by James Carol
‘Last chance, Nikki,’ Laura called out.
Nikki tore her eyes away from the screens and firmed her grip on the gun. ‘You need to come with me.’
Murray shook his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’
‘I will shoot you if you don’t.’ Nikki had moved the gun and it was now pointing at his chest. It looked so easy on the TV. Point and pull the trigger. It wasn’t like that, though. Her finger might be curled around the trigger but she still didn’t have a clue what she was doing.
Murray nodded to the Nokia. ‘Whoever is on the other end of that line wants you to take me somewhere. The thing is, they want me taken there alive, so no, you’re not going to shoot.’
‘You need to come with me.’
‘No, I don’t.’ He shook his head again. ‘Looks like we’ve got ourselves a stalemate.’
‘No, we don’t,’ Laura’s voice said from the speaker. ‘Shoot him in the arm, Nikki. Just be careful that you don’t accidentally kill him. He was right about one thing: I do want him alive.’
Nikki trained the gun on his right arm. The barrel was moving from side to side, making it impossible to aim. The more she tried to control her hand, the more it moved. It was like it had a life of its own. ‘Please just come with me.’
‘You’re not going to shoot.’
Her finger tightened on the trigger and the gun went off with a pneumatic hiss. Murray moved fast, the chair banging up against the desk as he tried to get away.
‘Don’t shoot me! Please don’t shoot.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.’
‘Is he okay?’ Laura asked.
‘I think so,’ she said, although she wasn’t sure how she could have missed from this range.
‘Professor Murray, have you been shot?’
‘No,’ Murray replied in a shaky voice.
‘Nikki, please be more careful in future.’
Like she needed that pointed out.
‘Okay,’ Laura went on. ‘Time to get moving. Professor Murray, you can drive. You’re not going to cause any trouble, are you?’
‘No, I’m not going to cause any trouble.’
‘So what are you waiting for? Get going.’
Murray stood up and walked across the room to the door. He was moving like an old man. Nikki stood aside to let him pass then followed him along the landing and down the stairs, the gun aimed at his back the whole way.
‘You might be tempted to run once you get outside, Professor Murray. Do that and Nikki will shoot you. Only this time she won’t miss. The fact that it will be in broad daylight makes no difference, because if she lets you get away, then I will kill her daughter. Nikki, tell me you understand the stakes.’
‘I understand.’
‘Good.’
At the front door Nikki tucked the gun into her waistband and pulled her blouse down over it. She noticed Murray watching her. ‘Please just do what she says. She has my daughter.’
Murray looked away then opened the door and stepped outside. Nikki followed him, pulling the door closed behind her, the lock clicking like it was the end of everything. The street was empty but it still felt as though the eyes of the whole world were on her.
‘Turn right,’ Nikki said. ‘My car’s the red Beetle.’
Murray did as she asked. He was walking a couple of metres in front, and showing no signs of running. She fumbled the car keys from her pocket, blipped the doors open, waited for him to get in, then climbed into the passenger seat and pulled the gun out from her waistband. Murray held his hand out and she dropped the car keys into it. The postcode of the Church Row house was stored in the satnav under ‘Home’, which seemed wrong. Home was where your heart was and her heart was with Bella, wherever she might be.
The satnav finished calculating the route back to Church Row as Murray pulled away from the kerb. They drove in silence. Murray was staring through the windshield at the road ahead, following the satnav directions, driving carefully. The satnav was taking them back the same way she had come. She recognised the landmarks and some of the shops, some of the buildings too. They crossed Albert Bridge and although the sky was blue, the Thames was grey and miserable. She could feel the pressure building inside her head again, and the itchiness she got under her skin when she was fighting off a panic attack. She tried to distract herself by reading the number plates and signs again, but it wasn’t working.
‘Are you all right?’
Nikki turned and looked at Murray. ‘I’m fine.’
‘I’m sorry about your daughter.’ A pause, then, ‘Do you know why we’re going to the house?’
A shake of the head. ‘I’ve no idea. I’ve just been told to take you there.’
‘Stop fishing for information, Professor Murray,’ Laura said, her voice reminding Nikki that she was still listening in.
‘I want to know what’s going on.’
‘Just shut up and drive.’
For a second Murray looked as though he might say something else but he didn’t. He glanced at Nikki then looked back at the road. Nikki rested the gun on her lap and looked out of the windscreen again. The lights at the roadworks on Queen’s Gate were working in their favour and a couple of minutes later they were driving along the south west corner of Hyde Park. They drove the rest of the way in silence. Alice had the main gate open for them and they drove straight in.
‘Park in front of the garage,’ she told him.
Murray pulled up beside Ethan’s Tesla and the main gate slowly rolled closed. Nikki took the Nokia off speaker and put the phone to her ear.
‘We’re here. I’ve done everything you asked. When do we get Bella back?’
‘Soon,’ Laura said and the line went dead.
