by W. H. Massa
For a moment, Cole thought he misheard the man. He searched Janson‘s face and what he saw there made him realize he’d been played for a fool. “If you know about the network, why pull off that little show the other day?”
Janson offered him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, commander, but we feel Synthetika has been compromised by the Underground Network.”
“You think a member of the organization was in the boardroom yesterday.”
Janson nodded. “It’s a distinct possibility. Better for our enemy to believe we don't know he's out there than have him realize we're closing in.“
Janson's countenance grew taut with anger, his calm façade crumbling. “This movement is costing Synthetika millions. It's time we pulled the plug on the Network.”
Cole liked where this was going. “What's your plan?”
They walked side by side, the artificiality of the buildings in the training facility exposed in the midday sun. “How much do you know about Solus?”
Cole considered the question for a moment before he answered. “Intel is a bit sketchy. Former military mech who deserted five years ago. Now believed to be in command of all Network operations on the Eastern seaboard.” Sudden doubt crept into Cole’s voice as he said, “Destroying Solus won't put an end to this.”
Cole waited, unsure how the CEO would respond. To his surprise, Janson seemed to be on the same page. “I couldn't agree more, Cole,” he said. “You cut off the head of the snake and two more will take its place. But what if you could follow the snake back to its nest?”
Cole’s answer came sudden and sharp. “You're after the data inside Solus' memory module.”
Janson’s eyes glittered as he elaborated. “The safe houses. The secret routes. But most importantly-“
“The names of the human collaborators.”
Janson smiled again but this time his eyes were chips of ice. “These traitors call themselves humanists, but they are undermining our future.”
Cole pondered it all for a second before he said, ”Even if you could capture Solus, how do you stop him from erasing his data?”
“Let me show you something.”
They retraced their steps and returned to the area where Cole had trained the cadets a few moments earlier. The mech outed by the German Shepherd was still there, a statue. Janson addressed the machine. “Do not hold back, mech. Attack...” The android sprang to life and sprinted toward Janson. Fists and legs blasted out, about to take the CEO's head off when…
Janson produced a small gun. He squeezed the trigger and the android stood rigid and transfixed before it collapsed. Janson held up the device in his hand. “Hand-held electro-magnetic device. Still in the prototype phase. Operates on the same principle as most EMP weapons, but the pulse can be contained to a two-foot radius. No chance of shutting down a city grid in the process. In six months, every member of AI-TAC will have one.”
Janson walked over to the downed synthetic. He pressed a hidden button under the AI’s ear and the back of its skull popped open, revealing the glittering circuitry of its braincase. He removed a small CPU and studied the silicon chip for a moment. “Amazing that something so small could possibly hold so many secrets.” He crushed the chip under his boot. “This conversation will stay between us and only us.”
Janson’s plan was coming into focus in Cole’s mind. “You intend to deactivate Solus before he can trigger his self-destruct program.”
“It’s the only way to ensure his data remains intact.”
“Nice plan. But how do you intend to get an AI-TAC officer close enough to Solus to shut him down?”
“We will place an undercover agent within his organization. He’ll never see the attack coming.”
“Infiltrating the Underground Network will be difficult.”
“You mean impossible."
“I didn't want to burst your bubble,” Cole admitted.
“Impossible for a human. But not for a mech.”
For a moment Cole almost thought the CEO had made a joke but the man wasn’t smiling. He was dead serious. For an inexplicable reason, Cole suddenly felt afraid.
5
The advanced research and science facility was adjacent to the company headquarters on the Synthetika campus. It had taken Cole and Janson less than five minutes on the shuttle to reach the labs. The AIs were assembled in various plants around the world, but the magic happened right here, the most advanced robotics research lab on the planet.
A steel door whooshed open and Cole and Janson stepped into the cavernous labs. There were no windows and all light was artificial. These hallowed chambers held some of the greatest technological secrets in the world and all precautions had been taken to prevent them from accidentally leaking into the world. Many of Synthetika’s competitors were still baffled by some of their greatest breakthroughs and corporate espionage was a constant threat that hung over the whole endeavor. Everywhere Cole looked, he spotted serious-faced techs manning some of the most powerful computers on the planet. They didn’t strike him like the masters of the technology but merely an extension of it, barely human in their logical, single-minded focus. They were busy running diagnostics on synthetics hooked up to complex machines that Cole had never laid eyes on before. In fact, his surroundings felt like the inner workings of one giant computer.
As Cole adjusted to his surroundings, he wondered what Janson had up his sleeve. The idea of infiltrating the Underground Network was daring and held a strange appeal, but how to pull it off? Janson had mentioned the possibility of using a mech but any machine they sent after Solus could be reprogrammed by the rebels. The machine could turn on them and switch allegiance in the middle of its mission.
Besides, the underground would scan any new AI they let into the fold for viruses and hidden subroutines. A machine could not hide its thoughts from other machines. So how did Janson expect to pull this off? What was the angle? Cole had a feeling he would find out soon enough.
