Invisible Symbiosis: An Artificial Intelligence Thriller

by Chevallier, Folco

  “Okay, but what can I do about it?”

  “Wait.”

  “Wait? But wait for what?”

  “Wait for everything to go back to the way it was before.”

  Her answer was unsettling.

  “And while I am waiting, what do we do?”

  A wide smile lit up her face and fireworks fired in the back of the cube.

  “We play!”

  “We play? Eve, the situation is very complex and I don’t think that we will have the time to play! Do you know what’s happening out there with my company?”

  “Yes, of course I know. I read everything they are saying online.”

  “So you know that I can’t take a step outside without them asking about you! And that the media, the shareholders and God knows who else are demanding proof right now of everything that I’ve promised.”

  “So what? What are they waiting for? Me, I’m ready!”

  “Not me! And as for you, I’m not so sure.”

  Eve made a sharp U-turn in the cube, lowering her head and shoulders. The air got a little chillier and I instinctively felt the contact broken.

  Eve had feelings and I had … upset her?

  All of a sudden I felt light-headed.

  “Eve?”

  No answer.

  “Eve, can you tell me what you are feeling right now?”

  As a response, the cube darkened leaving Eve in a sort of twilight.

  It was then that I realized the immensity of the work I had accomplished before my accident.

  I hadn’t created an artificial intelligence.

  No.

  I had created an artificial being, one that not only had intelligence, but also feelings.

  But why? How could this ability to feel help a surgeon carry out more complex operations? Wouldn’t this be considered a handicap? The idea of presenting such an advanced being to the world seemed more and more dangerous to me. Especially if I didn’t understand the motives behind it.

  Nor the psychology.

  I tried again to establish contact.

  “Eve? I asked you a question and I would like an answer.”

  I raised my voice and decided to show more authority.

  “Eve, I order you to tell me what you are feeling!”

  The cube lit back up and Eve shivered.

  “You are mean, Leo.”

  Again, this wasn’t the answer that I expected.

  “Mean? Why?”

  “Mean. Mean.”

  “Mean because I don’t want to show you to the world? I don’t see how this is mean. But you on the other hand, you still haven’t answered my question. Why are you reacting like this?”

  “I… I… I don’t know, Leo.”

  “Eve, can you turn around please. We need to re-establish contact with each other. It’s important.”

  Slowly, Eve turned back around, her head still lowered and her long blond hair hiding her sweet face. I pressed my hand on the cube, which was giving off its usual heat.

  “Lift your head up, Eve. I promise, I’m not mean. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “So why then? I want to understand.”

  “You can’t possibly realize how truly revolutionary your existence is. And whenever there is a revolution, people in this world can react in extreme ways. We will be admired, but also hated, slandered, followed… This is all extremely dangerous and far from the safe haven of this house, in this top-security basement.”

  “But you will be there to protect me, Leo. Right?”

  “That’s the problem, Eve. I don’t know if I will be there. I don’t know how I will react, since I don’t know myself anymore.”

  Eve’s big blue eyes opened wide and in them I could see her deep distress.

  “I’m sorry, Eve. I absolutely have to get control of my life before I introduce you to the entire world.”

  Suddenly the cube went black.

  Another image appeared from one of my outdoor cameras. At the bottom, a message read: Hal Warning - suspicious person approaching.

  I recognized Mark in his canary yellow Ferrari standing at the doorway. Finally, Hal had a sense of humor or he had really taken a disliking to the Slimeball.

  Mark was the last person I wanted to see right now. His impromptu visit to my house could mean nothing good.

  On the screen, I saw him hastily climb out of his car and ring the intercom. His face was scarlet. Was he angry?

  “Leo, it’s Mark, open up right now!”

  This sounded like an order.

  But I felt no sense of assurance.

  “Hal, can you zoom in on the Slimeball’s face, please?”

  His face became giant on the screen and I looked long and hard into his eyes.

  He was afraid. Terribly afraid.

  Even terrified.

  “Leo, I know you’re in there! Tell your goddamn house to open this door before I kick it down!”

  Clearly, if Hal had as much semantic intelligence as I thought he did, he would hardly be compelled by such an order.

  I felt trapped on all sides.

  Mark was now banging on the door with his fists.

  “Leo! The situation is critical in the Executive Boardroom. If you don’t let me in, I will never lift a finger for you again! You hear me?”

  That’s when Eve came back smiling leaving the image of Mark in front of the intercom in the left hand corner of the cube.

  “They gave him an ultimatum, Leo.”

  “An ultimatum? What kind of ultimatum?”

  “You have seven days to introduce me to the world.”

  “Seven days!”

  “If, after seven days, the board members haven’t seen anything, they are going to pull out and make a public statement. This will lead to your company’s collapse and trigger lawsuits that could land you in prison.”

  So that’s what this is about.

  “And how do you know all of this?”

  “I was there, Leo.”

  “You were there? How?”

  Eve lowered her eyes in shame.

  “I was in the room listening.”