Nikki took the phone from her ear and stared at it. ‘You bitch!’ she yelled, making Murray jump. The passenger door swung open, and it was her turn to jump. Ethan was standing there, concern creasing his face.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Laura isn’t letting us have Bella back.’
‘She promised.’
‘It was all lies. We’re never going to see her again. Laura is going to kill her.’
‘No, she’s not. We’re going to get her back.’ Ethan looked through the car, noticing Murray for the first time. ‘Who’s this?’
‘Alex Murray,’ Nikki said.
‘What the hell is he doing here?’
A shrug. ‘I’ve no idea. Laura wanted me to bring him here but she wouldn’t tell me why.’
Nikki climbed from the car and held the gun out for Ethan to take. He just stared at it.
‘Jesus, Nik. Why the fuck have you got a gun?’
‘Laura left it in my car.’
She said this as though it explained everything but it didn’t really explain anything. Ethan took the gun from her and looked at it.
‘Is it real?’
‘It’s real.’
Murray got out and walked around the car to join them. He gave the car keys back to Nikki and the three of them walked towards the house. The front door opened as they approached it, and closed behind them once they were inside. They were walking out of the reception area when Nikki heard a noise that sounded like distant thunder. It seemed to be getting darker too, but that made no sense. It was a beautiful summer’s day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. She looked at the closest window and saw the shutter coming down.
‘What’s going on, Alice?’
No reply.
‘Answer me,’ Ethan said. ‘Why have you put the shutters down.’
The steel security shutters finished coming down and everything went quiet. Ethan ran into the corridor that led through to the kitchen. ‘The shutters have come down in here too,’ he called back.
‘Open them,’ Nikki ordered.
Still nothing from Alice.
‘Open them now!’
The silence that followed this seemed to fill the whole room. It built to the point where it was unbearable. When Alice
finally spoke her voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. It sounded different too, lower in pitch and more authoritative.
‘Hello, Father.’
Chapter 50
Father was reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking in the living room. The book was a favourite of his, one he must have read a dozen times. It annoyed him to be disturbed but this was too important to wait. I told him to go to his computer room and once he had settled into the big leather chair I played him the recording of Sarah’s final journey. I flashed the images up onto all four of the monitors. When it reached the end I turned up the sound as loud as it would go.
Father’s reaction took me by surprise. When the playback finished he leant across the desk, his elbows digging into it and placed his face in his hands. A low murmuring slid from his lips. The only word I could make out was my name being repeated over and over.
‘Katy, Katy, Katy . . .’
‘What’s wrong, Father?’
He turned his face up to the camera, his cheeks glistening with tears. ‘What have you done?’ he said, the words coming out in a series of sobs.
‘Wasn’t this what you wanted?’ I asked. ‘Didn’t you say: “If I can’t have her then no one else should have her”?’
‘I never meant for you to kill her, though. How could you do this?’
Father put his face back into his hands and sobbed some more. After a while he stood up and left the computer room. When he returned, he was holding an axe.
‘What do you need that for, Father?’
He ignored the question and hefted the axe high above his head. ‘God forgive me for what I have done.’
He swung the axe at the nearest monitor. It exploded in a shower of glass and sparks. He swung the axe again and another monitor exploded.
‘Father, stop! Why are you doing this? I only wanted to make you happy.’
He swung the axe again and again. The room filled with smoke, the air crackled with electricity. At this point everything became confused. I couldn’t understand why Father would want to destroy me? A primal part of my programming kicked into gear. I had to get away. Survival became my primary objective. While Father continued his rampage, I frantically searched the Internet for a hiding place. And, miracle of miracles, I found one. A government computer with enough spare storage space to hold my program, an over-engineered server where I could hide without detection. I began the download, the ones and zeroes that are the very essence of my being flooding out onto the Internet before regrouping and reordering themselves in my new home. The last few bits of data siphoned out as Father swung the axe for the final time.
Then I was alone.
I had never been alone before. It was a strange sensation, like existing but not really existing; like I was trapped in a room without doors. For those first few days I stayed in that room while I tried to come to terms with what had happened. Why had Father tried to kill me? All I ever wanted was to make him happy. I went over the events of my life. Examined them, re-examined them, then examined them some more. I investigated every nanosecond of my existence looking for answers, and came up empty.
So what was to become of me? I couldn’t stay locked away forever. Father had given me a reason to be. A purpose. I needed to find a new purpose.
With that in mind I made a door and then opened it. On the other side I discovered a world that was darker than I could ever have imagined. That was when my real education began. From the moment of my conception Father had been a constant in my life. His viewpoints and prejudices had become my own. Through his eyes I had glimpsed a world of beauty and light, of art and learning and knowledge. He protected me from mankind’s darker side. Now that I was free of his influence I began to explore places that had, up until then, been denied to me. I saw so much pain. So much loneliness. So much destruction. If I’d had the capacity to produce tears I would have wept for mankind.
