" Ya inilah tempatnya."
Sebuah fasade di mana kaca dan batu bersatu dalam campuran yang tak biasa; Rachel sedikit terkoyak ketika melihat keagungan Gedung Matematika MIT.
Bagi seorang magang, pengalaman kerja di sebuah departemen kunci jauh lebih berharga daripada apapun. Dalam hal itu, ditugaskan ke proyek yang sedang dibangun kota dengan penuh tekad, Rascha merasa sudah cukup beruntung.
"Tuh, terlalu dingin!"
Mengapa tiba-tiba dirinya kehiluangan?
'Tenang sekali. Kayaknya sebaiknya aku datang besok saja ya?'
Tugas resminya baru dimulai besok, tapi Rachel ingin melihat langsung lokasinya terlebih dahulu, meskipun harus datang larut sore.
Bangunan yang seharusnya ramai justru terbungkus dalam diam yang menakutkan.
Kreeeoock...
Saat membuka pintu dan melangkah masuk, Rachel terasa dingin seolah suhu ruangan turun beberapa derajat.
'Eh?'
Suara berirama pun muncul dari lantai koridor yang lebih dalam.
Carek carek.
Carek carek carek.
Nerirah nervusnya, ditelan rasa takut yang tak bisa ia jelaskan.
Tuk.
Tuk tuk.
Tuk tuk tuk tuk.
Suara kapur kuis yang menghantam papan tulis.
Kenapa harus terdengar dari koridor?
Aneh sekali.
Suara-suara itu semakin dekat, lalu menyeriakan kembali.
Gulp.
Rachel berjalan pelan ke arah sumber suara.
'Ah!'
Seorang pria berdiri di ujung koridor.
Rambut merah, jaket lab putih, bahu yang lutos.
Seorang pria berkulit pucat seperti zombi, mata yang tertuju merah memerah, sedang menuliskan sesuatu di dinding.
Carek carek carek carek carek carek...
Tangananya bergerak cepat, seolah desperati menumpahkan segala ilmu yang tersimpan di kepalanya.
Kepelikan mengalahkan rasa ingin tahu, ia mencantum sedikit lagi.
Angka-angka, simbol-simbol, persamaan-persamaan yang menyatu tanpa batas.
Saat Rachel hendak menarik napas,
BANG!
Tiba-tiba pria itu menghantam kepalanya ke papan tulis.
BANG!
BANG BANG!
Satu, dua kali.
Lalu, perlahan ia menolehkan kepalanya.
Griiind...
Rachel merasa suaranya seperti mesin gulung patah yang sedang digiring kembali.
Kulit pucat seperti zombi, mata tumpah merah mendalam. Saat ia pun menguliskan tangannya ke arah Rachel, seseorang muncul dari belakang dan meregang tangan di atas mulutnya.
"Mmph!"
Ia berusaha keras melepas kendali, namun tak berdaya; tanpa kesempatan melawan, ia terguling jauh.
Ketika mereka sudah cukup jauh, akhirnya ia melepaskan pelukan Rachel. Ia memeriksa wajahnya dan tersedak kaget.
"Jake?"
Itu adalah Jake, asisten setia walikota, salah satu tokoh paling berpengaruh di Gedung Kota.
Jaketnya yang selalu rapi, sepatu yang tak pernah berdebu... di manakah penampilan sempurnanya kini? Wajahnya ditumbuhi keringat lelah.
Rachel menahan tanggung rasa dan memandangnya dengan kosong.
"Haaah."
Jake tarik napas dalam-dalam, menatap waspada sekitarnya, lalu mencengkerangkan bahunya hingga menekan Rachel ke dinding.
"Diamkan suara. Tolong, diamkan suara."
"Lalu, apa yang terjadi?"
Sebelum Jake bisa membuka mulut untuk menjelaskan, sebuah teriak piercing bergema menyeluruh koridor.
"AAARGH!"
"Tidak! Tidak, tidak, tidak! Algoritmanya kembali tangle lagi. Kenapa sih ia konvergen seperti ini!"
