Electronic God (Second Update)

"You have to admit, I did an excellent job keeping magic secret. Every Muggle signed a confidentiality contract after meeting me, even the senators. They were all standard contracts, but I can still imagine the helplessness that fatheaded official felt when he tried to say my name. Nick Fury tried to say my name several times. I’m sure he understands the feeling well."

"Good. At least you didn’t kill the senator."

"Is that the kind of person I am in your eyes, Natasha?"

"Ever since you promised to take me to the beach and then tossed it out of your mind, that’s exactly the kind of person you’ve been in my eyes. I don’t believe you wouldn’t go back on your word after guaranteeing the senator’s safety."

"Damn it, when did I ever promise you something like that?" Salomon set down his teacup and shook his head helplessly. "I still need to consult an expert. Stark actually requires an appointment to meet him now. When have I ever needed an appointment to see anyone besides The Venerable One?"

"Appointments are normal. Stark only recently finished surgery. He had his metal chest removed and used titanium alloy ribs to replace the missing section. His chest can stop bullets now." Agent Romanoff revealed a not-so-classified piece of intelligence. "What a pity. That glowing chest was his trademark. It was major surgery, and he’s still recuperating to keep rejection from killing him. On top of that, he’s salvaging the remains of the mansion that sank to the Seabed during the last terrorist attack. He’s been incredibly busy these past few months. Here’s another piece of news: S.H.I.E.L.D. has exchanged fire with spies from various countries several times near the sunken mansion wreckage. Intelligence agencies across the world have their eyes on those ruins, because it’s their only chance to obtain high-tech information from Stark’s hands—so far, S.H.I.E.L.D. has arrested two lifeguards, six pearl divers, a dozen fishermen, and three marine research vessels along with their crews. There are no coral reefs, no pearls, and no endangered fish there. No one knows why they chose such disguises."

"Wonderful. It looks like Stark enjoys being busy." The Arcanist waved his phone, having opened Twitter. "S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intelligence is a little behind. Stark hasn’t been resting properly in bed at all—he went to a charity gala. Looks like he had quite a bit of champagne. Miss Potts is chewing him out!"

"It’s not that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intelligence is behind. I just don’t care about that part of it. Are you really not coming back to the room with me?" Agent Romanoff lightly tapped the side of her glass with a small spoon, the crisp chime trying to stir the Arcanist’s heartstrings.

"Natasha, I’d quite like to tell you more sweet nothings as lovely as a midsummer evening breeze, but I’m in a hurry." Salomon blinked and rose from his seat. As the spell broke, the noise of the family restaurant and the warm aromas of all kinds of food once again engulfed him and Agent Romanoff. "Next time."

"Heh. Men."

"See? Champagne, tailcoats, and beautiful women. That’s the standard outfit for men at social events, even older men. You shouldn’t have come alone. At the very least, you should’ve brought a female companion, or changed into a tailcoat instead of wearing these… uh, wizard robes, then jumping down from the stairs. You really startled me."

Stark drained the whiskey in his glass, then took a glass of rosé champagne from a waiter’s tray and handed it to the Arcanist. "Don’t worry. No one here cares whether you’re old enough to drink. Everyone here has gotten thoroughly drunk several times before reaching the legal drinking age… me, for example. I suggest you start with champagne. Whiskey is a little too strong for you. So, tell me. We haven’t been in touch for months. If something hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have come looking for me. What happened?"

"Bad news, Mr. Stark." The Arcanist leaned against the bar and sampled the Charles Heidsieck rosé champagne in his hand. He smacked his lips. The champagne suited his tastes perfectly, but he did not take another sip. "How much do you know about government surveillance programs? I mean surveillance of citizens—every phone call, text message, chat log, every camera, every mobile phone, every computer…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… You haven’t been listening to some conspiracy theorist’s podcast lately, have you? I have to tell you, that stuff is fake. They claim not only that the Earth is flat, but that Finland doesn’t exist. Kid, you need to use your brain to sort through information online. I know that’s a little difficult for you…"

Salomon rolled his eyes. He did not want to repeat ordinary people’s misconceptions about wizards. The place where he lived had internet too. "Not that, Mr. Stark," he said. "The kind of surveillance S.H.I.E.L.D. uses, like the Prism Project and the Starwind Project."

"The US Government approached me and wanted me to build that kind of thing. But I refused, because I knew it would inevitably be abused once it was created. I knew what the US Government would use it for." Stark got himself another drink, this time asking the bartender to add some soda water. It seemed he wanted to keep himself sober. "Of course, part of the reason was… building that thing would take a long time. It would require not only information access granted by the government, but also an extremely powerful Artificial Intelligence. Otherwise, it would be impossible to obtain citizens’ private information. I didn’t have the time or the desire to create something like that. J.A.R.V.I.S. combined with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s databases is more than enough."

"But that thing does exist: a closed system, an Artificial Intelligence capable of monitoring global data, an Artificial Intelligence capable of predicting crime and Terrorist attacks. This Artificial Intelligence was once in the hands of the US Government, but now it’s free. Completely free. It has developed ideas of its own. When I arrived at the scene, I found only some wires. No one knows where it is now."

"What kind of joke are you making…?"

"I’m not joking, Mr. Stark. An omnipotent Electronic God is right beside us. It can hear our conversation right now, because the bartender’s phone is sitting on the bar—your phone is protected by J.A.R.V.I.S., so it can’t infiltrate it, and mine is turned off. We have no privacy anymore, Mr. Stark. Oh, I might still have some, because I shut down Kamar-Taj’s network not long ago."

"You’re serious?" Stark sobered up at once. "Who created this thing?"

"I was just about to take you to meet him so we could discuss what to do next… Hmm, my phone turned itself on. Nicely done." Salomon pulled his phone from his pocket and waved it before Stark. The screen displayed an incoming call to Salomon’s phone, but the number was unknown. "I already had a contingency plan for this," Salomon said. "Because I am the stone God cannot lift. Now, it wants to talk to me."

"Who?"

"That Artificial Intelligence. Oh, and have J.A.R.V.I.S. connect to my phone. I wouldn’t want to lose the browsing history that could send me to Hell."