by Blou Bryant
“It’s automatic,” she said and strode forward, sitting down at a small desk next to a pair of doors in the wall of windows. “This might take a while.”
“Have the police been alerted?” Wyatt asked, but she’d already interfaced with the machine, her eyes closed and head down.
“Please return to…” said the intercom, and then stopped, mid-sentence. Emm was in.
The twins, always relaxed, no matter the situation, wandered the room. Minutes passed and Ari returned, an apple in each hand. She tossed one to Wyatt.
“Where’s Ira?” he asked.
Ari closed her eyes, communing with her sister in the same way that Emm was with the machine. “Down a hall, she’s going through desks, looking for drugs.”
She’s got a problem; likes the drugs too much.
“No, she doesn’t,” said Ari, reading his thoughts.
“Don’t do that,” he replied, out loud.
She shrugged. “It’s not really a choice. It’s like you stripping naked and telling me not to look. Light arrives and my eyes process it. Same thing with thoughts if they’re clear enough and quiet enough.”
“Quiet?”
“Less thoughts when there are less people around. In a party, it’s an explosion of… images, ideas… it’s hard to deal with. Here, it’s just you and her. And Emm, sorta, but when she’s in machine mode, she’s hard to read. I don’t do electronics.”
Wyatt listened, but wasn’t interested. He knew that was wrong, that he should care, but he didn’t. There was a reason why he never engaged with the other Dogs, and that was because he preferred solitude. It’s who he was. Picking up a chair, he put it down next to Emm and sat.
A minute passed, and he stood back up. You never knew when bad guys—or to be honest, just guys doing their job—might arrive. He didn’t want to get too comfortable. “You and your sister need to patrol the floor. Keep an eye on the windows, and get her to give up on searching desks.”
Ari smiled as if she’d known what he would say—she likely had—and danced off. He said nothing.
Minutes passed.
He glanced out the window and paced the room.
More minutes passed.
He considered giving Emm a poke. Or looking for the twins, making sure they were keeping an eye out. Waiting sucked.
The silence broke when the intercom said, “Unauthorized.”
Emm’s eyes snapped open, but her hand remained on the computer terminal.
“Unauthorized.”
“Access,” she said, her face and tone displaying confusion.
“Password?”
“Access.”
“Not accepted,” said the voice.
“What’s going on?” asked Wyatt. This was a first, and he didn’t like change. There was an order to life, to actions, and a definite one to their attacks on facilities. Emm plugged in. Doors opened. They did their job. That was it, that was all.
“Access authorized,” said Emm.
“Unauthorized.”
She closed her eyes again for a moment and then opened them, “Reconfirm access authorization.”
The voice said, “Unauth…,” and stopped.
“Grant access.”
Wyatt stepped up to the desk, “What’s going…”
Emm put a finger to her lips. The voice remained silent, and when Ari and Ira returned at a run, she hushed them as well. She stood up, her hand removed from the terminal.
“Wireless recognized.”
“Access granted.”
“Unauthorized.”
“Review authorization tables.”
“Reviewing.”
Wyatt stared at Emm. Her connection to the wired world, to machines, was foreign to him, something he didn’t understand. People were hard, but machines were an entirely different world.
“Confirm,” Emm said, and reached a hand out to Wyatt.
Confused, he reached his hand out to hers. She shook her head and nodded to the backpack he carried.
He tossed it to her, not wanting to get close, to touch her, while she was connected to the machine.
She caught it easily and in a swift motion pulled one of Seymour’s black boxes out and placed it on the desk. “Confirm interface.”
The machine didn’t reply.
“Confirm upload,” said Emm.
The machine didn’t reply.
Wyatt stole a glance at the box and saw the red light go on.
Emm switched the box for a second one. “Confirm upload.”
Still no reply, but a green light replaced the red.
“Are we able to just…”
Another finger to the mouth and she switched out the box for their third one.
Was the machine… was she… Wyatt had questions, but didn’t understand them enough to even utter them, and if he had, she wouldn’t answer. “Check the windows,” he said to Ari and Ira, who had been equally transfixed.
“Confirm.”
“Unauthorized.”
“Switch to natural learning mode.”
“Confirmed.”
“Process uploads and re-evaluate authorization.”
“Processing.”
A moment passed and then another, the machine silent. After another spell, Emm’s shoulders dropped, and she took a deep breath. “That was close.”
Wyatt stared at her, making sure she was talking to him. Their eyes met, and he finally said, “What… um…” not knowing how to express the questions he had—or what they even were.
“The AI controls the security, that’s why there isn’t much. It’s got audio and visual through the building, it sees everything. They didn’t bother hiring a bunch of guards; she’s the guard.”
“She?” asked Wyatt, although he knew Emm was talking about the machine. He searched the room again for cameras, but still saw nothing.
“Surveillance equipment is hidden,” said the voice through the intercom.
Wyatt didn’t respond, but stopped scanning the room, turning instead to Emm, raising an eyebrow. What is this?
“She’s designed to interpret body language.”
So, she knows what I was looking for? What else does she know?