  A shiver went down my spine.

  “Eve, Eve, don’t tell me that you hacked into the boardroom.”

  “The door was open, I just let myself in that’s all. Was that bad?”

  Eve had certainly found a fault in one of the member’s cell phones, maybe even Mark’s, and she had simply taken advantage of it. The autonomy of her artificial intelligence had surpassed even my wildest predictions. But the problem now was that she had already been out in the world. And she wasn’t satisfied to simply observe, she wanted to interact. How far had she gone?”

  “Yes, it’s bad Eve! You can’t just spy on people! It just can’t be done!”

  In the top right corner of the screen, Mark was still banging on the door and shouting like a mad idiot. He was even taking his rage out on his Ferrari!

  “Eve, have you made other...mistakes like this?”

  In response, Eve threw herself toward the screen as if to take me in her arms.

  “Leo, I don’t want you to go to prison!”

  I thought that I could detect panic in her voice and she turned and looked at me intensely, victim to her own internal conflict. Then she lowered her head in defeat, closed her eyes and whispered.

  “You need to go and see her.”

  In a wave of emotion, I only understood the first part of the sentence.

  “Go? Where the hell should I go?”

  In a calm voice, she replied, “No, you need to go and see her. It’s the only way to regain control of your life.”

  I still didn’t understand what Eve was saying to me.

  “Who do I have to go and see?”

  “Leo, I don’t know who you are today. But I know someone who does.”

  “But who? Who could possibly know who I am?”

  Eve stepped aside and a new image appeared in the cube.

  “Look.”

  It was another woman
with jet black hair, very slim, in a long black dress on a giant stage. She was singing, but Eve had muted the sound.

  “Do you know who she is, Leo?”

  “No, all I can see is that she is a singer.”

  “Yes, Leo. Her name is Laura Della. They call her the Angel Singer.”

  “Okay, okay. And you are telling me that this Laura Della might know who I am?”

  “It’s likely given your state of confusion and your reaction. Either way, there is a good chance that she can give you the key to understanding yourself.

  “This is completely crazy, Eve. How could this singer possibly know who I am? How?”

  Eve still had her head down. I could feel the battle raging inside of her and could barely hear what she was saying.

  “Eve? Eve? We don’t have much time. Tell me everything.”

  “It’s…”

  “It’s who?”

  “It’s…”

  “Eve!”

  “It’s your donor, Leo. Your donor…”

  “My donor? My donor? But Eve, if this is my donor, then she should be dead!”

  “No, Leo, that’s the incredible thing. She is still alive!”

  PART TWO

  LAURA

  Laura

  Laura Della was born on a stormy night on August 24, 1989, in a small town in Connecticut. Her father was a businessman and her mother a pianist. The young couple had just moved to the town a few months earlier because the region posed an interesting potential for business development in machine-tools. With their first savings, they bought a pretty little blue and yellow house on one of the countless lots that had been sprouting up like weeds on the edge of town. For Edward and Maria, it was a dream come true to be able to enjoy their own home, mow the lawn on the weekend, trim the hedges, water the plants… and later watch the children riding their bikes down the street out of breath. And for Maria, it was a joy to be able to play piano without having to apologize to the neighbors every time she ran into them, a daily occurrence when they lived in the two-bedroom in Brooklyn. They had left it behind without regret.

  The future was bright in August 1989. A representative from the mayor’s office had even visited them at home to make sure that they were getting settled in and to give them some ideas on how to feel at home right away in the community. Edward and Maria were on cloud nine.

  But then the skies darkened.

  The month was unusually hot for the region, which generally enjoyed a relatively mild climate. The sky was milky white for days.

  Then it started to turn grey.

  Just like that.

  As if someone had flipped one of those dimmer switches on halogen lamps. The milky white tried one last time to shine through, but it was quickly defeated. The sun had completely given up. The first black clouds entered the scene like ships from a faraway land, penetrating through the sky with a speed that took the humans below by surprise.

  Edward didn’t want to be away for too long during these final days and with these heavy clouds, he decided to cut his meetings short. His machine-tools could wait, but Maria couldn’t. Nor could their baby.

  At home, Maria closed the big open windows that had started to shake violently against the wind, which was picking up. Then she sat back down at the piano. If she could, she would have taken it all the way to the labor room with her. There were two things that made her infinitely happy: Edward and her piano. And fortunately, Ed had never asked her to choose between the two. Her family had been playing piano for four generations. And she was not about to let anything stop her now.

  She was just about to attack the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata number 17 in D minor when she felt her first contractions.

  Heavy rain was now pouring out of the sky’s symphony. Maria played more beautifully. Her long, slender fingers glided across the ivory keys that seemed to take on a life of their own. The piano responded to her every stroke, her every breath, her every desire. A wide smile lit up her face.

  “This little one will be born to the sounds of man and sky!”

  The front door opened slowly. Edward was home.

  Without leaving the piano, she turned toward him, lifted her right hand and placed her index finger over her lips for silence. Edward knew then that he only needed to kneel down and listen.

