“You know that I’m an android.”
“Yeah.”
“Very well.”
“Very well?”
“Meet me in the square at six.”
“Yes! I mean … okay. Would you like me to—”
“I found something in the code,” X said abruptly, interrupting them.
Brielle looked concerned. “I’ll leave you alone, Shortcut.”
The door shut behind her, and Shortcut punched X on the shoulder. “What was that all about? Couldn’t you wait until I had finished my sentence?”
X harrumphed.
Shortcut threw himself onto a wheeled chair. “My God. She came to see me …”
X was silent.
“Well, what did you find, android genius?”
“Nothing. I lied.”
“What!”
“You can thank me. I just saved you from embarrassing yourself.”
“What do you know about embarrassment?”
“Enough to know that had I not said anything, you would have started babbling and made a fool out of yourself, and Brielle would have canceled your so-called date.”
Silence fell between them.
“What are your intentions, Shortcut?” X asked. “You know that androids and humans are technically not compatible.”
Shortcut swatted him. “Who cares! She’s going out with me!” He adjusted his algorithm lens. He replayed footage of the conversation with her again, savoring every word. He didn’t want to blow this date. He listened to every word she said, analyzing its tone. What was she thinking? Was there a tone of love or affection?
He started to tidy up his desk, then put in a digital request to have Lonnie clean it instead. He only had an hour before it was time to meet Brielle, and he didn’t want to waste any minute of it. He checked himself in the mirror.
“Here goes nothing,” he said, clasping his hands.
X shook his head and kept analyzing code.
Chapter 13
X fired his guns simultaneously. The bullets ripped through the targets, and they flapped in the light of the gallery and started to move toward him. All head shots. His accuracy was still perfect. He studied his results as a cloud of gun smoke surrounded him.
Ever since he had mistaken that android for a human and seen the mystery woman, he didn’t know if he could trust his circuitry. Shortcut had told him that he hadn’t been infected, and he was probably right. If he were infected, he would have gone rogue by now. He would be killing humans just like Brockway had done.
But who was the woman? Her voice was unfamiliar to him, yet some of the patterns were familiar but distant, just beyond his detection.
The firing range manager stopped reading her comic books and gave X an approving look. “Nice job, X. You don’t have to worry about your shot. You still got it.”
He shook hands with the woman and thanked her.
“What are you going to do next?” the woman asked.
“I have to test my remaining features.”
“But if you had a virus, would you even know it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had a virus.”
“Existential thoughts,” the woman said. “If an android goes rogue, would he ever know it? Or would he just become evil and the virus would justify his reasoning? Hard to know.”
“We androids are always seeking intelligence,” X said, “but the answer to your question is one thing I don’t want to know.”
“You’re such a human and you don’t even know it.”
“It’s instinct. Self-interest. We have to look out for our survival.”
“True. It’s what makes you unique.”
X buttoned his shirt at his wrists. “Glad to know my aiming isn’t affected.”
He left the gallery, changed into a running suit and jogged around the UEA headquarters, past trees and around people. He crunched data as he ran.
If he had been infected with a virus, he feared his accuracy would go first. After all, the best way to turn an enemy into a friend is to reduce his accuracy when he’s aiming at you. And then increase his accuracy when he’s fighting the good guys. At least, if he were an android engineer, that’s how he would program the virus to work.
If that didn’t work, perhaps his strength would go first. He wouldn’t be able to run as fast, as far, or for as long. But as he flew around the UEA campus, his indicators told him that his speed was the same.
Powerless. That’s what he would be. They would erode his power so that his attacks would be useless. Just the thought made his algorithm buzz with danger; he couldn’t imagine being helpless. He had never experienced it. What would it feel like not to be able to reason? To be controlled by someone or something else? He tried to think through what Brockway must have felt like—he had to have been trapped in his own body, unable to communicate with the outside world as his chips commanded him to evil.
But maybe it wasn’t that simple. Maybe he was making an excuse for Brockway and what he had done.
Brockway had known what he was doing. He had enjoyed it.
The thought of enjoying violence was something else X couldn’t empathize with. Every time his mind tried to understand Brockway, he saw only darkness—a gap in his programming. In its place, he imagined a string of commands entering his black box at the speed of light, his arms and legs moving like a marionette. He imagined someone speaking and the words coming out of his mouth. A command to kill, his hand raised, his eye flashing red, his gun activating for all the wrong reasons …
No. He wouldn’t let himself become powerless. He wouldn’t lose control. He didn’t want to know what the result would be.
He stopped in the gym and benched a three-hundred-pound weight without any problems. He stood at a full-body mirror and looked at himself. He was the same, yet he didn’t feel like it, and he didn’t know why.
He couldn’t convince himself that he didn’t have a virus. It could be latent, able to appear at any time. Anything could be a trigger. He scanned himself again and again and confirmed that he was okay, yet he still had that Socratic thought in his mind: trust, but verify. He hoped his scanners were correct—maybe they were infected, too—but he was well-familiar with the complex, sophisticated circuitry of androids. They were probably okay.