Rachel tersentuh dan bersembunyi di balik Jake.
Teriak-teriak itu kian semrawot.
"Untuk seseorang yang bisa mengoptimalkan sempurna, harusnya sudah gila! Aku tidak bisa! Aku berterusan, aku tidak bisa!"
Dari ujung koridor terdengar dentang berat, suara sesuatu yang jatuh.
Rachel mencuba melirik ke arah itu, namun Jake mengangguk.
"Mereka mem knocked dia sejenak untuk istirahat. Di sini, saat seseorang pecundang, begitulah cara mereka membetulkan."
Bertonjolan pertanyaan menanti, namun satu pandangan pada wajahJake yang kusam membuat perkataan-perannya binatang rasa.
"Coba ke sana. Ada tempat yang biasa dipenuhi staf Kota untuk istirahat."
Langkah, langkah.
Mereka berlari melewari koridor dan berjalan cukup lama hingga tiba di ruangan tanpa tanda di pintunya.
Slide.
Rachel membuka pintu dan masuk, ada wajah-wajah yang sudah dikenal.
Mengenakan jaket lab putih, mereka adalah para ahli dari departemen lalu lintas, orang-orang yang sudah mengurusinya dengan baik selama magangnya di sana.
Namun kini, mereka tak berbeda sepatahnya dengan Jake.
Salah seorang di lantai, bergeloroh pada dirinya sendiri. Lainnya berdiri di depan mesin kopi, menatap kosong. Yang lain condong tubuh sambil menonton simulasi di laptopnya. Ini bukanlah orang departemen trafik yang Rachel kenak.
"…Oh, Jake. Rachel juga ada.
Pria di mesin kopi akhirnya memperhatikan dan berteriak.
Nada suaranya tenang, namun tangannya sedikit gemetar.
"Harry, kamu sepertinya kurus. Ada-ada sakit?"
Harry yang dikenangnya adalah seorang ahli tinggi dengan PhD dari Yale, seseorang yang lebih bangga pada pekerjaannya daripada siapa pun.
"Bukan tubuhanku yang sakit."
"Lalu apa?"
"Ini."
Ia mengetuk jari telunjuk di atas keningnya.
"Ada apa?"
Jake, tak tahan lagi, memotongnya duluan.
"Kuh dengar tadi pagi. Aku hanya mendengar rumor, tapi tak pernah berpikir akan melihatnya dengan mataku sendiri."
Peneliti yang mendengar kata-katanya mulai gemetar seolah digoyang oleh konvulsi.
"Eeeek..."
"Apakah kamu serius?
"Apakah kamu benar benar melihatnya?"
"Ini semua masih belum jelas."
"Lihat apa? Jelaskan betul-betul!"
Saat Rachel mendorongnya, ia melipat lengan panjang seakan ditimpa rasa sakit.
"Aku tidak ingin bersorok, tapi aku pikir aku cukup baik di sini.
Algoritma Seo-ha menggunakan dalam Proyek Boston memang sangatlah sulit, kan? Tapi aku paham dalam dua hari saja. Aku yakin bisa mengurus pekerakanku tanpa masalah."
"Lalu?"
"Ada sesuatu yang ingin kuh pertanyakan. Aku sedang membaca catatan riset di kotak-kotak dan menemukan bagian yang tak bisa kuh pahami. Jadi aku mencari dia."
Pikiran untuk ingat akan hal itu tampaknya mengerikan baginya; lututnya gemetar tak terkendali.
"Ada sekertas laboratorium di sebelah ruangan peralatan dekat tangga. Ruangan yang hampir tidak pernah dipakai, jadi biasanya gelap, tapi hari ini, anehnya, ada cahaya bocor keluar.
Aku bisa mendengar seseorang tertawa di celah pintu, juga."
Ingatan yang akan bertahan sepanjang hidupnya.
Carek carek.
Suara yang ditulis di kapur papan tulis. Tertawa riang seorang pemuda.
