by A. Omukai
The uncomfortable bed under him moved. The table he lay on vibrated, and what little orientation he had left disappeared.
“This won’t hurt. Don’t worry about the bonds, they’re there to make sure you don’t move too much and ruin the scan.”
Daniel tried to say “no problem”, but only a mumble came over his lips. The world had started to rotate, but his mind was already clearing up slowly. What an odd sensation. He hadn’t ever been under the effect of this drug yet.
He tried to stay calm. If she had intended to kill him, she’d have already done so.
Three sharp beeps sounded louder than they probably were. He could hear his heart beating, a little motor inside the bed revving up, and the rustling of the doctor’s breath. Lively as she might have been, she wasn’t in great health. He restrained laughter with some effort, as he realized this wasn’t even funny. Progress.
“So this is how it works,” she said and nodded at her guard, helper, whatever his role was.
The restraints around his ankles retracted, then they were gone. The man helped him sit up and stepped back again. Daniel almost lost his balance, but propped himself on the bed.
“How long have you been using the second chip, agent…?”
“Collins,” he said before he could stop himself.
She smiled, but now he didn’t care anymore. She was a dangerous criminal, and he had a duty to eliminate or at least report, but he wouldn’t be the sword to bring her down.
“Not long, only for about six weeks.”
“Six weeks, not bad. You’re remarkably lucky, Agent Collins. You could have died of an aneurysm already.” She looked at him with her misty green eyes and frowned with what appeared to be genuine concern. She was a doctor after all, he conceded.
“What can I do about it?”
Her eyes turned vacant for a moment, then she refocused on him.
“There’s no straightforward way to fix this and have both systems in working condition. If you want to use both, you’ll need surgery. Personally, I’d take the minor cut behind the ear and remove the rogue chip.”
He shook his head. None of this was going to happen. No time for surgery, and he wouldn’t surrender what the chip had given him.
“What other options do I have?” His voice had almost returned to normal. His head still felt light, but at least the world had stopped spinning around him.
“There are no other options. You can run your chips like this and everything will work just fine until it doesn’t. And that will be the end of your story.”
He thought for a moment, while his head continued to clear up.
“How long?”
She shrugged. “You seem healthy, if a bit tired. But make no mistake, that has no effect on how well your brain will deal with the strain. You should have experienced some interesting phenomena already.”
Interesting phenomena, one could call it that. It wouldn’t have been his first choice of words, though. He closed his eyes for a moment and made a decision.
“I’ll come back, and when I do, I’ll let you do the surgery.”
“So your colleagues won’t kick in my door to find the clinic abandoned tonight?”
Daniel laughed. “No, doctor…?”
“Newman,” she answered. The man next to the door didn’t look happy, but he didn’t speak up.
12
Makoto
The atmosphere in the lab was unusually relaxed. I hung up my jacket, put down the bag, sat down on my chair at the consoles and finally figured out what was different.
“Where’s Ishida?” I asked.
Tanaka, one of the two debuggers who had been busy ripping out diagnosis code from the former testing system, shrugged at me. He never talked much and didn’t seem to have much interest in anything but code. He turned back to his work, a holographic representation of a certain piece of the program he was working on, and that was the end of our ‘talk’.
“He didn’t come today. Maybe later?” Inoue said.
Her face didn’t show much interest in the subject either.
This put me in a tough spot. Uehara’s new orders required me to expand our team, but he hadn’t put me in the situation to do it. I had considered trying to get another agent in through this rare opening, but thinking about it again, I abandoned the idea. Too much exposure, unneeded redundancy.
I cleared my throat. “I have something to talk about with you guys.”
None of them looked in my direction. We were all busy all the time, not much leeway for private conversations. The situation had changed now though, and I needed them to hear what was going on.
“I was at Uehara’s place yesterday and spoke with him about the project. We are going to develop a new AI from a prototype he said he’d buy,” I said, which instantly drew attention by all three of my colleagues. They looked at me with expectation written on their faces.
“What prototype?” Inoue asked.
“When I spoke with him yesterday, I told him that only an advanced AI could use the positronic fully. We agreed on that, right?”
“Yes, we did. What about the prototype?” She wouldn’t let me off the hook.
“It seems someone developed a general AI,” I said, and they stared at me with eyes wide open.
“Since it’s a prototype, there will still be some work left to do on it.”
The lab lay in silence, I couldn’t even make out the sound of their breaths. When one of them moved a little and their chair squeaked, I continued.
“That’s why I need to talk with Ishida. Uehara told me to build a team, and I suppose our project leader would want to be the one to deal with that.”
Kaneko, a tall man in his 20s, whose hairline had already receded to the point he had decided to just shave it all off, opened his mouth to speak.
“Maybe that’s why he isn’t here,” he said.
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows.
“Check with the HR department?”
Inoue nodded, and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it myself. Of course Uehara had instructed him right after my visit, and naturally, he was there first thing in the morning, dictating his exact demands. He wouldn’t let anyone else take the initiative, especially not after he had just failed and probably felt desperate to redeem himself. I could see him before my inner eye, hands on his hips, keys dangling from his belt.
“I will do just that,” I said and moved to the door, then turning to the elevators in the hallway, lingering for a moment, as I got over my hesitation.
***
“Ishida? No. Can I help you with anything else?”
