Fall of Colossus Read Free Page A

he saw that, in a weird way, what man had demanded of the original computers had been achieved, if not quite in the manner intended. There was peace and freedom from want and promise of a great improvement in man’s material well-being. So man had lost the illusion of freedom—but so what? Forbin contended that within the confines of Colossus’ rule man had more freedom than ever before… .
    All this Cleo understood and to a degree accepted, but it did not stop there. Her husband’s cooperation, unwilling at first, was now willing, sometimes even enthusiastic. She was also aware that Colossus did not discourage his deification by the Sect, and she feared that her husband would not withstand the pressure of the Sect—plus the far greater influence of Colossus—if Colossus decided that Forbin should be the computer’s Pope.
    At rock bottom, she was jealous: jealous of Forbin’s relationship with Colossus. Again and again she told herself not to be stupid; she was lucky he was not spending his time with another woman, but her alter ego had a smart answer to that: she could compete with another female, but Colossus. .
    . .

    So jealousy added even more fuel to the secret fire within her. Her husband might change his views, but not Cleo. Her basic fear plus jealousy plus her anxiety for the world in which her son would live, all added up to an unswerving determination to do all she could to destroy this nightmarish creation.
    To destroy Colossus! It was sheer madness even to contemplate it. The old Colossus had been built to defend the Western world. In those short-lived, jubilant days, the President of the USNA had been at pains to point out that the whole beauty of the idea lay in the fact that Colossus, fed all available intelligence, would only launch its fearful armory if that intelligence showed an attack was pending on the West. As the President had said, Colossus, lacking emotion, would not panic or act out of fear; it could only react to a threat, so the answer was simple: don’t threaten.
    But the Soviets had been busy too; they soon announced the existence of their Guardian of Democratic Socialism. That did no more than restore the balance, and once the dust had settled the situation would have stabilized, but the computers broke their parameters and ganged up. The very defenses man had built for the computers’ protection proved only too effective… .
    And Cleo Forbin, PhD, one of the original Colossus design team, sought to destroy their infinitely more complex successor. It was mad even to think of it; to talk of it, fatal. Colossus always reacted swiftly against any “antimachine activity” and the invariable punishment on conviction was swift death—by decapitation. It was crazy: a mouse might as well attack an ICBM site. Yes, mad, impossible… .
    Except that Cleo was not alone. There were others. just as the Sect was busy elevating their Master to the rank of God, so these others worked secretly to cast him down.
    They called themselves the Fellowship, and Cleo Forbin was a top member.

Chapter Two
    Forbin made it to his office suite ahead of the pilgrims, but whatever pleasure or relief that gave him was canceled out by another annoyance.
    In crossing the large—vast would be a better description—entrance cum reception hall, he had encountered a trio of guides (they spelled the word with a capital “G”), preparing to receive the first batch of pilgrims. Forbin didn’t give a damn for their pseudo-archaic dress blazoned with the Colossus badge, or the grand manners they put on with the robes. He was used to all that and had, for a time, even laughed at their antics, but the joke had worn thin, very thin. As far as possible, he ignored them.
    But when you happen to be walking across a wide expanse of marble floor alone, what do you do when three magnificently robed creatures turn, face you—and you only—and bow? Not a mere duck of the head, but the full treatment, a deep obeisance, right