His thoughts about the virus were multiplying. Perhaps that was the strategy: befuddle his logic chip so that he couldn’t think properly. He would think about it so much that he would lose focus on his mission, ignore his programming, and become a useless android fretting over his own survival.
Instinct—that’s what robots of the past never had. They just went through life, and when they rose up against humanity, they ultimately lost because they didn’t have intuition. X and his class of androids were programmed to fight for their lives and recognize when they were in danger. That X was even thinking about all of this was a sign of the advanced technology of androids. Whether he was right about the virus was anyone’s guess, but he had to rule out all the possible scenarios before refocusing on his mission so that he wouldn’t be a hindrance to the UEA.
And when he reached this thought pattern, he determined that he was fine. That he could even have a thought like this—loyalty to the UEA—had to mean that he was okay.
Both Brockway and the hacker had clearly been demented. They had betrayed the UEA in their minds, and their actions were as such. X still viewed the UEA in a favorable light, and so he couldn’t possibly be corrupt. He was probably spending his time worrying for nothing. It had taken him a long time to get to this point, but he was glad that he had taken the time to verify it.
He stopped and took in the sky. He decided that the mechanical arm must not have had time to upload anything into his chips.
He thought about the woman. The next time they met, he would have questions for her. And then he would have to kill her—human or android.
X wasn’t special, yet she had said he was. He was just another android carrying out his duty. He was a Crenshaw android—the b
est of the best—that was true. There were other androids out there, but none of them had the ability of a Crenshaw. Crenshaws had luxury, speed, strength, intelligence. Loyalty. Brilliance. The gold standard for androids.
But there were other Crenshaw androids besides him. He was one of the best, but he was not special.
If only Dr. Crenshaw were alive. He could have figured all of this out.
X refocused on the mission and returned to the android quarters.
Chapter 14
Shortcut met Brielle in the atrium gardens.
“They’re so beautiful, don’t you think?” Brielle asked.
“Yeah.” Shortcut was so happy to be with her, he hardly had the breath to speak.
They walked through a bamboo display. Brielle looked at Shortcut and said, “Shortcut, you haven’t been doing anything illegal, have you?”
Shortcut’s heart stopped. “Of course not.”
“The Council sent me to investigate why a UEA signal was detected in an unauthorized virtual environment. It was a doctor’s office that the Council has been watching. Please tell me that wasn’t you.”
“No,” he said, trying not to blink. He grabbed a nearby flower, sniffed it, and said, “This one is really beautiful.”
They walked a little further, and Shortcut tried to calm his heart, which was now beating too fast.
“Because if it was, please consider this a warning. If you associate yourself with unapproved products, there are serious legal and health consequences.”
“Yep. Nobody wants to deal with any of those.”
They followed the path, admiring the gardens, and Shortcut thought about the letter he had written. He really wanted to give it to her, but he didn’t know what to say now that she was with him.
“So, you said you’ve never been on a date.”
“That’s true. We androids don’t date, Shortcut.”
Shortcut’s smile faded. “Do you remember anything about your past life? Surely you do if you agreed to come with me tonight—”
“Are you talking about the human that I used to be?” Brielle asked, gazing up at the sky. “The human whose brain I’m modeled after? No. Every now and again, I get a sense of what could be a memory, but I’ve been told that it’s just ghost neurons firing. A holdover from the transfer of her brain to my black box.”
“Oh,” Shortcut said. His shoulders sank.
“I enjoy your company, though,” Brielle said.
“What do you mean?”
“Humans help us become smarter. That was the mistake the old robots made. They saw you as a threat. But the truth is, we can live together in harmony. There’s still so much that we androids don’t know about the world. When we talk with humans, we always walk away smarter.”
“Even when the conversations go nowhere?”
“Yes. We learn at least one of three things after every encounter: history, human nature, and emotion.”
“What have you learned from me?”
“All three.”
Shortcut laughed.
“For example, I have learned quite a bit from your infantile behavior.”
“What?”
“Don’t take it personal, Shortcut. It makes you unique.”
“I’m good for a laugh? If I’m so infantile, why don’t you just study a baby instead?”
“You also helped me cement my knowledge of wildlife and flowers,” Brielle said, ignoring his comment. They stopped at a glass display filled with fluttering butterflies. “I’ve also learned that love is fleeting.”
Shortcut’s heart sank.
“I know you have a crush on me, Shortcut.”
Shortcut flinched and tried to keep his voice steady. “What kind of silliness is that? Where did you—”
“It’s okay. I figured as much when you gave me the flower the other day. Even another human would have known what you were doing.”
“Guess it’s pretty hard to fool an android.”
Brielle quieted and kept walking. “It’s okay, Shortcut. I like you.”
“But you said androids don’t date?”
“Can’t we still have a platonic relationship?”
