by Ryan Kirk
“I don’t think Radius will be affected by any actions on my part. They are already after me, and they won’t stop until they succeed.”
Desperate, she threw out other ideas. “Arrest him, then? We could work with Bryce.”
Br00-S shook his head. “There aren’t going to be any charges brought against a man like this. There’s no evidence admissible in a court of law, and even if we did find evidence, I am unsure that he would have the most good lawyers in the area.”
Nat thought of Adair and shuddered. “You can’t kill him,” she repeated.
“Why not?” His voice was as calm and collected as ever. It was a genuine question that required an answer.
She was frustrated that she couldn’t come up with a more logical reason. “Because it’s not right. Now, you’re a symbol, something we can believe in. But once you start killing, you’ve gone a step too far. You damage your own cause.”
Br00-S looked at her, almost sadly. “I don’t have a cause, Nat. Only one thing at a time that I want to take care of. You’re the one who believes in greater change.”
They stared at each other, the silence growing as vast as the distance opening up between them. She had hoped, but they wouldn’t see eye-to-eye on this one crucial fact.
Nat’s earlier commitment was reaffirmed. It had become more painful now, but it was still the only way forward.
“I need to leave. If this is who you are going to be, it’s nothing I want to be a part of.”
She gathered up her laptop and her cushion, trying to think of what she wanted to say to this robot that had become such an important part of her life. She had already told him to be careful, and that hadn’t done much good.
“Br00-S,” she said as she stood at the entrance to the cave, “I know you think you’re doing the right thing here, but you’re misguided. When you figure that out, I’ll be around.”
He nodded as he curled back into the fetal position. She assumed he needed to do more self-repair.
But he didn’t even say goodbye as she left.
Nat sat in her van, as torn about what to do next as she had been about anything in her life. She could see the rationality in Br00-S’ logic, understand how he had come to the conclusions he had. But what was rational and what was emotional? Did he want to kill the man who hunted him because he didn’t see any other logical way forward, or was he simply upset he had been beaten, and wanted something as basic and human as revenge? Did reason or emotion come first in his processors?
Cursing silently to herself, she got on the internet to connect with one of the most secretive people she knew.
As usual, he responded almost instantly, and Nat let him know what she was thinking. A sign of his professionalism, he didn’t say anything, although she was sure she would hear about it later. He simply quoted her a price.
From long experience, she knew she couldn’t bargain with him. He offered the price. If one wanted his services, one paid. He was tough, but she had always considered his prices to be fair.
She logged on to her online wallet and sighed. If she did this, it was going to clean her out of almost all of her savings, everything she had worked for over the course of years.
It was a big decision, Nat acknowledged. In most ways, she strove to avoid committing a hundred percent to anything. She always wanted to limit her downside, but sometimes that wasn’t possible. Sometimes a decision required full commitment. This was one of those times.
It felt right to her, though. Money was something one could always find more of. She had released a number of digital tools that other hackers used, and they brought in a small but steady stream of income. She could always do some higher-paying hacks, too. There were always people who wanted to know what was secret and bring it to light, everything from kids wanting better grades in school to jealous husbands wondering who their wives were emailing.
No, it wasn’t the money that bothered her, not if she was being truthful. What bothered her was the knowledge that she would be enabling Br00-S on his journey of self-destruction. Perhaps it was selfish of her, but she wanted the robot to live, wanted him to become a symbol.
But that wasn’t his goal.
Ultimately, her reasoning was simple. She wanted to leave with a clean slate. With this, her mind and conscience would be clear. She could walk away without worry or hesitation. She’d never look back.
Nat laughed at herself. This was exactly why she didn’t get into relationships. Too many complications.
Modifying her list slightly to lower the price, she responded to her friend. Minutes later, a new adjusted price was sent her way. She accepted and transferred the money using zcash. She had enough money for food and some power, but that was about it for a while.
He gave her a time and a series of numbers she deciphered as GPS coordinates. Looking them up, she saw they were going to be meeting in the middle of a field. She knew better than to question, so she acknowledged and looked online for any quick jobs she could do while she waited.
The sun was setting when she pulled the van off the paved county road and onto a gravel section line between two fields. On her left was a barren field with just a hint of snow remaining in the crevices of the ground. On her right was a line of trees, swaying slightly in the strong wind.
Nat was a child of the city. She had been born and raised among buildings and people. To be outside of that, beyond the reach of most people, was discomforting. She found the press of a crowd to be reassuring. Out here, there was no safety, no place to hide, no group to melt into. Here she was on her own.
She pulled the van into a small pull-off, sheltered by a handful of trees in a cluster. There was another van there, the same model as hers but without the modifications to make it a home on wheels.
She turned off her van and stepped out into the biting cold wind. It was strong enough that her eyes started watering, and then those tears froze against her face. She should have brought more layers.
