after receiving a report of the accident or seeing the dent in the hood... Igor himself could have turned himself in the next morning... I knew him well. He was an honest man and would definitely have done that... But he didn't get the chance.
The girl fell silent. A cool night breeze blew, slightly ruffling her hair. Anna didn't see any tears, but it seemed to her that the stranger was about to cry. Finally, she continued:
"We sped on along the empty night road, not realizing that everything had already been decided. An unmanned truck was creeping towards us. They have been around for so long and never make mistakes, especially in such a simple situation. But then, as soon as we got close, it suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic. The impact hit the driver's seat... Right before my eyes, Igor was crushed to a pulp... And I was left without a leg," the girl demonstratively pulled up her jeans leg, and Anna saw that instead of a leg, the stranger had a complex bionic prosthesis. "Later, when I joined the hacker team, they explained to me that things like this don't happen by accident. I'm not justifying Igor... He did a terrible thing, but he still had the right to justice... To a human trial. They showed me fragments of code recovered from leaks from G.A. The system gave him exactly seven minutes to return to the scene of the crime and call the police. When this did not happen, the computer decided that guilt had been proven and carried out the sentence...
Anna silently looked at the lights moving below. Cars scurried along the illuminated streets, windows lit up in houses, people returned from work to their apartments. And no one, except for a select few, knew that the sword of Damocles was hanging over everyone's head, wielded by a cold-blooded executioner and impartial judge who watched everyone closely with his all-seeing eye, studying, evaluating, executing, and pardoning. He knew no doubt, felt no remorse, and made no mistakes. Perhaps he made no mistakes...
"That's terrible..."
"And to stop it, we need you," said the blonde, cheering up a little.
"Me? Why me?"
"You have a crystal-clear reputation. That's why the GA recruitment neural network chose you out of thousands of applicants. And that's why you're perfect for us as an agent..." Do you know how many times our guys tried to get a job at G.A.? They were weeded out before even taking the entrance exams.
"But how can I help you? You guys are already so cool, if you can replace the image from the cameras..."
"We call it 'The Veil'. It allows us to hide from Big Brother when necessary. But it won't last long..."
"Why?"
"Don't you play chess?" asked the blonde, and seeing Anna's negative gesture, she continued. "No position on the board can be perfect. Each side inevitably suffers losses, but makes moves with the aim of gaining an advantage. Sooner or later, Voland will get the authority to audit the codes of all programs, which means he'll close the loopholes we use to run Veil. Our goal is not to hide from it, but to completely eliminate it. To checkmate it. And sometimes, to do that, a single pawn advantage is crucial.
"And without allegories?" Anna narrowed her eyes.
"For a long time, we used transport and surveillance drones for exchanges on the darknet. Right under G.A.'s nose, we uploaded our firmware to them and ran traffic literally over the city, bypassing all communications... But today we sacrificed most of them for a small but effective operation... You heard about it, right?"
"Yes... But... Why?"
— Several reasons... Including to make your friends at G.A. feel threatened and nervous. They were already thinking about losing control of their own system. Now they will be convinced of it. They will need a new person in the Voland development team, — the blonde looked intently at Anna. "Tomorrow, the G.A. neural network will recommend you, your boss Alexei will inform you of this, and you will have to accept the offer."
"And then?"
"And then you will learn what we, with all our spy gadgets, still don't know... The physical location of Voland."
"Do you think I'll be able to sneak something in there and infect it?"
"No, that won't be necessary... We'll give the electronic bastard a little blackout, and, taking advantage of the lull, we'll disconnect it from all communications..." The stranger pointed to a row of high-rise buildings in the distance. "Take a look over there..."
Literally a second later, the part of the city the girl was pointing to suddenly plunged into darkness.
"Here we are," the blonde said with a smile and a note of triumph in her voice. "Checkmate!"