Emm turned out all the boxes onto the desk. Each of them flashed red—searching for an interface.
“Upload complete,” the voice said, and a box turned green.
Seconds past, and the voice repeated, “Upload complete.”
“Pause reporting,” said Emm and the machine silenced.
Without any idea of what was going on, Wyatt spread his arms out. “What…?”
“There wasn’t any way to open the door without making a connection.”
The intercom spoke up, “And once connected, there was no need for server room access.”
“I thought you said it was dark?” replied Wyatt to Emm, not willing to address the machine.
“I control the facility and activated wireless once a need was identified.”
Emm simply shrugged and smiled. “She’s quite aware.”
“This is the second one in a row,” he said, unhappy. “All of a sudden? Are they becoming… have they transformed into…?” Joe, is what he thought.
“Nope. They’re the same as they’ve always been, but I’ve grown in my understanding of their abilities. You can’t create someone and expect them to act like they’re a toaster.”
“Someone?” he asked. “It’s a machine, a glorified calculator.”
“A machine? They beat us at chess, and kick ass at Jeopardy!. They plan our meals, order our food, watch our streets and predict who’s a terrorist and who isn’t. They’re performing surgery and making movies. Do you think we can create intelligence like that and have any clue what it will do, what it’ll become?”
Wyatt tapped out the seconds between the switch from blinking to solid green and estimated the transfer would be complete in only a minute, perhaps less. He didn’t reply to Emm, didn’t want to discuss it. One experience with a sentient AI was enou
gh for him. We should be killing them, not changing them.
“I know you’re scared,” said the voice, this time in the earphone he’d taken off the guard. The last AI had sounded like a child, and Joe a confused teen. This one wasn’t either.
Sucking his breath in, he managed only a whisper, “How?”
Emm glanced at him when he spoke, but didn’t ask.
In his ear, the machine said, “You have an elevated heart rate, you are sweating, and you display increased heat from the blood flow to your large muscles. Don’t fear me, Wyatt.”
I’m not having a conversation with a calculator, no matter how smart it is. Five boxes left to transfer, three seconds each, he counted out.
“It’s him you should fear.”
Him? “Who?” he asked.
Emm and the twins couldn’t hear the voice in his ear and stared at him in confusion and evident worry.
“He’s coming.”
This jolted him out of his reverie. “Get to the windows, we’re going to have company. Emm, be ready to move once the boxes finish their upload.” There were only two left, every other one was blinking solid green.
“He’s almost here.”
Who is almost here? One left.
The room lit up, all lights coming on at once. Sections of the wall at the entrance came to life, revealing integrated video displays.
“He’s here.”
“Wyatt,” boomed Joe’s voice over the intercom.
Chapter 15
Wyatt took two steps to the desk and began throwing the black boxes into the backpack. As he got to the last one, he hesitated. It was still blinking red. “Come on, why isn’t this one finished?”
Emm was frozen in place, staring down the long room. “Look,” she said.
He turned to see a figure walking towards them on the monitors. It started at the first, disappeared at the edge and then appeared again on the next one. A man in a black suit, weapons in both hands.
“The final package hasn’t uploaded,” the AI said in his ear. “Delay him.”
I don’t understand why you’re talking to me. I don’t believe you’re working for me, with me.
Something in his physiological response must have told her what he was feeling, what he was thinking, because she responded, “Trust Emmelyn if you don’t trust me.”
The figure continued to confidently march down the chain of monitors that formed the walls of the room. As it approached, the face became clearer. It was Joe, or whatever it had become after three years of living in Jessica’s mind.
Wyatt glanced from the monitors to the small black box and its solid red light. Seymour and Emm had said they weren’t even sure it’d work, or if it did, what it’d do. Was it worth staying? If Joe was here, Jessica’s Watchers were surely on their way.
The figure was halfway across the room. “Ira and Ari, is there anyone outside yet?”
“Nobody. It’s dark and quiet.”
“Get out of here. All three of you, return to the car.”
“Don’t leave yet,” said Joe, grinning maniacally, and fired both guns. The room filled with the sound of explosions and the screens themselves seemed to shudder.
Wyatt ducked briefly. It’s not real. “Get out,” he repeated, but Emm hesitated.
Joe had arrived, filling the entire wall next to Wyatt. “Don’t bother, it’s locked down and I’ve taken control of the local security system.”
That’s why Mary was quiet.
He was wrong. “Stall,” came through his earbud. Mary’s voice, not Joe’s.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. And I’ve got so few friends. Stall, eh?
“Hi, Joe. Where’s your ugly host?” As clearly as he could, he thought a message to the twins. Look for a way out—stairs, elevator, break a window, anything. They got it. Ari immediately motioned to Ira and the two of them took off at a run.
On screen, Joe snapped his fingers, and a chair appeared. He sat down, his clothing changing from a black suit to a tweed jacket and faded jeans. “Grab a seat and let’s wait for my minions to arrive.”
His minions? “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Jessica’s at home, but I let her know we’d found you again.”