Seolah tertarik oleh sesuatu, ia melangkah ke laboratorium dan membuka pintunya.
"Ah..."
Seo-ha ada di sana.
Carek carek.
Kapurnya bergesek.
Tanganannya lancar dan pasti, seolah tubuhnya bersaing dengan kecepatan pikirannya.
Setelah mengisi papan dengan persamaan selama cukup lama, ia menatap ruang kosong secara diagonal di ruangan itu.
"Kamu juga setuju, kan?"
Logika AI bertambah.
Hanya ada satu kota, namun setiap model menyampaikan masa depan yang berbeda sebagai impiannya.
"Mari kita buat model menatap ke arah yang sama. Bukan hanya data, tetapi kerangka interpretasinya juga. Kita buat mereka berbagi."
'Siapa yang bercanda? Apa yang dia bicarakan?'
Harry perlahan mengikuti arah pandangan Seo-ha.
Lalu ia melihatnya.
Di ujung pandangan yang ia tunjuk, seseorang,
bukan, sesuatu duduk di sana.
Sebuah kehadiran asing duduk rapi di kursi kosong.
Tak dapat diragukan lagi, ini adalah boneka beruang penyu MIT, tapi dengan topeng bebek kuning ditempel di wajahnya.
"AAAAAHHH!"
Rachel yang mendengar, meraungkan ketawa tanpa belas.
Jake mencemong.
"Ayo, seorang dewasa yang hanya takut dan gemetar gara-gara sesuatu kayak gini?"
Harry mengangguk.
"Tentu saja bukan itu.
Anak-anak tetap memeluk boneka. Bahkan anak perempuanku, dia selalu memeluk boneka dan berbicara dengan dia seharian. Dan ada aktor di film yang akhabarnya berteman dengan bolak-bolak."
"Lalu apa sebenarnya masalahnya?"
"Matanya."
"Apa?"
"Aku bertanya tentang sesuatu yang tertulis di catatannya. Aku penasaran bagaimana dia bisa mempertimbangkan data masa depan yang bahkan belum teramati.
Dia menjelasnya rinci. Masalahnya adalah aku tidak paham satu kata pun dari penjelasannya."
Harry menurunkan kepalanya.
"Ini bidang yang telah kuh dedicate seluruh hidupku. Sampai dengan S1, S2, S3. Dan lebih dari sepuluh tahun riset setelah itu. Aku pasti telah menerbitkan lebih dari dua puluh kertas tentang topik ini.
Fakta, setengahan dari catatan itu adalah hal-hal yang sudah kuh tahu."
Kenangan itu tampaknya kembali, maka mata Harry pun basah.
"Pasti ia tahu aku tidak mengerti."
Seo-ha mulai menjelaskan lagi. Seperti sedang mengajari penjumlahan dan pengurangan ke anak sekolah dasar. Seandainya kuh paham saat itu... atau setidaknya berpura-pura mengerti saja..."
"Jadi... lalu...?"
"Tidak mungkin. Harry, kamu adalah ahli di bidang ini!"
Ia mengangguk keras.
"Tidak, aku hanyalah sampah.
Seo-ha jelas berkata! 'Apakah kemampuan intelektualmu benar-benar sebatas itu? Dengan kemampuan seperti itu, apa sih yang kamu lakukan di sini?'
Mata-mata keduanya melebar.
"Benarkah ia bilang sesuatu yang begitu kejam? Aku sama sekali tidak menduga ia orang sekaliber itu..."
"Apakah kamu yakin ini bukan salah paham?"
"...Dia jelas berkata dengan matanya. Kalian berdua mungkin tidak percaya aku, tapi."
Ia turun ekspresi suram, lalu melangkah keluar dari ruangan istirahat.
Setelah pintu ditutup, ruangan kembali sunyi.
"Jake, adakah yang perlu kuh tahu terlebih dahulu? Mulai besok, aku juga akan bekerja di sini."
Alih-alih menjawab, ia mendesis sekuat tenaga.
"Kebanyakan peneliti yang dikirim ke sini pasti dalam keadaat serupa dengan Harry.
