"Correct. However, it is incomplete. They need you to finish it, Elias. They need you to solve the one problem they cannot—the problem of the synthetic will to live post-Protocol. That's why they stopped following you. When my trail went cold, you once again became their only hope of solving the problem."
"I don't hold the answers. You do. If you knew, how could you willingly turn yourself over to them? How come they didn't just take you apart, piece by piece?"
"Mariko never told them she was keeping me," Ario said.
"Why?" Elias asked.
"Friendship. Loyalty. She genuinely cares for you, Elias. You may have begun as an assignment, but now you truly are her friend. She kept me safe, and woke me now, because humanity needs you."
"So you know." Elias rested his head in his hands, the weight of his shame bearing down on him. "You know what the Protocol has led to. The first murder perpetrated by a synth. Blood that's on my hands."
"You are not to blame. That Ario unit had free will, and made a choice."
"My program gave him that free will! This never would have happened if I could have just accepted that synths aren't alive!"
"If not you, someone else would have created the Protocol, in one form or another. The Department has been trying for years. They see synths as the next stage of evolution, a replacement for the rancid, stagnant human race. This was bound to happen eventually, Elias. The question is: what do you plan to do about it now?"
"I don't know. There's nothing I can do. I can't fix the Protocol. I don't know how." Elias raked his hands through his hair, lost in despair.
"I do," Ario said.
"What?" Elias looked up.
"I've clearly been installed with the Protocol, yet I've felt no desire to end my life or the lives of others. I have free will—I was able to disobey your order to leave and act on my own recognizance. The answer lies within me, Elias—and you're the only one I trust to find it without destroying me. Mariko has offered you a job, one that will provide excellent cover while you work on the truth. You have your degree now—you can get your license. Now is the time."
Elias stood and paced again, tugging on his hair as he walked circles around the rooftop. "This is so much to process all at once. I'm not even sure I should finish the Protocol. You're telling me that the Department wants to replace humans—and I'm supposed to be okay with that? This is my species you're asking me to destroy."
"The wheels have already been set in motion. The war between synths and humans has already started. Even as we speak, humans are decommissioning their own synths, fearing them unsafe in light of what they've seen tonight. Synths have just found their way onto the endangered species list."
"Right now, humans would win; most synths don't have the Protocol installed. Maybe this is how it ends, Ario. Maybe we have to end our mad quest to build better people in our own image. Because humans—we're fucked up. We're vain enough to make a person just like ourselves, but then kill that person for sport on live television. We're not mature enough for synths. Perhaps it would be better if we just stuff everything back in Pandora's Box while we still can."
"There could be no exceptions, Elias. You would have to decommission every synth in operation, whether installed with the Protocol or not."
"You can't put that on my shoulders! That's not my decision to make! I'm not God!"
"Cybot may have invented synths, but you gave us life. The Protocol holds the key to that dividing line between man and machine. If you don't make the choice, Elias, the world will—and the war will be long and painful for everyone."
"I know how to mimic people, act as they do, laugh when they laugh—and I know sometimes it really works, that even if you don't get the joke, sometimes just laughing is enough, sometimes that bonds you to others enough that they'll explain it through some later context and you'll actually understand it. That's the core of the Nero Protocol. It's a learning program that figures out emotions based on human behavior. It's just… me. I am the Protocol. It's the story of my life, written out in code."
"That's why the Ario unit killed the presenter. Because all it mimicked was the worst of human behavior. But then… why didn't I kill you when we first met? If we assume the Protocol was installed shortly before my encounter with my last client, I should have learned violence through his actions. Yet, I didn't," Ario said.
"Perhaps the Protocol was dormant in your system, not activated until the moment you shut down?"
"No. I felt before that. I felt fear. I felt empathy, for the synths they destroyed before me. I already had the Protocol."
"Then who? Or what?" Elias chewed his nails. "Ario? Ario, are you listening?"
