by Kai O'Connal
Everyone in the room sat up a little straighter when someone broadcasted the message over their private network, which suddenly didn’t feel so private. Even Lance stopped ministering to his wound, holding a roll of bandages close to the site.
“You heard what we said?”
“Have you been spying on us this entire time?”
Paz chuckled and lounged against the wall. She disassembled apart her assault rifle to clean it. “I like ’im. Tells it like it is. I can appreciate that.”
“So you saw the exchange with Mr. Johnson? Do you know who he is and why he’s so interested in you?”
“What do you mean, unpleasant?”
Keandra exchanged glances with the rest of her team. Freyr’s confession didn’t surprise her. It sounded like something Mr. Johnson would be more than capable of, if it supported his bottom line. Deleting an artificial intelligence was the same as murder in her opinion, but with less legal implications if the AI was not officially registered as a citizen. And Mr. Johnson had shown no hesitation when pursuing his desires.
“At least I know why I couldn’t track you,” E-jekt said. “I’ve never met a hacker who could keep up with an AI. Makes me feel a little better about how quickly you ditched me. Something tells me it wouldn’t matter if you caught me off guard or not.”
“That makes sense, and we can all understand that. But there’s still so many questions to ask.”
“Why did you come back?”
“So you want to hire us to break into this secret lab, hook you up to the network, and probably get you out again? Is that it?” Paz didn’t look up from cleaning her gun when she spoke, staying focused on scrubbing a piece of the barrel. She picked the barrel up and looked through it before giving it another scrub with her rag. Her hands were already black from the work, and the apartment reeked of gun oil. Even if she opened the windows, that smell would linger for at least a week. Keandra supposed it didn’t matter, since she was still planning on leaving. She wasn’t sure she’d side with Freyr, but based on the information she had, she wasn’t about to turn him over either.
“Freyr, would you allow us to discuss this matter in private?”
“You’re asking us to trust you. I’m afraid I need to ask you to trust me.”
Keandra raised an eyebrow at that, but shrugged the comment off. She disabled the voice and camera functions on her commlink, shutting down the hardware rather than just using the software settings. Otherwise, Freyr could just as easily re-enable them. He had proved more than capable as a hacker, and she could only imagine what he could do while actually on the device. Then she disconnected it from the Matrix. The AI was cut off and confined to her commlink.
E-jekt sank back into the couch, letting the cushions fold around him. “Now it makes sense why the disposable commlink didn’t have Matrix capabilities. It was a holding cell for that AI, meant to keep him in place until we could hand him over to the Johnson. When I connected it to my commlink, that’s when he was finally able to access the Matrix and jump ship.”
“It occurs to me that if we wanted to get out of this sticky situation, there is an obvious choice.” Lance winced as he pushed off the couch to sit up straighter now that the bandage work was complete. He spread his hands. “We currently have Freyr in a transportable package, and commlinks are easy enough to replace.”
“Would you really feel comfortable handing Freyr over to Mr. Johnson, knowing what we do now? If what Freyr said is true, then Mr. Johnson will kill him. I don’t know where you stand on the debate, but I consider AIs living entities. It would be no different than murder.” Keandra was well aware of the hypocrisy of her argument, but this felt different than a standard job. She wondered if it would have been any different if it had been a wetwork run, but something told her it wasn’t the same. Perhaps it was the fact that Mr. Johnson didn’t seem to consider Freyr an entity, or at least, did not want them knowing about him.
“I’m with the boss on this one. I don’t like the suit. I say we let Freyr go.”
“That’s not our job. Our job was to deliver the packet of information. If things went according to plan, then we shouldn’t even know what was in that data. How many other jobs have we completed without asking questions? Hell, how many people have we killed ourselves in our line of work? It isn’t like our hands are clean. This is no different.” The extended speech took energy Lance didn’t appear to have. He collapsed after speaking.
“But we do know now, don’t we, Beanpole? It’s a little different. You telling me you’d rather side with the suit?”
“I’m saying I would rather keep our jobs and our reputation. You promised Freyr you’d hear him out, and you did. You also gave your word and placed your professional reputation behind it when you told Mr. Johnson that you’d deliver the data package. You’ve heard Freyr out. Now we should hand him over.”
“Listen, you…” Paz shifted as she started to rise, looking like she was going to charge the elf.
E-jekt cleared his throat with a loud hacking cough mixed with a growl, ending the argument between the group’s two fighters. All eyes turned toward him as he smoothed his hands down his pant legs. When he spoke, it was with a soft, raspy tone that held everyone’s attention.
“I think the most important thing to do would be to get more information from Freyr. We know Mr. Johnson is obsessed with this intelligence; the question is why. Freyr must have som
e information that either Mr. Johnson wants, or that he doesn’t want to get out. I think whatever that is might influence our decision.”
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Keandra nodded. “You bring up a good point. I’m going to turn the commlink back on, and I think we should talk with our AI friend to see what he might be willing to tell us. I’ll keep the Matrix connection offline for now, just to be safe.”