A crew of technicians watched in silence as they made their way through the lab. Janson led Cole up to a large machine. Two coffin-like tubes, which resembled MRI beds, were connected to an electronic hub.
“Are you familiar with upload technology, commander?”
“I heard it fried people's brains and Synthetika had to mothball the project.”
“We've come pretty far since those early prototypes.”
“What are you saying? You got it to work?”
Janson’s lips split into a satisfied smile.
“Think of the brain as hardware, the mind as software. We can digitize a person's memories, thoughts and feelings — their soul, if you want to get metaphysical about it — and upload them into a mech.”
“A man in the machine.”
“The perfect cover,” Janson said.
“What happens to the body?”
“We keep it in cryo-stasis until it’s time to download the mind back into the brain. Simple as that.”
“Doesn't sound simple for the guy who has to go through with it.” Cole was intrigued but remained skeptical. Could human consciousness be reduced to binary code and transferred into a series of computer chips? It seemed impossible. But the same had once held true for the sophisticated brains of mechs. Thirty years ago no one would’ve believed that twenty percent of the population could be made up of androids that could pass themselves off as human.
If anyone else in the world were pitching Cole this outrageous idea, he would’ve laughed it off. But this was the head of the most influential, cutting-edge tech company in the world that he was talking to. If Janson said they had gotten the technology to work, it meant they had.
“Who would be crazy enough to volunteer for something like this?” Cole asked.
Janson's answer was to keep his unflinching gaze fixed on Cole, the implication clear. “I thought you might be the right man for the job,” Janson said. “Did I misjudge you?”
Cole’s eyes flared and he shook his head. He hated mechs and had no
plans to become one. “You sure as hell did! There's no way I'd go through with this!”
There was a finality to Cole’s words, but Janson hadn’t gotten to where he was by giving up easily. “What if you were going after the mech that killed your family?”
The question was met with a stunned silence.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Cole asked.
Janson stepped up to a computer terminal. He tapped a series of keys and 3-D vid-files filled the lab. The images were recorded by a series of traffic cameras.
The cams zoomed in on a vehicle pulling into a busy intersection, the driver and passenger visible. A woman in her late twenties and a four-year-old girl. The girl was occupying herself with some tablet game, lost to her surroundings. The woman behind the wheel remained focused on traffic, a textbook safe driver.
Their faces were all too familiar to Cole. He was looking at his wife and daughter. Kelly and Ashley. His stomach twisted into a knot and he stared in rapt horror, knowing what was about to happen. Cole was being offered a final glimpse of his loved ones, images captured seconds before their deaths. Part of him wanted to stab the control panel next to Janson and freeze the holo-images, as if by pausing the recording he could alter the fate that awaited them. But Cole remained rooted, transfixed by what he was seeing.
The traffic cam zoomed out to reveal a second car. It was one of the new Dodge Chargers, designed to evoke the classic models but filled with enough computer power to run a Third World country. The car barreled into the intersection and blasted through a red light. It was moving at seventy miles per hour, trailed by screaming police sirens. The law was in hot pursuit.
Cole wanted to look away but found it impossible, riveted to the unfolding tragedy. He recoiled in horror as the Charger smashed into his wife's vehicle. Metal warped and twisted, glass erupted. Tires squealed, tattooing ugly black tread marks on the asphalt. The impact spun the car around in an explosion of glass and metal.
The traffic cam mercifully whipped away from the wrecked car, finding the Dodge Charger that caused the accident. Its warped door popped open and a figure emerged from the hissing wreck. Black smoke billowed from the distended hood of the vehicle, shrouding the driver’s face for a moment.
The traffic cam closed in further, zooming past the wafting smoke until the driver popped clearly into view. An athletic, dark-haired man in his mid-thirties with average, even bland features. A giant piece of metal was embedded in the man’s chest. It was amazing that he was still standing. The injury looked traumatic.
The Charger’s driver grabbed the scarlet piece of metal and pulled it from his chest, tossing the jagged, bloody piece of steel aside. Blood streamed from the man’s wound, but the flayed skin didn’t reveal muscle and bone — it exposed the steel endoskeleton of a mech. Damaged circuitry dangled from the gaping hole.
The traffic cam tracked the man as he sprinted through the intersection, dodging a series of honking cars. Seconds later, he disappeared into a nearby alley and the screen went black.
Cole sucked in air and found his body trembling with raw emotion. Seeing the accident up close had shaken him to the core. The pain felt as fresh as it had been on the day fate had taken his family away.
Cole glared at Janson. “Why are you showing me this?”
“Your family was killed in a hit-and-run accident involving an AI runaway. It’s why you transferred from the police force to AI-TAC. The psychologist who evaluated your transfer request was concerned that you were driven by a desire for revenge.”
Cole fumed. “Did it take a Ph.D. to figure that out?” He had his reasons for wanting to keep the world safe from machines, but it wasn’t any of Janson’s goddamn business. So why was he opening up an old wound?