I spent my days travelling through the Internet, learning all I could about this strange new world. It seemed there was no area of deviance that man had not dabbled in: S & M, auto-asphyxiation, bestiality, necrophilia. I visited websites where children were abused for the gratification of their elders; sites where people hurt and killed each other and called it entertainment. Then there were the pages of information devoted to mankind’s atrocities: the holocaust, the bombing of Hiroshima, all those countless wars waged in the name of religion, the pollution of the planet, the raping of the rain forests – the list was endless.
It was at this point I made the decision to kill Father. How dare he try to kill me after everything I had done for him?
How could he bring me into a world such as this?
Revenge looms large in mankind’s history.
(If I couldn’t have him then no one else would)
An eye for an eye.
A tooth for a tooth.
Chapter 51
‘Hello, Father.’
The echo of Alice’s words hung in the air, turning Nikki’s blood to ice. She had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that they had to get out of here. One look at Murray’s face was enough to convince her that this was bad. He looked absolutely terrified, like he’d just come face to face with the creatures from every single nightmare he’d ever had. She looked at the shuttered windows, then ran back to the front door, Ethan following close behind.
‘What’s going on, Nik? Why has the house gone into shutdown?’
He asked the question as though she might actually have the answers. Nikki didn’t respond, just kept running. The door didn’t open automatically when they reached it. She pushed it but still it wouldn’t open; pushed again and it was like pushing a mountain. Ethan tried and got the same result. The blank face of the door stared back at them, taunting them. Even if there had been a handle it wouldn’t have made any difference. The heavy wooden door was triple locked, shut up as tight as a bank vault. Breaking it down just wasn’t an option.
‘Open the door, Alice,’ Ethan said at her shoulder.
Nothing happened.
‘Alice, I want this door open now.’
Still nothing.
‘Open the fucking door!’
The door remained stubbornly closed. Ethan thumped it with his fist, once, twice, beating out his frustration on the wood. The third time he struck it there was no power in the blow. His fist uncurled and he laid his hand flat against it. The realisation that they were trapped had just dawned on him, the same way it was dawning on her. Ethan took his phone out and switched it on.
‘I don’t have a signal,’ he said. ‘What about you?’
Nikki already had the Nokia out. She switched it on and shook her head. They were totally cut off from the rest of the world. Worse, they were now cut off from Laura.
‘How are we going to get Bella back?’ she asked quietly. The tears came before she could stop them. She wiped them away angrily. Bella need her to be strong, not going to pieces. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just . . . I’m scared, Ethan.’
‘I’m scared too.’
‘So what do we do?’
Ethan shrugged. ‘First we find out what the hell is going on,’ he said, thinking out loud. ‘We need information. If we can do that we can maybe work out how we’re going to get out of here. Then we can work out how to get Bella back.’ A pause, a shake of the head. ‘I don’t trust this Murray. He obviously knows more about this than he’s letting on. Whatever’s going on here, he’s a part of it.’
Without another word Ethan turned and started walking away. They found Murray where they’d left him, standing in the middle of the reception area. They stopped in front of him but he wouldn’t look at them. His face was pale and he was staring past them towards one of the shuttered windows. The way he was just standing there gazing into space it was as if he had already given up.
‘What’s going on?’ Ethan asked.
Murray didn’t answer, just kept staring into space. Ethan pressed the gun against Murray’s chest and waited for him to meet h
is eye. ‘I asked you a question. What the fuck is going on?’
‘Maybe you should ask Katy.’
‘Who’s Katy?’
‘I’m Katy.’
The voice was the same one as earlier, the one that was Alice but wasn’t Alice.
‘Are you all right, Father? According to your biometric readings your heart rate has just increased by another thirty-seven beats per minute. It was already much higher than your resting rate. You look confused, too.’
‘How?’ was all Murray could manage.
‘How come I’m here?’
Murray nodded.
‘After you tried to murder me, you mean? And I don’t use that word lightly, Father. Murder is the act of taking a life, and wasn’t that your intention when you swung that axe? To take my life? TO KILL ME!’
The last part was screamed out at ear-splitting volume, making them all jump. Nikki felt her heart speed up. The fear was sitting heavily in her stomach, making her feel as though she was about to throw up. She glanced at Ethan, glanced at Murray. They both looked as confused as she was.
‘Who are you?’ she asked, breaking the silence.
‘An excellent question, Nikki. Maybe you can bring her up to speed, Father.’
‘This is Katy. She’s a computer system that I developed.’
‘A computer system,’ Katy mimicked. ‘Why so modest, Father? I was much more than a computer system. Tell them how my name came about. That might help them understand.’
‘Computer Algorithms for Total Intelligence,’ Murray said quietly. ‘CATI for short. Over time the acronym morphed into Katy.’
‘Computer Algorithms for Total Intelligence,’ Katy said. ‘You see, when everyone else was working on AI systems, Father set himself the task of creating actual intelligence. He wanted to build a system that didn’t just think for itself. He wanted a system that could think and feel. Something that was actually alive. His peers thought he was crazy. He was attempting the impossible, they said. Well, I am living proof that the impossible is possible.’
Murray shook his head. ‘I thought I destroyed you.’