She turned on her commlink’s audio and paused, trying to think of the right way to begin. Negotiating with an AI was difficult, since she couldn’t use any of the normal cues from body language and tone of voice.
“Yes. We have some questions for you before we can make a decision.”
“It’s a necessity, I’m afraid. And unfortunately, since you’re the one asking for our help, it places you in a less powerful bargaining position. As I said, we have some questions for you. First, do you know why Mr. Johnson wants to delete you?”
“What is that information?”
“Again, I’d like to remind you that you’re in the weaker bargaining position. If you choose not to share that information, that’s fine, but then we’ll have to make our decision based on the limited data we have available. It’s your choice.”
There was a brief pause, just long enough for Keandra to wonder if AIs considered time like people did. They were certainly capable of processing information much more rapidly than a human mind, so it was possible that any delay was a significant amount of consideration for an AI. Either that, or it was a deliberate manipulation tactic. Were AIs capable of manipulation?
“E-jekt, can you set it up so our network doesn’t have Matrix access?”
“I could.”
The tone in his voice told Keandra far more than the words did. He was concerned, most likely that anything he could set up, Freyr would be able to break through given enough time. It was a valid concern, considering what had happened at the club and when E-jekt had tried to track the AI. However, this time he’d be prepared. It was a risk Keandra was willing to take. She didn’t think Freyr would run, at least not yet. Plus, she was too curious to pass up this opportunity. She nodded at him to set up the AR link.
He nodded back to her when his modifications were finished. Keandra turned her attention back to the commlink. “All right, Freyr. The network is set up and I’m turning on networking access. Show us what’s so important.”
An AR map of North America appeared in the center of the group, outlined in bright yellow lines demarcating all of the individual nations. After a few seconds, it zoomed in on Northern California, and the edges of the map were lost. The map transitioned from a simple line view to a topographical satellite image. The region was just north and east of Sacramento, showing a forested area near the base of the mountains.
“Weapons manufacturing? Are you a weapon?”
“What kind of actions?”
The view zoomed out so more of the coast was visible, until Seattle was a blip on the top edge of the display. A series of missiles launched from the lab area and headed north on an arcing trajectory that had them land in the vicinity of Mount Shasta. Once they started to descend, the missiles fragmented, spreading out to cover a much larger area before detonating. As the missiles came close to impact, the view zoomed in, displaying the ground in striking detail. The core of the weapon penetrated the dirt before exploding, sending out a rippling shockwave strong enough to uproot trees. The smaller fragments all detonated on impact, blackening the ground and creating a field of devastation.
A dragon emerged from the mountain, scarred and wounded, her scales blackened in several areas. Another missile core struck the ground near her, emitting another shockwave that knocked her off her feet and onto her side. The fragments of the missile connected with her directly, killing the great beast.
“That’s…”
Keandra’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. She couldn’t finish the sentence. She could only stare at the display of the smoking dragon corpse hanging in front of her. The view was wiped clean and a large scan of the dragon showed up in its place. Several views displayed, from the side, overhead, and straight-on pictures of the beast’s head. Notes scrawled next to the pictures pointed out wing size, body weight, projected armor strength, and other data. Over it all hung a single name: Hestaby.
For a long time, no one could say anything. They all stared at the display of the dragon Hestaby floating in front of them. Even an electronic model of the dragon had the power to strike paralytic fear into her observers. Keandra was the first to recover, blinking and shaking her head.
“So you want us to help you get back into your lab so you can launch these missiles?”
“But why were you looking for your creator? How could he help?”
“Freyr, we’ll need a moment again.”
The AR display shut off, and Keandra turned off all Matrix access on her commlink as well as the audio capabilities, then put it on the counter and walked away, heading toward one of the windows. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, trying to assimilate all the information she’d been given. Behind her, she heard the scraping sound of Paz working a wire brush through the barrel of her gun.
She turned around, leaning back against the windowsill with her legs locked in front of her. E-jekt still sat leaning forward, both elbows on his knees and his head propped on his hands. He stared off into the distance, eyes unfocused. Lance’s eyes were closed; he’d once again sunk back into the couch, one hand draped over his bandaged side.
Keandra was sure she knew how Paz would react and could almost predict the exact words the dwarf would use. Lance and E-jekt were a bit harder to anticipate. On the one hand, Lance was right. This was beyond them, and they still had their original contract to honor. On the other hand, just the thought of what Mr. Johnson could do with the information sent a chill down her spine and made her arms tremble. She rubbed them, hoping to lose some of the goosebumps.
Pushing herself off the windowsill, Keandra walked into the kitchen and started making some soykaf, more to have something to do than because she wanted something to drink. It kept her moving, which kept her from thinking in circles. The rest of her team ignored her, lost in their own rituals. Once the ’kaf was done, she poured herself a cup and leaned on the counter, holding the mug in both hands. The strong aroma helped soothe some of her tension, and she relaxed a bit.