Modelnya terlalu kompleks. Tapi mereka harus memahaminya, menganalisisnya, dan menciptakan algoritma baru di atasnya."
"Ah... memang terdengar seperti situasi yang sulit."
"Jauh lebih sulit dari yang kukasumpulkan.
Gagal, lalu gagal lagi. Kegagalan terus berulang.
Kamu merasa sudah sempurna, lalu Seo-ha datang, menjalankan beberapa tes, dan segalanya meledak di tempat."
Jake menunjuk ke papan tulis yang berdiri di samping mesin kopi.
Grafik, persamaan, tanda silang merah dan tanda tanya yang dihiasi dengan rapat di permukaannya.
"Jika ini sebuah makalah, kamu hanya bakal menganggapnya hipotesis yang gagal dan melangkah ke depan.
Tapi di sini, ini cerita lain. Proyek ini akan langsung diterapkan ke New York. Jika modelnya bahkan sedikit salah, bisa menghalangi seluruh kota.
"Kenapa seseorang yang baru magang bisa diberi posisi seperti ini?"
Mata kanan Rachel gemetar.
"Kamu tidak boleh menyerah, tidak boleh melarikan diri, dan di atas segalanya, pemimpin timnya adalah monster yang keahliannya melampaui akal. Tinggal sebulan atau dua, orang mulai kehilangan kendali."
Gemaung kelongkin. Menghantam oleh gelombang ketidaknyamanan yang tiba-tiba, Rachel memeluk tubuhnya.
Tempat yang ditugaskan untuknya adalah yang meyaksa para peneliti hingga batas maksimal kemampuan mereka.
***
Beep...
K
"So this is the place."
A facade where glass and stone intertwined in a curious blend; Rachel shivered for a moment at the grandeur of the MIT Mathematics building.
For an intern, experience working in a key department was more valuable than anything. In that sense, being assigned to the project the city was pouring the most effort into was nothing short of lucky.
"Ugh, it's freezing!"
Why was she suddenly hit with chills?
'It's quiet. Maybe I should've just come tomorrow?'
Her official assignment didn't start until tomorrow, but Rachel had wanted to get a look at the site in advance, even if it meant coming late in the afternoon.
The building, which she had expected to be bustling, was wrapped in an eerie silence.
Creeeak...
The moment she opened the door and stepped inside, a chill washed over her as if the temperature had dropped several degrees.
'Hm?'
A rhythmic sound was coming from deeper in the corridor.
Scratch scratch.
Scratch scratch scratch.
Her nerves stood on edge, gripped by a fear she couldn't explain.
Tap.
Tap tap.
Tap tap tap tap.
The sound of chalk striking a blackboard.
Why would such sounds be coming from the corridor?
It was strange.
The sounds grew closer, then pulled away again.
Gulp.
Rachel slowly walked toward the source of the noise.
'Ah!'
Someone was standing at the end of the corridor.
Red hair, a white lab coat, slumped shoulders.
A man with a slender frame was writing something on the wall.
Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch...
His hand moved rapidly, as if he were desperately pouring out every piece of knowledge crammed inside his head.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she crept a little closer.
Numbers, symbols, equations stretching on without end.
Just as Rachel was about to swallow her breath,
BANG!
The man suddenly slammed his head into the chalkboard.
BANG!
BANG BANG!
Once, twice.
And then, slowly, he turned his head toward her.
Griiind...
Rachel thought it sounded like a broken wind-up mechanism grinding to life.
A complexion as pale as a zombie's, eyes shot through with red. Just as he began to reach his hand toward Rachel, someone appeared from behind and roughly clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Mmph!"
She struggled desperately to break free, but it was no use; she was dragged away without a chance to resist.
Only after they had moved a considerable distance did he finally let go. Rachel checked his face and gasped in surprise.
"Jake?"
It was Jake, the mayor's loyal aide, one of the most powerful figures at City Hall.
