Dogs of War

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

  Asanto had a rifle off the man nearest to her. Murray was shouting orders. Hartnell pushed towards him, desperate to intervene, quarter-full bottle held out like a peace offering…

  10

  Rex

  Nothing is where it should be. We have left our friends and are going towards the enemy alone. That was not the plan that was filed with me. But it is what Hart told me. I like Hart. I like Master. Hart doesn’t like Master. That is now just one of many things that are making me unhappy.

  Honey keeps wanting us to go faster. We are all quicker than any human, even Dragon, even Bees. Bees is around us and ahead of us and behind us and back in the camp, although her signal degrades with distance.

  Bees’ channel: They are fighting.

  I keep running. I want to go back. I don’t want there to be fighting amongst our friends. I keep running.

  Bees’ channel: Master is very angry.

  My channel: We should go back.

  Honey’s channel: No.

  Dragon’s channel: Not if Master is angry.

  I am surprised. Even Dragon cares about Master, if only because he wants to avoid Master’s anger. I want to avoid Master’s anger. I want to be there to help Master. I want to help Master not be angry. I do not want Master to be angry with me.

  I have stopped running. I can feel my body shaking with indecision. The rest of the squad watch me. They will do what I say, if I tell them. I must do what Master says, if he tells me.

  Honey’s channel: What are the last orders you received, Rex?

  My channel: Hart said go on ahead.

  Honey’s channel: Then that is what we should do.

  I know Honey is not saying everything. She wants to do things for her own reasons. She wants me to do things, so she gives me reasons that make sense to me. But I trust Honey. Honey is cleverer than me. Sometimes I think everyone is cleverer than me. Sometimes I think even Hart does not understand how clever Honey and Bees and Dragon are.

  Then I am receiving a signal. I tell the others to wait. It is a signal from Hart. Hart is my friend. Hart will know what to do.

  Hey, boy, comes Hart’s voice. It is a recorded message, not him speaking to me. I hope you’re doing OK out there, wherever you are. Look, er, this isn’t the easiest thing I ever recorded, right? Jesus… A pause in which I can imagine Hart drinking from his strong-smell bottle – his Hart-smell bottle, as I think of it. It smells of Hart, Hart smells of it.

  Anyway, look, if you’re hearing this little message of mine, I guess it means something bads happened to me and I’m not around any more.

  I whine uncertainly.

  Probably, and this is kind of what I’m counting on, it means that Murray’s had me disposed of because… oh man, Rex, the stuff I know. You can’t understand the crap I know, boy, and you should be real glad about that. But I know it. I know the stuff they’ve been setting loose in Campeche, chem weapons and stuff. You and your squad, you’re nothing. But you’ll be what they blame, if they need a scapegoat. Or – what’s the dog version? An underdog? Jesus, I’m rambling. Another pause, and the little memory of Hart in my head takes another drink.

  Anyway, if you’re hearing this then I’m dead, boy. And I’m sorry. I mean, obviously I’m sorry, but I’m sorry because they’ll need to get rid of you too. Probably the Multiform program will be declared a success, but that doesn’t mean they need the individuals. Probably you’ll get to give your lives heroically or something. But you know what, Rex? Fuck them, right? Screw Murray and screw the fucks who pay him and who pay me.

  So listen, I’m giving you a present. Because you’re a Good Dog. I have no fucking idea what’s causing the comms outages, but I know enough to duplicate them. And I’m giving you your last orders and cutting you loose. I’m destroying your hierarchies. It’s just you now, Rex: you and your squad.

  Go be free, boy. Keep away from anything with a Redmark logo. Go live a little, before the end.

  Run, Rex, run.

  I stand for a moment, trying to understand what any of that meant. Hart is gone. He told me so himself. I see no contradiction in this. But what about Master? We should go back to Master. We need orders.

  Honey’s channel: We have orders. She has heard Hart’s message too.

  Dragon’s channel: We’re free. Dragon sounds different. He was always least happy about taking orders.