After a few seconds, Maxx stepped out. Nat figured that she’d have already been scanned a dozen different ways. If she was cautious, Maxx was paranoid. But it was a good quality to have in your dealer of everything illegal.
They looked at each other for a few moments, Maxx studying her.
The two of them had known each other professionally for years. They weren’t friends, per se, but Maxx was about as close to a friend as she had ever had before she met Br00-S. They had always respected each other. Maxx’s prices weren’t the cheapest, but he never tried to cheat you, was honest about his supply, and was perfectly secure. That sort of trust couldn’t be paid for.
She assumed they had always gotten along because she was also a professional. She played by his rules, never questioned him, and never had a problem with payment. She had never given him a reason to doubt anything about her.
“This is a little out of the way,” she said. Usually they met in his basement. She had earned that level of trust from him.
“Can’t risk having this one anywhere near me,” he replied. “We’ve got a small window when this place isn’t under satellite surveillance.”
She had wondered if it was something like that. She couldn’t imagine another reason to be so far away from their usual stomping grounds.
“This one isn’t like you, Nat,” he said. There was a hint of worry in his voice.
There wasn’t much to say to that. He was right, of course. This really wasn’t anything like her. She acknowledged the truth of the statement with a small nod.
He studied her, as though he was debating whether or not to ask her a question. He apparently decided he would. It was out of character for him.
“Are you working with the robot?”
She narrowed her eyes. In all their time together, he had never asked a question of her or what she did. That was one of the reasons she appreciated working with him.
But things were changing. Br00-S was changing things. There wasn’t any doubt of that.
Despite her usual
caution, she nodded again. She trusted Maxx. They’d been through a lot together, in their own way.
Maxx’s eyes went wide. “I wondered, but I had a hard time believing it was true. There’s no other way you’d want this gear, though. It was the only explanation that made any sense.”
Suddenly, his professionalism settled on him, and he was again the young man she knew so well.
“Sorry,” he said. “But I’ve been following your friend’s exploits for a while now, and I’m really interested in what he’s doing.”
“You’re a fan?” she asked, disbelief creeping into her voice.
He shrugged. “I’m a hacker, same as you. AI is here to stay. Progress will always be pushing us forward. To try and deny that is plain foolish, in my humble opinion. He’s advancing a good cause, and protecting those who are being preyed on by bullies. What’s not to like?”
She shook her head. They had kept a low profile, but apparently not low enough. Maxx’s receptors were sensitive. If anything was even being whispered about, he would know, so it wasn’t an indication they were getting too much attention. But on the other hand, the more people who knew the truth, the more attention would eventually be focused on them. The only safe secret was one that no one else knew.
She had to dive deeper. “How much is public?”
It was his turn to shake his head. “Not much. For what you’re doing, you’ve done a really good job of keeping a low profile, but people talk. You see posts about being rescued by someone in a hoodie who moves too fast for anyone to beat.” He shrugged again. “When you’re well connected, the pattern starts to emerge. I don’t think many other people have figured it out, though.”
She sighed. Strangely, Maxx’s confession simply reinforced her belief to leave Br00-S. If he was becoming a public figure, and if even one stranger could link them together, she was risking too much.
She was about to demand to see the gear when Maxx spoke again.
“Sorry. I know this isn’t our standard procedure, but what’s he like? I mean, a robot that can harm humans of its own volition? You hear rumors about that sort of shit, but you never get real info.”
She smiled, a sad smile. A part of her understood. Like her, Maxx was curious about everything. He would want all the information she would part with.
How would she describe him?
“He’s the most human robot I’ve ever met.”
Maxx looked as though she had just said something profound.
Nat was thinking about how much Br00-S was like a boyfriend she couldn’t ditch.
“Well, enough of that,” Maxx said. “Let me show you what I’ve got.”
He turned around and opened up the back doors to his van. If Br00-S had been here, Nat thought he would have had a field day. Inside was a veritable cornucopia of robot parts. Upgraded limbs with stronger muscles and more functionality. The limbs were also armored with a lightweight carbon weave, making them much harder to pierce.
There was also an extra chest and back piece that could be attached, and more armor.
But the real treat was in a small box that Maxx opened. Inside was a small chip, covered with more circuitry than Nat could ever hope to understand. Of everything she had purchased, this was the most expensive piece by far.
The purpose of the chip was simple enough. It was specifically designed to help robots move better.
The challenge of moving through space was one of the most difficult that robots faced. Processing the simple action of movement took most of Br00-S’ processing power when he was fighting. This would shunt some of that away from his AI, allowing him to have a broader focus and better situational awareness. It was the most valuable weapon she could think of for him.
Maxx knew it too. He handled it more gently than she suspected he would a newborn baby.
She gave him a quick hug, also uncharacteristic of their relationship. It felt right, though.
“Thanks, Maxx.”
He blushed for a second, and in that moment she realized he liked her. The idea had never occurred to her before.
