[ WP ] you have just entered an automated taxi/uber service . You are halfway to your destination when the car gets hacked .

`` I'm certain I do n't have to explain to you that it is a crime to employ humans in a profession computers are capable of performing.'' 
 `` No sir, you're quite right. My apologies, sir.'' 
 `` Good. Then please tell John to make spend the dollars on some Adobe script bots. They're more than capable of building out this solution for us.'' 
 `` Will do, thank you sir.'' 
 I ended the call and put my phone in my pocket as the car drove North on I-75. `` The things I say to keep up the illusion,'' I thought to myself. 
 The Atlanta skyline had changed since I had last visited. Most prominent now was the gleaming new Blank Innovation Center, which stood where Turner Field had once been. Its white and black interwoven support cables held aloft a vast glass roof under which modern indoor worker parks stretched for several hundred yards. 
 Of all human capacities, the one we still had n't quite figured out how to replicate with computers was networking. That made places like the Innovation Center - accessible, secure, and aesthetically conducive to human interaction - invaluable in the modern economy. Employees of multinational corporations mixed and mingled here seven days a week, making connections and doing deals. 
 I was jealous of them, as they gathered under that translucent glass roofing. In their chatter they were happy. While they sipped wine and exchanged buzzwords, they could still live their lives ignorant of the knowledge I now carried with me. The knowledge that brought me to Atlanta, my hometown, for the first time in twenty years. Back to her. 
 She had risen fast in the wake of the Revolution. It was n't hard to see why. A beautiful and brilliant neurosurgeon whose uncle had led the largest reactionary forces in Tennessee. She understood the human mind, and was capable of bending it to her desires. I watched her rise from my perch in London with mild amusement - she controlled the Congress of the Southern States as tightly as she used to control me. I had to respect her, though. Her human-first policies towards labor were a bastion of hope in the ever-computerizing global economy. 
 I was in Atlanta because I had an urgent message to deliver to her. One that was far too sensitive to be trusted to the heavily monitored fiber networks. I needed to speak with her in person, and I needed her to listen to me. I hoped that there was still a small soft part in her heart for me after all these years. That ’ s why I had been sent. I just hoped that it was n't too late. 
 I prompted the car to bring up the news as we passed under the 14th Street bridge. More news from the West Coast. Leaders from China, Russia, Japan and California were all in Hawaii. Images flashed in front of me of leaders smiling while shaking hands in front of the camera. `` New Trade Agreements in Advance of Upcoming Pacific Union Elections,'' read the headline. The clock was ticking faster than I expected. 
 Suddenly, the car jerked to the right and crossed three lanes of highway to make the Northside exit. I almost fell out of my seat. I pulled out my phone to check the destination. There were no re-routing notifications. No indications of traffic jams ahead. Nothing to explain the car ’ s sudden lurch. I pushed hard on the break with my right foot, but the car didn ’ t slow down at all. I pressed the off button on the dash, but still nothing. Whatever system that was controlling the car was going completely haywire. 
 Instead of slowing down as it approached the off ramp, the car sped up and careened through the intersection, taking a hard left. This had never happened to me before. As far I was I knew, nothing like this had ever happened in a Tesla since the Model 3 days. Panicked, I reached behind me, pulled the safety belt over my shoulder, and clicked it into place. I always wondered why they continued to put them in cars since no one wore them anymore, but I was grateful for it as the car swerved madly through traffic. 
 Collecting myself, I dialed 911 on my phone and put it to my ear. The call rang… and rang… Was there something wrong with the automated call software? The car continued to pick up speed as we dangerously swerved around pedestrians crossing a crosswalk. I shrieked and opened the emergency app on the phone. I pressed the distress button but the app was unresponsive. What was happening? 
 People shouted at me as the car weaved through two-lane traffic in the dense shopping district of West Northside. I tried to lower the window, but the button did nothing. I was approaching the old waterworks when suddenly the car slowed and took a sharp right onto a narrow side-street. 
 The car continued along this street for a few miles, eventually carrying me to a dense warehouse district. Driverless trucks sat at loading docks waiting for their freight. Pickerbots delivered packages to rows of delivery drones on mini helipads. I suddenly realized where I was -- the Amazon fulfillment center for the Southeast. Why had the car brought me here, of all places? No humans worked or lived here. Amazon only had a few hundred employees in Seattle, a bunch of Ivy leaguers who oversaw the vast global automated operations. 
 Suddenly, the car stopped. I tried the door but it was locked and wouldn ’ t budge. A garage door to the right slowly opened. I could not see through the darkness it revealed behind it. The car turned and slowly rolled into the warehouse, and the door shut slowly behind me. There were not lights in the warehouse… it was completely dark. I could make out strange, moving shapes along the wall of the warehouse to the left as the car continued silently through the darkness. I noticed that the air was off in the car, and a few beads of sweat dripped down my brown and quivered on the tip of my nose. 
 After a minute or two of driving, the car stopped. I could see nothing through the darkness. Without warning, deep red lights illuminated the far wall ahead of me, and in front of me were two dark, massive objects. They were coming towards me. I began to kick the passenger window with the heel of my boot, but the glass would not give. The two objects crept nearer. I tried ramming the door with my shoulder. It didn ’ t budge. I was breathing heavy and sweating profusely, and I was trapped. 
 The air kicked on and started blasting hot air. It was hot and sweet, and in my panicking breaths I inhaled deeply. My mind suddenly grew foggy, and I felt as if I were drunk, or tired, or both. I closed my eyes and leaned against the cool glass, and I was asleep… 
 
 TO BE CONTINUED… 