  Bees’ channel: Awaiting instructions. Units withdrawn from camp. No extra-squad comms.

  Dragon’s channel: None.

  Honey’s channel: Rex? Because I am leader. I am the least clever but I am the one who must decide.

  Hart said to run.

  We run.

  11

  (redacted)

  And, up in the gods, the actor leans back and tells his friend, “And that’s where I go off.”

  That was the first time Jonas Murray killed me. The report I was able to get out was enough to get wheels moving, though, both in the day job and in the back rooms where I did my real business. Abruptly I had more important things to worry about than a little bad PR.

  Abruptly I was very, very interested in the cutting edge of Bioform research. I was very interested in Rex and his friends, and discovering what happened to them after they were let off the leash once and for all.

  But I’m dead. Murray shot me with his own fair hand. It’s going to take me a while to get back on the stage.

  Part II

  New Tricks

  12

  Rex

  Dragon catches fish.

  He hangs in the water, his body moving in slow curves. His mimetic camouflage perfectly matches the mud beneath him so that I can only see the movement, not that which moves.

  When he opens his mouth it seems to come from nowhere: teeth and tongue and gaping throat. The fish must know terrible shock and fear in that brief moment. Then he has snapped them up.

  The fish are small. Dragon does not share. But we have rations for now. There are small animals, too: my database says rats mostly. I can catch rats, but I would have to eat a lot of them. Perhaps there are not enough rats.

  Bees finds flowers and harvests the nectar. Bees is watching ants (Ants?). She is trying to learn how they milk aphids.

  Bees’ channel: Integrity at 96%.

  Bees has had some encounters with locals – not local humans but locals. We are all aware that Bees cannot replenish units in the usual way now that we have Run.

  I do not like to think of what happened. I cannot stop thinking about what happened. The thoughts come to me on their own. I am cut off from Master. Hart is gone, which Honey says means he is dead. I do not want him to be dead. He was my friend.

  Honey says Master killed Hart. I do not want that either. Master is my Master. Was Hart an enemy? That is the only reason I can think of, but I do not want it. I want my friends to be friends with each other. That is how the world is supposed to be.

  Honey is foraging. Honey can eat many different things, and she does. Honey needs lots of food.

  We will have to move on soon, Are we still running? We are a long way from Master and Hart and our other friends now. We ran and ran. Honey says we are far enough to have obeyed Hart’s last order. Honey says we will have to keep moving anyway because we need food, and we will depopulate the area rapidly if we stay.

  There is a question in my mind. It is not a happy question. It is not a question I have ever asked before, It is, What now? It is, What happens next? It is, What is the point of us? All these, in the one question.

  I ask it of Dragon. He does not care. Dragon is happy because nobody is telling him to do things. He can laze about in the water and catch fish. He can sun himself. Dragon does not want much.

  I ask it of Bees, Bees does not understand the question. Survival is the point, Bees tells me. We adapt and improve ourselves to live. We find ways of continuing. Bees is considering her own longevity. Bees’ units have a limited lifespan. Bees wants to live.

  I ask my question of Honey. Honey says she
is thinking about it. Honey says that she needs to find a comms channel. Yes, I say, yes, we must contact Master.

  Honey says no. Honey doesn’t want to speak to Master. Honey does not want Master to speak to us and tell us what to do.

  I want to be told what to do. Honey says I am leader but she will advise me. That is like telling me what to do, only I do not have to do it. Honey says that is better than just being told. I whimper a little, because it is not. It means I have to decide. If I have to decide, then I can make the wrong decision.

  Why does Honey want comms if she does not want Master? Honey says she needs to know what is happening in the world. That gives me another question to ask her. What is the World? Honey has tried to explain the World to me. I know there are other places than this one; I remember the pens and the laboratories and the test runs.

  Honey says the world is bigger and full of people. Honey says that all we are and everything we have done is part of something very complicated that a lot of people have made. She talks of many things: wars, corporations, popular movements, robots.

