Page 27 - Tales the Maggid Never Told Me

The Golem of NASA

he was working on until CERBERUS had unexpectedly turned a
blind eye to his investigations and manipulations. Curiosity had led
him into files the access to which was theoretically reserved to
project managers beyond his pay grade and acquaintance. There he
had gained enough information to piece together the system’s true
function, and then the golem had begun to take shape in his mind.
The enemies of Israel were legion, their armaments and tactics ever-
growing in strength and cunning; while her friends, most notably
Gabe’s own country, displayed increasing reluctance to support her
positions and policies.
But ZAPSAT could not simply be commandeered and turned
upon a list of leaders of the frontline Arab states and heads of
Palestinian paramilitary organizations. The tampering would be
detected immediately, the killing stopped, and Gabe thrown in
jail or reassigned to Antarctica. No, the golem had to work
alone, tracking its victims and dispatching them one by one, at
intervals discrete enough to avoid suspicion. And Gabe foresaw
the possibility of changes in the system like the tightening of
security via CERBERUS or its descendants. So he had to create a
program enabling the golem on its own to identify those
individuals most likely to harm the inhabitants of the Jewish
state, rank them in order of potential threat, and pass the
sentence of death to the nearest orbiting executioner. Then Gabe
could sit back and watch the obituaries for the results of his
handiwork.
His primary obstacle, once he had tapped into ZAPSAT
control, was to define the targets. Logic was the only life he
could breathe into his creation, the Agency’s vast subterranean
cache of on-line dossiers the totality of knowledge he could place at
its disposal. Over time, the cast of villains would change: other
assassins, including old age, were also at work in the Middle East, and
the refugee camps and streets of Jerusalem could throw a new teen-
age terrorist into prominence at any moment. The golem, at random
intervals, would wake up, patiently analyze the activities of hundreds
of thousands of individuals known to the Agency, and set the sights
of its death-ray.

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