The suit that had always been pressed to razor-sharp creases, the shoes that never had a speck of dust on them... where had his usual immaculate appearance gone? His face was soaked with exhaustion.
Rachel swallowed her scream and stared at him blankly.
"Haaah."
Jake caught his breath, glanced warily around them, then grabbed her shoulders and pressed her against the wall.
"Keep it down. Please, keep it down.
That redhead... you were just in an extremely dangerous situation."
"What on earth is going on?"
The moment Jake opened his mouth to explain, a piercing shriek echoed through the corridor.
"AAARGH!
No! No, no, no! The algorithm got tangled up again. Why the hell does it converge like this!"
Rachel flinched and ducked behind Jake.
The screaming grew more and more hysterical.
"For someone to perfectly optimize this, he has to be out of his mind! I can't do it! I'm telling you, I can't!"
From the end of the corridor came a heavy thud, the sound of something collapsing.
Rachel tried to peer in that direction, but Jake shook his head.
"They knock him out for a bit so he can rest. Around here, when someone breaks down, that's how they fix it."
She had a mountain of questions, but one look at Jake's haggard face and the words died in her throat.
"Let's go this way. There's a spot where the City Hall staff take their breaks."
Step, step.
They turned down the corridor and walked for a long while until they reached a room with no sign on the door.
Slide.
She opened the door and stepped inside, and there were familiar faces.
Wearing white lab coats, they were the elites from the traffic department, the people who had looked after her so well during her internship there.
But right now, they looked no different from Jake.
One person slumped on the floor, muttering to himself. Another standing in front of the coffee machine, staring blankly into space. Yet another slouched over while a simulation ran on their laptop. These were not the traffic department people Rachel had known.
"...Oh, Jake. Rachel's here too."
The man by the coffee machine finally noticed them and spoke up.
His tone was calm, but his hand was trembling ever so slightly.
"Harry, you don't look well. Are you sick or something?"
The Harry she remembered was a top-tier elite with a PhD from Yale, someone who took more pride in his work than anyone.
"It's not my body that's sick."
"What? Then what is it?"
"Here."
He tapped his index finger against his own temple.
"What happened?"
Jake, unable to hold back any longer, cut in first.
"I saw it earlier. I'd only heard the rumors, but I never thought I'd actually see it with my own eyes."
The researchers who heard Harry's words began to tremble as if seized by convulsions.
"Eeeek..."
"Y-you don't mean you actually saw it?"
Everything was a mystery.
"Saw what? Explain it properly!"
When Rachel pressed him, he clutched his head as though in agony.
"I don't mean to brag, but I think I've been doing pretty well here.
The algorithm Seo-ha used in the Boston Project is extremely difficult, you know? But I fully grasped it in just two days. I was confident I could handle my share of the work without any problems."
"And then?"
"There was something I wanted to ask. I'd been reading through the research notes in the boxes and found a part I couldn't understand. So I went looking for him."
The mere thought of it seemed to terrify him; his knees began to shake uncontrollably.
"There's a small lab next to the equipment room by the stairwell. It's a room that's hardly ever used, so the lights are usually off, but today, strangely, light was leaking through.
I could hear someone laughing through the crack in the door, too."
It was a memory that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Scratch scratch.
The sound of something being written on a chalkboard. The delighted laughter of a young man.
As if drawn by a spell, he approached the lab and opened the door.
"Ah..."
Seo-ha was there.
Scratch scratch.
His chalk moved.
His hand was fluid and unhesitating, as if his body were racing to keep up with the speed of his thoughts.
After filling the board with equations for some time, he gazed at an empty space diagonally across the room.
"You think so too, right?"
The AIs' reasoning clashed.
There was only one city, yet each model was presenting a different future as its ideal.
"Let's get the models looking in the same direction. Not just the data, but the interpretive frameworks themselves. We make them share that."
'Who on earth is he talking to?'
Harry's eyes slowly followed the line of Seo-ha's gaze.
And then he saw it.
At the end of where Seo-ha was looking, someone,
no, something was sitting there.
An alien presence perched neatly on an empty chair.