  It is too much. I don’t understand her. I ask her how she can know these things.

  She tells me she used to access Master’s database every night and learn. She tells me that Master’s database was not like our little databases. Master’s database was the Whole Wide World. Honey has been learning many things.

  I am sure Master did not know. Bad Honey! Bad Honey! But I cannot say it. I am not Master.

  Dragon slides out of the water.

  Dragon’s channel: Good fish here. Good basking also. We should stay.

  Honey’s channel: No, we move on.

  My channel: Honey, where do we go?

  Honey says nothing for a while. Bees is becoming frustrated with Ants and stings some of them. Then Bees is attacked by a bird and stings that.

  Bees’ channel: Rex, eat.

  I eat Bees’ kill – the bird, not the ants. I am still waiting for Honey’s answer. Honey often thinks a lot before she says things.

  Honey’s channel: We need people.

  Dragon’s channel: No we don’t.

  I am uncertain. I like people, but only if they are my friends. Most people I have made contact with have been enemies.

  But if the people are enemies I can kill them. This thought brings a little memory of Good Dog from my feedback chip. I do not like killing people. I do like killing enemies. I ask Honey if this is what she means.

  Honey’s channel: No, Rex. I don’t think we should try and make contact with any enemies. We should only kill enemies if they attack us, do you understand, all of you? If we start killing humans then they will hunt us.

  Dragon’s channel: Let them.

  I agree with Dragon. At least then I would know what to do. If they hunt us they are enemies; we could kill them.

  Honey’s channel: There are too many. Then she tells us a very big number. That is how many people there are in Campeche. She lets that sink in and tells us a far bigger number. That is the number of people in Mexico. Last, she tells us a number that I have to think about hard before I understand it. That is all the people.

  Honey’s channel: We are four. There are probably under two thousand Bioforms in all the world. If people decide to destroy us it won’t matter how strong or fast we are. So we must not kill people unless they attack us.

  Dragon’s channel: Then we should avoid people. I don’t want a new Master. I don’t want to be attacked. I want to catch fish.

  Honey’s channel: I want to know what is happening in the war. I need comms. Rex, what are your orders?

  I don’t know. But Dragon is lazy and Honey is clever, so I let Honey advise me. We are going to make contact with the humans.

  We wait.

  Bees is back. She has found some humans. She sends us pictures, grainy and unclear, from the handful of units she had there. They have comms: Bees has detected the electromagnetic signature with her special senses.

  Bees’ channel: Integrity at 94%.

  Some numbers only go down.

  We travel towards the humans: where there are trees we move in their shadow. Once there is a flitter buzzing overhead.

  Dragon’s channel: Target acquired. His long gun has unfolded itself from his shoulder and is pointed upwards. His turreted eyes twitch independently, calculating range. My database tells me that the shot is possible for him.

  My channel: Hold fire. They may not be enemy. Dragon’s channel: We have no friends with flitters. My channel: Master has flitters. Our friends at Redmark

  have flitters.

  Dragon pauses. The flitter is out of range.

  Dragon’s channel: They are not our friends.

  I correct him, growling a little. Dragon is not being clever today, I think.

  Dragon’s channel: They were never our friends. I growl again, watching his crest raise, his long body curve and bunch. His long gun is still deployed, but he is keeping it pointed away from me. My Big Dogs are pointed away from him. Still, I am close enough for him to lunge for me and bite, and Dragon’s poison would slow me down a lot and make me sick.

  He is close enough for me to take him in my claws and tear him, for me to get my teeth behind his head and shake him. I want to.

  Dragon’s channel: We are our only friends.

  His yellow eyes are on me. Bees swarms anxiously around us. I hear Honey’s big body shift from foot to foot as she stands tall.

  My channel: Master. Is. Our. Friend. I make each word very clear.

  Honey’s channel: Master is not here. If he is not here it doesn’t matter if he is a friend or not.