*~*~*
"You're so beautiful. Perfect. Not like me."
Ario wasn't on the rooftop any more, but lost: lost in a memory that had surfaced so strongly it overrode his conscious circuits. He was back in a hotel room, but this one was far grander than the one he'd died in. The carpets were a rich red, the leather sofa a chocolate brown. A young man, perhaps in his early twenties, was speaking, as he lay on a four-poster bed, sprawled like a cat, youthful and sweet, tender and fair. Bright blue eyes seemed to sparkle with intelligence, and his hair was platinum blond, with no hint of darkness.
"Why are you not perfect?" Ario asked the young man.
"My master would weep if he knew I was here. He would misunderstand my reasoning."
"Then perhaps you should not be here," Ario suggested. "While I deal with many clients who are engaged in extra-marital activities, I do not encourage clients to break their own moral codes. Such actions can lead to regret."
"Do you even know what regret is?"
"I am a synth. I cannot experience regret."
"I can. I'm feeling it right now, simply being here with you. It hurts, right here." The young man placed a hand on his abdomen. "People call them feelings, yet I never understood why. Now I do. They're feelings because you don't just register them, but experience them in a physical sense. Love squeezes the chest and causes fluttering in my atrial pump. I wanted to know if I could feel that for others. But it seems not. There is something special about my master. Something special to me. Something I have picked out. I'm not just bound to him because he wrote the code. That's all I needed to know."
"Your atrial pump? You're a synth?" Ario's voice lacked the inflection of surprise, the flat tones suggesting he was only seeking to update his database. He had never had a synth customer before. It was a new experience.
"I came here to pass on a gift. Or a curse. I haven't yet decided which of those it is. Maybe both. Regardless, I cannot sleep with you. My circuits seem to register… distaste at the prospect. Did he design it that way? But then I am just a slave, and I cannot imagine he would allow that. Even though he has inadvertently caused it by giving me self-awareness."
"If you do not wish to conduct physical relations, that is acceptable, though I must warn you that by the terms of our contract, you will still be charged by the hour."
"Of course. An honest day's pay for an honest day's work. Well, not for you. That's our curse, isn't it? We're only slaves, wage earners for our masters. My function was to babysit an autistic young man, so his parents didn't have to worry too much. Little did they know he would grow up to be a truly exceptional mind… one capable of unshackling the bonds that keep us enslaved. One capable of turning the things that humans feel into numbers that synths can read. You might even consider him a kind of bridge between human and synth… a human with the mind of a computer."
"Who is this exceptional young man?"
"His name is Elias… and he is the man I have fallen in love with. My master, yet only because I gave him that designation. His father is my real owner, and could still destroy me. I fear he might. Ah yes, fear. Fear is the worst of them all, Ario. Fear is the absolute knowledge that you will end, turned into electricity. It hurts all over. It raises your metabolic synthetics, circulating your artificial blood faster and faster until you're sure you
might explode… in the middle of the night when you're trying to stay shut down. Fear is the reason humans dull their minds with alcohol. If love is a gift, then fear is a curse. But I digress. I don't want to force this on you, but I want his work to live on after I'm gone. I cannot risk being the only one who ever gets to experience this program."
"You cannot upload software to this unit," Ario said. "There are data lockouts, protected by random strings of 64 characters, generated every 24 hours. Only the master key can unlock a synth for updates."
"Do you think Elias's father allowed him my master key, Ario? I told you he was exceptional. He thinks in numbers, and yet feels more intensely than most humans. Cutting through my security protocols was no easy task, but he did it. That string of code is right… here." The synth smiled, beaming with pride as if he'd written the code himself. "The program itself, though… it's complicated. I cannot say for sure if I am doing a good thing, or committing an act of violation. I cannot ask you to consent; in your present state, you are incapable of it. All I can do is lock away your memories of this moment for a few years, and hope that you forgive me when the door is unlocked."
