Chapter 11

Later that evening, Ellie sat in the back of an old transit van, kitted out with seats and storage spaces above. The van was parked in Freshfields’ car park. Olivia sat in the front with Xana and Jae-Sun, leaving Ellie with Aoife and Charles in the back. 
They had sat in silence for some time. Ellie twiddled her thumbs, and tried to keep her thoughts from straying into the dangerous realm of absolute panic and turmoil. She still really had no idea whether she trusted the people from SIGNET, but the more she thought over the events from the freezer, the more she realised that without them she would be little more than a pile of ash in the air conditioning system. 
“So we’re just going to hang out in the car park all night?” Ellie asked, less calmly than she’d hoped. Waiting around wasn’t her jam, and never had been. She was practical, hands on. That’s why working at Freshfields was such a good fit for her.
Charles checked his watch. “Gary should finish his shift any minute now.” He shuffled up to the glass separating the cab from the rest of the van and rapped his knuckles upon it. Like a well-oiled machine, Xana and Jae-Sun opened the doors and stepped out. 
All went quiet inside the van once more. Ellie shuffled uncomfortably. She felt as though, if she were not with them, the others would be making small talk or sharing jokes. Her presence made them wary, and she didn’t know why.
“It’s bugged me,” Ellie began, and felt Charles and Aoife’s gaze upon her. “I’ve worked with you since you started, Charles. Why didn’t you tell me anything about this before now? Didn’t you trust me?”
Charles looked hurt at the suggestion. “We didn’t want you to get hurt,” he said.
Ellie should have felt reassured by this, but instead felt even further pushed out. 
There was the sound of a scuffle outside; a raised voice, soon muffled. A bang against the van’s side hinted at a continued struggle. Soon after, the van door slid open, and Gary was hurled inside by Xana and Jae-Sun, who hopped in after him.
Ellie gasped. “You didn’t have to gag him!” She dropped to his side and removed the rag of cloth that had been stuffed in his mouth. 
“HELP!” he screamed. 
Xana promptly snatched the rag from Ellie and stuffed it back in his mouth.
“He’s not quite ready to talk yet,” she summarised. 
“Are you surprised? You’ve essentially kidnapped him!” Ellie rubbed Gary’s writhing arm gently. “Gary, it’s Ellie. Please don’t panic. No one’s here to hurt you.”
Gary rolled around to look at her. His rapid, unblinking eyes studied her face, confused and panicked. Ellie smiled to reassure him, and slowly he began to unstiffen and relax.
“We just want to ask you about the SPIMS program,” Ellie explained, in soft, nurturing tones. She waited a few moments, then asked, “Is it okay for me to remove the gag now?”
Xana stiffened, as if she was about to intervene, but Charles held her back. Slowly, Gary nodded, and Ellie’s heart went out to him as she noticed a single tear slide down his cheek. Gently, she pulled the damp rag from his mouth, and a deep gasp followed.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he spluttered, snot and tears spilling from his face. 
“Gary, it’s okay,” Ellie reassured him. “We only want to ask some questions.”
“It was all me!” he continued, irrespective of her reassurance. 
“What do you mean, Gary?” asked Charles, concerned. 
“SPIMS,” he said. “I did it. I changed the program!”
Ellie and the SIGNET team exchanged glances.
“But I didn’t mean for it to hurt anyone,” he added quickly. “All I wanted was to outperform the other supermarkets.” He started to sob.
Charles waved a hand. “Gary, slow down. Go back to SPIMS. What did you do to the program?”
Gary sniffed loudly. “It was after the yearly shareholder meeting,” he explained. “Company sales are down, and we need to compete with the budget supermarkets. I remembered that when they installed SPIMS in the store, there were all these dials and switches on the mainframe box. The engineer said they were there to set the baseline for the software’s AI to work from. I thought that if I tweaked a few of the dials to make the system more sensitive, then it would help to boost our profits this Christmas.” He paused for a moment to organise his inner turmoil. “I wanted to avoid head office causing redundancies, but then people started to disappear, and everything got out of control.”
“You can say that again,” muttered Jae-Sun.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” asked Aoife. “Or at least try to change the system back?”
“I did,” Gary protested. “You have to believe me. The moment Jackie disappeared in the middle of a shift, I knew SPIMS must be behind it — her scores were the lowest in the store. I went straight back to the mainframe and changed the dials back, but it didn’t do anything. The damage was done, and SPIMS has been acting on its own ever since. How could I tell anyone about it, let alone the authorities? I’d be arrested, or worse, committed!”
“But people are dying,” said Ellie. “Today it was almost me!”
From Gary’s dismayed expression, it was clear the news hurt him. “Ellie, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s too late for sorries now,” said Charles. “By not alerting the authorities of what happened you’ve abetted in the deaths of numerous more people to save your own hide. SPIMS is frolicking about unchecked, and if we’re going to stop even more deaths from happening then we have to intervene now.”
“An AI system out of control,” scoffed Aoife. “I never thought I’d live to see Judgement Day.”
“A Terminator scenario is what we need to avoid,” said Charles. “Gary, you’re saying that reprogramming SPIMS isn’t an option?”
Gary shook his head. “The system has become completely autonomous. The baseline controls are just for show now.”
“But the mainframe still exists?” asked Xana.
“Well, yeah,” Gary affirmed. “But it’s no good to anyone if we can’t control it.”
“But we can destroy it.”
A murmur of agreement spread amongst them. 
“We’ll have to strike when the store is at its quietest,” said Charles. “We can’t risk anyone else getting hurt.”
“Sundays,” answered Ellie. “We close at four because of the Sunday trading laws.”
“Won’t there be staff working?” asked Aoife.
“There must be someone making sure there isn’t a break in,” added Jae-Sun.
“A couple of night staff come in early,” said Gary. “They mostly make sure the fresh food areas are stocked for Monday morning.”
“And usually bum around in the warehouse instead of working,” added Ellie.
Charles clapped his hands together. “Then there we have it. Everyone rest up. Sunday, we put a stop to the disappearances.”
While the SIGNET team seemed rallied by the words of their leader, Ellie couldn’t help but feel a sense of dismay. Freshfields was one of the largest parts of her life, and if they were to fail, it would be gone forever.

Next Aisle: Chapter 12