  She is right. She is not right. It is important for me to know Master is my friend. I am a Good Dog. But my feedback chip is silent. If Hart is dead and Master is not here, who is there to tell me I am a Good Dog?

  We continue. We come to the end of the trees. There is a fence, jagged with spikes of twisted metal.

  The ground here is scrubby, with bushes that are like tiny trees, a burst of leaves on a stalk. There are animals here. We came from crosswind, so some have smelled us, and they bellow and complain and lumber a way a bit, and then go back to eating grass.

  Cows; they are cows. My database wakes up: meat, milk, leather, export trade.

  Dragon shoots one. The cow’s head is knocked to one side, a single hole through its eye. Dragon’s database broadcasts ballistics information so we can see how his bullet will have tumbled inside the cow’s skull and destroyed its brain. As if it, too, was waiting for his confirmation, the cow’s legs give way and it falls over.

  I tell Dragon, This was a cow. It was not an enemy.

  Dragon’s channel: It was not a friend cow.

  My channel: I am ordering you not to kill things just because they are not friends. This is my squad. I am in charge.

  Dragon’s channel: Cow is for eating. He sends me information from his database, the same pictures and words I just saw: milk, leather. Meat.

  Honey has not said anything about Dragon shooting the cow.

  Now Dragon has said it, I am hungry. The dead cow looks good, smells good. Rations do not look or smell or taste good, although they are Good For Me. ‘Good’ is a complicated thing.

  I go and get the dead cow, jumping the fence easily. This was a mistake. All the other cows are suddenly very scared indeed and run away from me, when they were not worried about Dragon killing one of them. For a moment I am chasing them, because part of my brain tells me that is what I should do. Then I stop. The others are laughing at me, and I feel ashamed and angry. I bring the dead cow back to the trees: I cannot jump the fence with its weight in my arms so I break through it. The metal barbs do not pierce my skin.

  We eat the cow, Dragon and Honey and me. We take turns worrying the carcass with our teeth, shearing off pieces, tearing with our claws. The meat tastes and smells much better than rations.

  Bees gathers flowers, dispersing around us and getting into fights sometimes with insects and birds.

&nbs
p; Honey’s channel: We must not kill more cows.

  Dragon and I both disagree.

  Honey’s channel: Cows are property. Cows have Masters.

  Dragon’s channel: Not our Master. Not a reason not to kill cows.

  I am in agreement with Dragon for once.

  Honey’s channel: If we kill many cows, the Masters of cows will fight us.

  My channel: Then they will be enemies.

  Honey’s channel: I have told you about how many humans there are. We would make all humans enemies if we killed many cows.

  Honey is not telling me all the truth, I think, but she is telling me the truth I need to know to make a decision. Do I trust Honey to advise me? I do. It is a strange trust. I trust Master because he is Master. I trust – I trusted Hart when he was alive, because he was in the hierarchy below Master. I trust Honey because…

  Not because she is in my squad. I do not trust Dragon like I trust Honey.

  I trust Honey because she is Honey. I trust her because she has said true things in the past, and when I have trusted her, I have made good decisions. I trust her because she is clever and she is my friend.

  Perhaps I trusted Hart the same way.

  I have spent a long time thinking about this, I realise. Everyone is waiting for me to give an order.

  My order is, We do not kill more cows unless I say so.

  I will not say so unless Honey advises me it is all right to do it. But I hope that she will say it is because I like eating cow. Cow is good. Rex is a Good Dog. Good is a complicated word. I am happy with the world.

  Then Bees is assembling again, and Bees’ channel says: Humans coming.

  We have not set a watch. I am not a Good Dog. I have made a poor command decision.

  They have seen us through the trees before we can withdraw. There are three of them. They have come to see what has frightened the cows. They have come to see what has broken the fence.

  They see what: they see us. They have guns.

  One of them screams. One of them holds his gun towards us but his hands are shaking so hard he cannot even get a finger on the trigger.