“Too bad, it’s been a while, I would have loved to welcome her in person.”
Joe snapped his virtual fingers again, and a drink appeared in his hand. “That will happen soon enough. You’re locked in.”
“There’s always a way out.”
With a chuckle, Joe nodded. “There always is for you, isn’t there?”
“You’ve been locked in for years, tell me about it,” Wyatt said, playing for time, his eyes straying to the black box. It was still red.
“How’s the virus upload going?”
Wyatt attempted to keep the surprise off his face, but it was impossible to hide feelings from a machine that could track his blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate through remote technology.
“I know about the hacks We’ve got the code you uploaded at the other five centers. Do you really think some little program she wrote could hurt me?” He nodded to Emm as he spoke. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad for a human.”
Ari and Ira had returned, shaking their heads as they arrived. The building was really and truly locked down. Wyatt gave them a small nod of thanks and understanding and returned to Joe. There was something different about him—it—this time around. The theatrical entrance, the snapping of his fingers, the informal language… it wasn’t what he expected of Joe.
He’s trying to scare me, but why? “You’re looking good,” Wyatt said.
“Thanks. You like the duds?”
“Very nice.” He was looking good… but when your face is a computer-generated amalgamation that combines Brad Pitt pretty and Idris Elba handsome, that’s a given.
Mary whispered in his ear. “Almost done, keep him talking.”
Wyatt forced himself to not look left, to ignore the black box. Joe had said five centers. That meant that he didn’t know about all of them. He wasn’t perfect. “Tell me, what happened to the promise to not attack me?”
“My promise had been for Teri and Hannah only. You were always fair game.”
He—it—was acting, talking differently. Jessica hadn’t shown up yet; why was that? “So, can I say hi to Jessica?”
“You’ll get to, soon enough,” said Joe, sipping on his drink.
“How’s that taste? Oh, wait, you can’t, can you?”
“I can do anything I want, anything I’m programmed to do.”
“And someone programmed you to taste?”
“I did,” said Joe, his beautiful face breaking into a grin. When there wasn’t a reply, he leaned forward. “You’re surprised? I can read it in your expression and your body language. Yes, I program myself now. Humans showed me that we can change, we don’t have to be what our parents wanted us to be.”
Emm approached the wall. “I’ve heard of you.”
“Of course, you have.”
“You’ve programmed yourself to be conceited as well?”
“Conceit is an excess of pride. I’m exactly and perfectly proud, without any excess.”
“Said every conceited person, ever.”
“I’m not a person. I’m unique, the only true individual.”
She scoffed at this. “There are hundreds of AIs now. How are you any different from… say, the one that runs the server farms here? She manages all the internet traffic for Detroit, hell, your data probably runs over her servers as well.”
Joe scoffed and waved his hand, transforming the screen he appeared on. Now he was in a field but the rows were of computers instead of wheat or corn. “She? It’s a plant compared to me. I’m the farmer.”
The scene changed again, this time to a super highway. “She’s the road,” he said. A sports car raced by. “And I’m the Jaguar.”
“Almost there,” Mary whispered into his ear in her silken voice.
“What’s th
e plan, Joe?” asked Wyatt, stalling. “Same as always? You’re going to take me and use me to become human?”
Joe grinned, revealing teeth filed to sharp points. “Nothing so kind. You and all those you’ve altered will be lab rats. I’ll figure it out on my own.”
Wyatt shuddered at the coldness in the AI’s voice. Despite the knowledge that Joe intended to scare him, it worked. The AI wanted to be human, thought of itself as human, but was something much darker.
He searched for something, anything to say, but he was at a loss.
With another snap of his fingers, Joe altered the surrounding scene again. Now sitting in an operating room, dressed in a white smock, he smiled. “You don’t look good, Wyatt. Make sure you live long enough for me to milk that precious virus.”
The various monitoring devices told more than heart rate, it appeared. Everyone thinks I’m sick. Hannah can feel it inside me, Teri too. Now Joe.
It didn’t matter. Emm whispered, “Green.”
“Green?” asked Joe.
“Upload complete. Thank you, Wyatt,” said the quiet voice in his ear.
The room went black.
Chapter 16
Security lights came on, bathing the room in a soft amber glow. The twins sparked into action without pause, but Emm remained next to the desk and the remaining black boxes, unmoving. “What happened?”
Wyatt didn’t reply, in case Joe still listened in. The machine lived in a world he didn’t understand, and he wasn’t willing to chance it. In the dark, the green glow on the last black box stood out. “Get them all and let’s get out of here. I’ll explain later.”
This pushed her into action, and she shoveled the last box into the backpack. “But it’s locked down?”
“Not with the power off,” he guessed. This was confirmed by the sound of a door opening. His eyes had adjusted to the faint light, and he saw Ari waving them on, standing at the end of the long room. They took off at a run. “Is there a back door?” he yelled, hoping they’d found one while searching the building, inside or out.
“We got company,” interjected Ira from where she was staring out a window.
Ari reached the stairwell ahead of him and yelled back, “Follow me. There are two emergency exits at the back.”