“Anytime,” he mumbled.
Together, they unloaded the van and put everything in Nat’s. Fortunately, everything was pretty light, and she was able to grab it easily. With an awkward wave, they closed their van doors and headed back to the city.
It was late at night by the time she parked the van on the street closest to the entrance to their cave. She grabbed the first load of things, deciding to go with the armor first, as it was the heaviest.
When she struggled in with the first load, she saw that Br00-S was still in whatever low-power mode he was using for maintenance. Although she was certain some part of him knew she was there, he made no response or movement. He might not have been able to.
She unloaded the first pile and left for the second.
Four trips later, she came down with only the movement chip. It was the last piece and the greatest gift she could offer. She set it down on top of the pile of armor and looked at the robot she called her friend.
Without an arm, and curled up in the fetal position in the corner of the cave, he looked so small and helpless. When she considered the strength of the forces arrayed against them, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that he had much of a chance.
Yet he was going to charge forward. Was he a hero or a fool? She didn’t know anymore.
She wouldn’t follow him on his journey, but she could give him one last bit of help.
As she left, she took a long look at him, trying to burn the image in her memory. She feared it would be the last time she saw him.
Chapter Twelve
Drake watched the videos, rewinding and forwarding again and again, selecting the best clips from every camera, creating a masterpiece whose authenticity couldn’t be questioned.
In preparation for the ambush, Drake had trained a large number of cameras on the areas surrounding the building where Radius was supposed to capture the robot. In the meeting room there had been four cameras, and more had been discreetly placed throughout the building. Outside, several cameras had tracked the action near the building, and overhead a collection of high-flying drones caught even more of the chase. The footage was better than he could have asked for.
He had two reasons for analyzing and cutting the recordings. The first had always been the next step in his plan: the video he created today would eventually make its way to the public eye. The outrage, properly stoked, would be devastating. Eventually, it would be conveniently leaked that it had been Radius robots firing high-velocity rounds in the street in an effort to catch one of their own. It was probably too much to hope for, but Drake wouldn’t mind seeing the company collapse as a result. At the very least, it was a black eye that would take them months, if not years, to recover from.
Second, he was reviewing the footage to confirm that the robot had actually been eliminated. This was where the temptation came in. The robot had hit the river powered off, for what reason no one was quite sure. The water was freezing cold and would drain its batteries in little time. But was it over?
Radius hadn’t found the robot’s shell yet, but that could be interpreted any number of ways. Perhaps it had bounced downstream. The current was strong in that part of the river, and there wasn’t any reason it couldn’t be halfway to the Gulf of Mexico by now.
Or the robot survived.
Until there was conclusive evidence one way or the other, Drake had to act as though the robot was still alive and on the loose. It had suffered damage, but from what he could see on the video, nothing that couldn’t be repaired with the proper resources. A number of Sapiens First members were scouting repair shops for the robot’s friend, but Drake held little hope there either. If the girl was half as smart as he suspected, there wouldn’t be any way to track the repair job.
A lesser man might have called the job complete, but Drake didn’t consider himself a lesser man. Honesty was key, and even though the voice on the other end of the telephone had
clearly wanted a conclusion to the saga, he accepted the progress for what it was.
Drake considered all the angles. As the game stood, he had the upper hand. With a call, he could have the Radius team wherever he wanted. They were smarting that the robot had gotten away, but apparently some of the nerds in their lab were eager to get ahold of the robot’s AI. None had ever gotten away from a recall team before.
Radius wouldn’t stop, even if they kept their next attempt a secret. He had all the resources of Sapiens First and Radius at his disposal. The robot had one hacker friend.
There was only one way this story ended.
Drake stood up and shut down his monitor. The video was as good as he could make it, the clips a powerful indictment of robots in society. He had the robots crashing through windows, tearing through a crowd of humans at high speed, disrupting traffic, and leaping from cargo truck to cargo truck. No one with an ounce of sanity would believe that AI was here to save them after watching that.
He did a set of pushups and sit ups, just to keep himself limber. A few yoga poses completed the routine, and he grabbed his coat to leave the safe house.
He didn’t know if the robot was dead or not, but there was one way to be sure. Hunting the robot would be a slow and painful process. Instead, he would make the robot come to him. It had willingly stepped into two traps. There wasn’t any reason why it wouldn’t a third time.
Drake walked through the warehouse district of downtown, a section of the city that had seen better days. It had once been an industrial sector before it became revitalized and commercial. With the AI revolution, the neighborhood got hit hard, and now it was a collection of small bars and smaller apartments. It was the sort of place people went to remember what the world had once been like.
Bars weren’t Drake’s scene. He didn’t drink, and saw little point in public places. Given the opportunity, he wouldn’t mind building his habitation in a small cave in the mountains, carving out a living with the skills he had fought so hard to learn.