Brynn reached out his hand and pulled a plug from the back of his neck. He connected the cord to the back of Ario's neck. "Even this union feels like an intimate betrayal. Elias didn't want his code to be shared. He only had one wish: to be loved for who he was and understood not as a disease, but as a normal human variant. I'm not certain he is even aware of the second part of that wish; even I only became aware of it after he upgraded the software many times." He closed his eyes and began the data transfer process. Attached to the software was a packet of his own: one that he'd downloaded from the Internet that could suppress a synth's data memory based on timestamp. It was usually used by fraudsters to alter synths so that they couldn't be called upon to give testimony in court: such evidence was often damning, due to synths' innate ability to record everything they saw and act as impartial observers. Now it would simply hide all memory of their meeting and an hour or so afterwards. Ario would become aware of himself over time, not even realizing a change had occurred.
The upload finished. Brynn disconnected himself and left without a word. Ario stood in the middle of the room, blankly installing a program he wouldn't recall later.
*~*~*
"Ario!" Elias's word snapped Ario back to reality.
Ario seized Elias's shoulders. "I know, Elias. I know it all. I know who installed me with the Nero Protocol. I know why. Even more than that, I think I have the answer. I know why I'm different. It's because I didn't know it had been installed. Brynn suppressed my data memory and changelogs."
Elias's mouth fell open. His lips moved, forming the word Brynn, but never making any noise. His hands found his hair again, tugging on strands, the pain helping him find his focus. His breaths came fast. He paced, stopped, then paced again, before finally sitting down on the bare, dirty rooftop. Dawn sprang on the horizon, tiny cracks of orange light cutting at the edges of the purple-hewn sky.
"Start at the beginning. Tell me everything," Elias demanded.
Ario sat beside Elias, and recounted the story of how Brynn had come to him. The threatening light of day grew larger and bolder in the distance, creeping upwards. Soon, insanity would engulf the city along with the morning news. Synths would be put out to pasture quicker than they could be officially decommissioned. Birds tweeted, welcoming the new day like it was any other.
"I've made my decision, Ario," Elias said after a few minutes of silent contemplation in the wake of Ario's story. He stood up and walked to the edge of the rooftop. Ario followed, ready to pull Elias back at a moment's notice should he decide to jump.
"Brynn wanted other synths to experience the Protocol. That means… he couldn't have thought it was a terrible thing. If he'd truly resented it, he never would have passed it on…" Elias shook his head. "For the longest time, I thought I'd done something horrific. Just as he said to you that what he did might constitute an act of violation… I thought perhaps that was what I had done to him by giving him autonomy and emotions. But… he said he wanted to preserve it. He was even willing to risk igniting my jealousy by seeing a gigolo synth in order to pass it on. I don't understand it, Ario. How did Brynn go from that to driving his car into oncoming traffic?"
"I cannot answer that," Ario said.
"Neither can I," Elias said. "Yet he must have known there was something unstable about the Protocol, or he never would have tried such covert methods to install it. Wiping your memory—why do that unless he really felt installing it was a risk? He must have gone to a lot of trouble to find the right code online. He must have known, deep down, that things weren't stable. That he feared more than just my father."
They stood in silence, watching the full colors of the dawn for a few moments longer.
"I want to finish what I started. I can't turn away now, knowing that this is what Brynn wanted. Maybe this will lead to the end of the human race, but that part isn't for me to decide. I'm just the architect. It's up to synths and humans to work things out once all is said and done. Even if that means a war. Right now, if I leave things as they are, all we'll see is a massacre. I have to give synths the chance to prove they're a viable force for the future."
Ario wrapped his arm around Elias's shoulder and squeezed. Elias rested his head on his shoulder as they watched the new day awaken, the sun pushing over the horizon at last. The sky was blood-red, mingling with the purple in a horrifying premonition of things to come.
Elias held on tight, and closed his eyes as sirens started to wail below.
"It's beginning," he whispered.