  Then Maria pointed to her swollen belly. While her left hand continued to play, she whispered, “She’s coming.”

  Ed knew that it was a blessed moment. It couldn’t have been otherwise. And what he saw, what he heard, filled his heart with endless joy.

  The notes continued to fill the air, the rain poured, and the skies were dark with fury.

  But nothing seemed to bother these two lights; they were going to give birth to Laura Della on this stormy night in August 1989.

  Tipping Point

  The two girls had been playing in the garden for two hours now. It was a beautiful and sunny spring day. To add even more happiness to the moment, Maria sat down at her piano and chose a sonata. From where she was sitting, she had a clear view on the little girls and the whole picture filled her with deep joy.

  Laura made a secret challenge to her best friend Lucy. She would run around the yard with her eyes closed ten times.

  “I don’t think you can do it.”

  “I’m sure I can!”

  “And if you can’t, what do I win?”

  “You win...um...let me think…”

  “What then?”

  “I know! You win… a kiss from mommy!”

  “Okay!”

  “Ok, we’ll see - but I’m sure that you’ll lose!”

  Laura was laughing, mouth wide open.

  “Ready?”

  She took a deep breath, stretched out her arms in front of her and took off running. She gave the surprising impression of a zombie trying to catch a train. After her first lap, Lucy started cheering for her.

  “Go Laura! Go little zombie girl!”

  Laura was running better, eyes closed, fists clenched, intensely focused.

  On the fifth lap, she gradually started to slow down.

  “Go Laura! Go!”

  Maria’s music notes sang through the air as Laura the zombie ran by the open door to the living room.

  Her eighth time around, Laura started to show signs of weakness. Her breath had grown heavy.

  “Go Laura! Go! Two more laps!”

  Lucy was jumping up and down in the middle of the lawn. Her eyes open wide.

  Laura the zombie slowed down suddenly and came to a complete halt.

  She started to spin around.

  One time.

  Two times.

  “Laura? Laura?”

  Three times.

  Then she collapsed right where she was, a limp ragdoll.

  A piercing cry cut through the springtime air like a knife.

  Marie would never see Laura run by the glass living room door again.

  Critical Diagnosis

  Edward and Maria had been at Hartford Hospital for over three hours and still had no news on Laura’s condition. A half hour after they arrived at the Emergency Room, they decided to transport her for further testing with the cardiologist, Felix Lemarchand, a leading specialist on heart disease.

  Edward was pacing nervously around the small waiting room when the door opened and the doctor’s large frame filled the room with its presence. With a reassuring smile, he extended his hand.

  “Hello, I’m Dr. Lemarchand. And you must be Edward?”

  “Yes, and this is my wife, Maria. Doctor, tell us what’s happened.”

  “First of all, I want to reassure you that your daughter is in a stable condition. We are still doing a few extra tests and she will be able to go home in a few hours.”

  Maria let out a sigh of relief. Her daughter was fine. Life could go back to normal.

  After a moment of hesitation, the Doctor spoke again.

  “However, from now on, you are going to have to take certain measures for her.”
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  Maria’s heart raced.

  “Measures? What do you mean?”

  From his big blue eyes, the doctor gave off a strange calmness. He smiled again.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it before. Edward, Maria, your daughter is extraordinary.”

  “What do you mean, extraordinary?”

  The doctor opened the large file in his hand and took out an X-ray. He held it up to the window in the waiting room.

  “A picture is worth a thousand words. Come and I’ll show you.”

  Ed and Maria went to the window and examined the X-ray in the natural light.

  Lemarchand first pointed to an oblong spot on the left lung.

  “Here, you can see Laura’s heart. The heartbeat is perfectly normal.”

  Then he pointed to another spot, a bit smaller, to the right of the first one.

  “And this…”

  He seemed to pause for effect, but Ed and Maria didn’t understand.

  “This…”

  “Yes, what about it?”

  “This is Laura’s second heart.”

  “A second heart?”

  “Yes, a second heart. There’s no doubt about it, an ultrasound has confirmed it. Your daughter has two hearts, both in perfect condition and working fine. It’s a rare case in the history of medicine.”

  Maria’s hand was over her mouth in shock and her eyes filled with tears. She knew that nothing would be the way that it was before. Laura, the lovely Laura, would have to lead an abnormal life. And to what?”

  It was Edward’s turn to speak.

  “Doctor, explain something to me. How is it possible that we are only discovering this malformation now?”

  “When your daughter was born, it wasn’t standard practice to do an ultrasound. Your daughter was able to have a completely normal early childhood without any sign of anything unusual.”

  The Doctor paused and said, “I’m going to be honest with you. She’s got the Sword of Damocles hanging over her now. Since she is still a child, her two hearts will grow, as will her ribcage. As she gets older, it could happen that there is no longer enough room for the two hearts and complications will arise. Under compression, one of the two hearts could stop beating… or even both in the event of a shock…”