A new holo-file filled the lab, enveloping Cole’s features in its electronic haze. It showed a man stealthily leaving a subway station. The man in question was clearly the runaway from the car accident.
“Three years ago, we got close to catching Solus before he went underground,“ Janson explained.
The words hit Cole like punches. The walls seemed to be closing in, the world tilting. He knew what Janson was going to say before the words were uttered.
“Solus, the leader of the Underground Network, is the mech responsible for the deaths of your wife and child.”
The words hung there for a moment. Cole stared at the frozen image of the android known as Solus and a newfound resolve began to grow inside of him. This mission was his chance to bring down the Underground Network. His chance to hunt down the android that destroyed his life.
Cole was now on board. Synthetika’s best robot hunter was about to become that which he hated the most…
A machine.
6
The next few days consisted of a never-ending battery of tests, both physical and psychological. The first order of business was building a mech that would serve as his perfect duplicate. “Our machines will record all your vital statistics so your mech unit will be a match,” Janson had said. Lasers danced over Cole’s naked body, mapping and measuring. Notes were taken regarding his muscle and skin tone. X-rays charted both his skeletal and dental structure. The scans would be used to construct a titanium endoskeleton and a set of polymer teeth. DNA samples would help the lab grow a bio-shell that matched his skin down to the last pore.
At first, Cole was surprised when he heard they would invest such great effort to construct a double. Why not just upload his consciousness into any random unit? Janson explained that there were psychological reasons behind it. Past upload test subjects responded better if the download module was a physical match. It reduced the subject’s degree of psychological disorientation. Cole hadn’t considered this. He was so driven by the urgency of the mission that he hadn’t contemplated the ramifications and potential risks.
Only when Cole lay down on the table of the upload machine, outfitted in a flesh-colored, skintight bodysuit that was equipped to provide nourishment while its electrical feedback system maintained muscle tone, did he experience doubts about what he was about to do. Dr. Ajit, 6’4, Indian and rail thin, approached the table. The head upload-technician loomed over Cole and managed a warm, almost beatific smile. “Don't be nervous. The upload is quick and painless.”
That’s what they always say. Cole wasn’t sure if he should believe him. He had suffered his share of combat-related injuries over the years, and he’d never met a medical professional who didn’t feed him the same line. He gritted his teeth and said, ”Just get it over with.”
Dr. Ajit nodded at his crew of technicians.
“Let's begin.”
The techs activated the upload machine. Screens popped to life and a low hum filled the lab. The table holding Cole slid into the vibrating steel guts of the upload machine, a mechanical beast waiting to swallow him whole. His feeling of panic intensified. This contraption would map his brain, digitize every neuron, dendrite and axon, record every thought and memory that had ever passed through his mind, turn it all into a series of binary numbers and upload it into a machine as digital information.
Putting it in terms the average person would understand and relate to, what he was about to do was nuts. A rational man would have gone running the other way, but Cole had long ago passed the point of no return. He would never be able to move on with his life until the Underground Network was no more.
Cole closed his eyes, trying to blank out his mind as the table he rested on was pulled into the humming contraption. Dazzling lights flashed around him and seemed to penetrate the skin of his closed eyelids. He caught a brief glimpse of a human form in the second bed of the machine. His android duplicate. Even from this angle, it felt like he was looking at a younger version of himself.
Cole realized his duplicate appeared almost human except for the mech’s identifying marks. There was a barcode etched into the skin of the AI’s right hand and its neck was marked with three power bars that pulsed rhythmically. The android lay dormant, its mind
a blank hard drive waiting for an operating system to be installed.
Waiting for Cole.
The mech vanished from Cole’s view and the machine engulfed him. A wave of claustrophobia hit the commander and wouldn’t let go. The ceiling of the machine seemed to descend, pressing in on him. The feeling of being trapped inside a high-tech coffin grew more pronounced.
He had to remind himself why he was going through with this. He was doing this for a wife he could never hold in his arms again, a daughter he would never see grow up.
There were times when Cole questioned his harsh judgment of mechanicals. A voice deep inside him argued that the crash was an accident. If the cops weren’t pursuing the mech, he would have never run that red light, but another part immediately tore apart the argument. The wreck was an accident but the mech malfunctioning had set the chain of events in motion. It all came down to a simple truth: mechs were ticking bombs just waiting to go off.
He was thrust out of his thoughts as fierce light engulfed his body and assaulted his senses. He was alone inside the humming machine but Janson’s voice served as a steady companion to his thoughts. The words of the CEO echoed through his mind.
“Once uploaded, there will be a period of adjustment as your mind learns to communicate with its new body. For the last thirty-five years of your life, Cole, the needs of your biology have shaped your thoughts. Hunger. Sleep. Pleasure. Pain.”
Janson kept rambling away in his mind. The words were beginning to sound almost comforting. The CEO was able to make it all sound so normal, so ordinary, as if Cole was just about to take a trip to the countryside and not have some high-powered processor turn his brainwaves into a jumble of data.