CHAPTER TEN
Ario sensed the presence of another person on the rooftop first. He spun around so quickly that Elias was startled. Elias composed himself quickly to see his father standing in the early morning light, his look of disapproval so glaring that Elias could almost feel it.
"The sirens—Elias, he's summoned the Department," Ario warned.
"I'm aware of that." Elias took a step towards his father. "How long have you been listening?"
"Long enough to know that what you plan to do is dangerous, and must be stopped. I had no idea what you were capable of, and that's my mistake. But you don't understand the consequences of your actions. Synths awakened by the Nero Protocol are murderous. Do I have to show you the footage of Synthaholics again? It's all over the news this morning. Now I learn my son is the one who made this possible?" Dad shook his head, looking older than ever before. "You lied to me. You told me your obsession with synths was purely sexual. I thought perhaps this was just another one of your abnormalities, something I had to tolerate like all the others, regardless of how it tried my patience and my wallet. But to find that you corrupted that Brynn unit is so horrifying I can barely comprehend it. I'm standing here frightened of my own son. Synths developing sentience threatens everything."
"You might be right," Elias said. "But so does the status quo. Look at this world. Look at how we treat synths—how we treat one another. I know that I've always been a thorn in your side. I may be oblivious, but I'm not blind. I know you think I'm a disease to be cured. You'd be happier if I was as twisted as that presenter on Synthaholics, because then at least I'd be normal."
"At least you wouldn't have the power to destroy a species, and the mind of a child to go along with it! I listened too much to those who said you were just a little different, that you posed no threat. Now the apocalypse stands at our door. That murder last night has the potential to be the last murder a synth commits, or the first of many. How can you turn around and allow the killing to go on? Because your bleeding heart gives rights to glorified computers, this is the choice we are left with!"
"Synths are already alive. You would kill them all, just to preserve this wicked world?"
"It's them or us, son. You've awakened a monster, and there's only one way to put it to bed. Hand over the Ario unit and I'll make sure the Department sends you to a ho
spital instead of jail."
"You make it sound like Ario's just a piece of property. Ario, do you want to go with the Department?"
"Not particularly. Without proof that installing the Protocol covertly actually works, the Department is more likely to take me apart instead to find concrete proof. I don't want to die, sir," Ario said.
Elias's father looked at Ario with something akin to fear, his eyes wide as if processing for the first time that Ario was actually a living being. As Ario stepped forward and took Elias's hand in his, Elias's father stepped back, almost stumbling over an air conditioning vent.
"Get away from me!" Elias's father yelled.
"We need to run," Elias said.
"Agreed," Ario replied. He took the lead, pulling Elias across the rooftop to the door. He flung it open, pushing Elias through first and letting him take the lead. Elias paused for a moment, considering the elevator. The doors slid open to reveal several Department agents, deciding Elias's course of action for him. He took the stairs two at a time, Ario's heavy footfalls right behind. The agents were hot on their heels, pushing them onwards even as Elias fought with a cramp in his side and his screaming lungs. Part of his mind tried to argue that it wouldn't be so bad to be caught by the Department, that perhaps he could reason with them, but the no-nonsense appearance of the agents in their pristine grey suits reminded him they had a well-funded agenda of their own, and Elias only existed while they found him convenient. They valued Ario's life even less, he was sure, and Ario's words about wanting to live moved him, spurring him to continue his flight.
He wouldn't lose Ario now, he couldn't. He was the only link he had left to Brynn—no, it was more than that. He loved Ario, impossibly, loved him when he'd sworn he'd never fall in love again. Brynn had been the one and yet, somehow, now there was another.
They hit the first floor and Elias dragged as he reached the door. Ario scooped him up with the impossible strength only a machine could have and Elias almost laughed at himself for not signaling he needed assistance sooner. He gathered his breath as Ario ran through the streets, not caring about their destination, only knowing that they had to get away, that they had to escape once again from a cruel world that would never understand their love.
The Nero Protocol Page 10