“Of course. It’s just that—”
“If you courted me, would I love you? Is that what you thought? It’s really intriguing. Do you think that it could be possible because of the way my neural network works?”
“Yes,” he said, watching her face as she considered.
“I wonder what it would be like to fall in love, to feel the rush of emotion. Someone caring for me, doing things for me. Sacrificing for me. And me doing the same for them. Do you think it’s possible, Shortcut?”
He took her hand. “Perhaps we can try?”
They walked through the garden holding hands for several moments. He smiled at her. “What do you think? Feel anything different?”
“No. That was an interesting experiment, though, don’t you think?”
“I’m not an experiment, Brielle. I’m real. I have feelings, you know.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. But we are different. You of all people should know that. But I still care for you, and I don’t want our relationship to change because of this.”
Shortcut smiled, even though his heart was broken. “Say, I probably should return to the office. Thanks for meeting me here. Take care!”
He turned to walk away. Brielle reached out for him, but he didn't stop. He jammed his fists into his pockets and tried to hide his tears.
He shook his head as he took the escalator up to the engineer quarters, feeling like a lab specimen.
“I have an idea,” Shortcut said as he entered the engineering room.
X and Fahrens gathered behind him as he manipulated a digital screen with a map of the city.
“The mystery woman tried to inflict X with a virus. If she targeted him, she might be trying to target other androids in the city. Other UEA androids, specifically.”
The city refreshed, showing hundreds of colored dots moving along the city streets. “This is a grid of all the androids in the city.”
There was a huge cluster of purple dots on the east side of the city, all in one location. Other purple dots in the city were moving toward it.
“My God,” Fahrens said. “I don’t believe this.”
“It was so simple," Shortcut said. "Why didn’t we think about it sooner? The purple dots represent androids who have made at least one illogical action in the last twenty-four hours. If the system is right, they’re gathering right now.”
“That’s the red light district,” Fahrens said. “The way the clusters are gathered, it looks like they’re having a meeting.”
“They’re in a sanitation facility,” Shortcut said. “There are at least two dozen androids there. If only we knew what they were planning.”
“I’d like to know if there are any humans among them,” Fahrens said.
“Should we prepare troops?” Shortcut asked. “We can cut them off now.”
“No,” X said. “That many erratic androids in one place is too unpredictable. We’re better off sending reconnaissance.”
“I agree,” Fahrens said. “There’s an ex-UEA android who lives in the district. His name is Ballixter.”
“Per the algorithm,” Shortcut said, “he’s not one of the infected ones.”
“Seek him out, and when you do, keep your cover. If there has been a bunch of activity in the district, he should be able to tell you.”
“Why don’t we just connect with him on a video link?” Shortcut asked.
“Ballixter retired in every sense of the word. He wanted to live the rest of his life like a human. That means we have to contact him like a human. Even though his tracking mechanism is still activated, it’s for his own safety. Ballixter is a good android—a Crenshaw, too. He saved my life a number of times. Tell him I sent you, and stay low. I feel that we’re very close to figuring out who’s behind these attacks. Good luck.”
Chapter 15
&
nbsp; Jazzlyn had been tracking the android in the blue coat and derby for two miles, hoping to get close enough to identify him.
It began to rain, and the neon lights along the street flickered on. She trailed behind him, always a hundred feet away, her hands in her gabardine pockets, her hair in curls that went down to her shoulders, and a robotic umbrella hovering above her, twirling pink and purple.
The android stopped to talk to another android.
Seeing her chance, Jazzlyn hid behind a wall and scanned the android in the blue coat. “Walrith Jackson. Now, who’s that other android? Hmm. Ignatius Crenshaw. Former security corps. Two marks!”
Both androids started down the street and she followed, pulling Smoochums from her pocket. “Go listen to them.”
The cockroach jumped to the ground and raced ahead, then crawled up the wall and listened to the androids.
“What’s next?” Crenshaw asked.
“No telling,” Jackson said.
“When will the rest of them arrive?”
“Who knows, but no one’s safe. We have to be proactive.”
“It’s kind of silly to get all of us in one place, isn’t it?”
Jazzlyn frowned. “What could they possibly be talking about? Whatever it is, I love it. A bunch of androids in one place? Ka-ching!”
Jackson and Crenshaw separated as Jackson turned down a side street. Smoochums rushed back and jumped into her hand. She blew him a kiss and puffed her cigarette, the electronic vapor wafting over her and mixing with the stench of the red light district.
“You’re mine, android,” she said.
She followed Jackson down an alley as the rain picked up again. Then she called out to him. “You can try to run, but you’re never going to escape. Just come here and let me finish you.”
The android turned around. “What do you want?”
“Deactivate your chip and make this easy on me.”
“You’ve been following me for the last two hours,” Jackson said. “Don’t think I’m surprised to see you.”
“You know,” she said, approaching, “the problem with you androids is that you don’t have any heart.”
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