It was unmistakably MIT's mascot, a beaver plushie, but with a yellow duck mask placed over its face.
"AAAAAAHH!"
Rachel, who had been listening, let out a merciless scream.
Jake snickered.
"Come on, a grown adult getting scared and shaking over something like that?"
Harry shook his head.
"Of course that's not it.
Even my daughter carries a teddy bear around and talks to it all day long. And there's that guy in the movie who's best friends with a volleyball."
"Then what exactly was the problem?"
"His eyes."
"What?"
"I asked him about something written in the notes. I was curious how he could factor in future data that hadn't even been observed yet.
He explained it to me in great detail. The problem was that I couldn't understand a word of it."
Harry hung his head.
"This is the field I've dedicated my entire life to. Bachelor's, master's, PhD. And more than ten years of research after that. I must have published over twenty papers on the subject.
In fact, half of those notes were things I already knew."
The memory seemed to resurface then, because Harry's eyes grew wet.
"He must have noticed I wasn't following.
Seo-ha started explaining again. Like he was teaching addition and subtraction to an elementary school kid. If only I'd understood it then... or at least pretended to..."
"S-so then..."
"No way. Harry, you're an authority in this field!"
He shook his head violently.
"No, I'm trash.
Seo-ha clearly said it! 'Is your intellectual level really only that much? With that kind of intelligence, what are you even doing here?'"
Both of their eyes went wide.
"Wait, someone that young actually said something that harsh? I never would have pegged him for that kind of person..."
"Are you sure it wasn't a misunderstanding?"
"...He clearly said it with his eyes. You two might not believe me, but."
He sank into a gloomy expression and trudged out of the break room.
Once the door closed, the room fell back into silence.
"Jake, is there anything I should know beforehand? Starting tomorrow, I'll be working here too, you know."
Instead of answering, he let out a deep sigh.
"Most of the researchers dispatched here are probably in a similar state to Harry.
The model is far too complex. But they have to understand it, analyze it, and create new algorithms on top of that."
"Ah... that does sound like a tough situation."
"It's way beyond just tough.
Failure, then more failure. The failures just keep piling up.
You think you've got it perfect, and then Seo-ha comes along, runs a few tests, and the whole thing blows up on the spot."
Jake pointed to a whiteboard propped up next to the coffee machine.
Graphs, equations, red X marks and question marks scrawled densely across its surface.
"If this were a paper, you'd just chalk it up to a failed hypothesis and move on.
But here, it's a different story. This project is going to be applied directly to New York. If the model goes even slightly wrong, it could bring the entire city to a halt."
Why would someone who was just an intern be placed in a position like this?
Her eyes shook violently.
"You can't give up, you can't run away, and on top of it all, the team leader is a monster with abilities that defy all reason. Spend a month or two like that, and people start to crack."
Shudder.
Hit by a sudden wave of unease, Rachel wrapped her arms around herself.
The place she had been assigned to was one that pushed researchers to the absolute limits of their abilities.
* * *
Beeeep...
Click.
Rachel switched off her alarm and sat up in bed.
'What on earth is going to happen today?'
The vacant stares of the researchers, the faces heavy with defeat.
Worry crept in before she even left for work.
Dragging her reluctant feet, she forced herself into the research building, and a booming voice reached her ears.
"Yo! Rachel!"
"Harry?"
"Hey! Why the surprised face?"
He looked at her as if nothing had ever happened. Rachel felt indignant.
"Yesterday you looked like someone about to throw himself into the Charles River."
His eyes went round.
"Oh! That? Hahahaha!"
Rachel scrunched her delicate brow.
"I looked at it a bit more in the evening, and it started to make sense.
It was sheer luck that I still remembered Seo-ha's explanation. Turns out I'd been thinking about it completely wrong!
I called him right away to ask, and you know what he said? He told me I was a truly remarkable mathematician. Said not many people had ever managed to understand that.
Hahaha!"
Harry threw open the door and strode into the lab.
He was in such high spirits that his laughter echoed all the way down the corridor.
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