The man sitting at his desk, staring up from a pile of paper, looked at me and waited.
The HR department was a brightly lit, all-white office with no personality. There were sixteen people working here, sitting at four long desks that separated the room into an outer rim and a central zone. A massive, rectangular block stood there with slits that told me it was a retractable filing cabinet, originating from an opening in the ceiling. All of them appeared to be busy, all of them handling stacks of paper in an age of digital information. This felt so wrong, and yet very fitting. The everybody-looking-busy-at-all-times part was just smoke and mirrors. Different from how our department operated, but not unusual in most office environments. I knew all about it; I had worked in one during my four years at the university.
Paper though had magically resisted the march of time. Filed sheets, printed, signed and stamped the way the ancestors had done it. Be paper, I thought, and remembered where I was, just in time to suppress a smile that could lead to misunderstandings. My mood had improved for the moment.
“I have orders from Mr. Uehara, I need personnel for a project. How do I go about it?”
The man looked down at his stack of paper and stiffened. He didn’t move at all for almost a minute before he looked up and nodded.
“I have the orders in the queue. What exactly do you need?”
I hesitated.
I had no one to ask for advice and remembered Daisuke. I’d have to update him before I proceeded.
Yes, moving forward and getting things done were important. The sooner we were successful, the sooner I could take a look at the world’s first general AI, the long awaited, historical singularity. Rushing though could make things more problematic than they had to be and lead down a path that could end in failure.
“I’ll check something first and come back later.” I said and bowed, then turned around to go.
I would at least confirm this with Ishida. Maybe Uehara had called him in?
***
The elevator opened, and I stepped back into the eternal spring of Uehara’s lobby. Cherry blossoms dancing in the soft, indirect light on the walls. I stepped forward silently on the soft carpet, but the elevator had announced my arrival - probably even the moment I had selected this floor as my destination. The secretary looked up, met my gaze and opened her mouth to speak before I had the chance to.
“Mr. Suzuki, what can I do for you?”
A tiny glitch in her voice, barely noticeable, confirmed my first impression, that she wasn’t human. That wasn’t really a surprise. She had looked perfectly normal to my untrained eye, and I wasn’t even sure I had heard her right, but now that I had heard it, other things about her stood out. Her skin was a bit too perfect. Makeup could do that, I reminded myself, but her pupils grew in size abruptly, to refocus on the elevator doors closing automatically. Too quickly, or maybe all this was the product of my nervousness. After all, Uehara was working with the Winter Court, which meant there would be surprises at every corner.
“I’m… I am looking for Mr. Ishida. He is not in the labs, and I couldn’t find him anywhere, so I thought, maybe, since we got this new project…”
Her posture froze for several seconds, and I could almost see the impulses running through what I now assumed to be her quantum brain. I counted my breath, but forced myself to stop. Not now.
“Mr. Ishida hasn’t entered the building today,” she said, and this time, her voice sounded perfectly normal, but her eyelashes were still too long to be natural, and they still didn’t look like extensions. The suit she wore was still the same she had worn last time.
She was so close to being human; I wondered if the positronic we had built could elevate her to perfection.
If we got the system right, especially since the prototype was a general AI. Maybe whatever we’d create would even exceed human perfection.
Sudden excitement washed away my nervousness.
“So, should I take matters in my own hands and start the hiring process?” I asked.
“I will forward your question to Mr. Uehara, but he won’t be in office for another hour. I’ll contact you and update you as soon as possible.”
This was not a solution for my problem, but her formal answer in now obviously scripted business Japanese satisfied me for now. Given the situation, I couldn’t do much at the moment, but wait.
13
Daniel
The call interrupted his sleep in the middle of a dream. Its contents drifted away as he tried to grab them, unwilling to let them go.
The alarm in his head showed no mercy. It kept going and drove away the last remnants of the dreamscape, leaving him drowsy and disoriented, yet alert.
He accepted and opened the connection. It was the bishop.
“Agent Collins!” His Excellency said. His voice was loud and way too lively for four o’clock in the morning. The high pitch didn’t make it any better. A call in the middle of the night however could only mean one thing.
“I want you to come to the agency as fast as possible. You aren’t busy, are you?”
Daniel didn’t take it as a question and felt little need to answer.
“Be there shortly,” he said.
The bishop nodded and ended the call. Normally a man of many words, his calls were always short and concise. Not one word too much.
He switched on a window display at the wall and noticed the rain. He could have done without, he decided, and got out of bed.
***
Daniel stepped into one of the briefing rooms, not the bishop’s office this time. His Excellency wasn’t alone. A man in the red robe of the Inquisition Office stood in a corner, but didn’t say a word. His would-be partner, Daniel knew.
The briefing room had the map of an unknown building opened, in a hologram on the table. There was only one chair in this room, unoccupied behind the desk with the holo. Bishop Fisher was pacing up and down.
“Have you seen the news, Daniel?” The old man wanted to know.
The agent shook his head.
“Those Chinese heretics are blaming us for the destruction of their AI. First they announced their precious system smugly, now someone took it from them, and all they get is schadenfreude from all over the world. The price of pride.” The mix of anger and derision in the bishop’s voice was almost contagious, but Daniel had his emotions under control.
“Why us?”
Fisher stopped his rounds, smoothed his robe and walked over to his desk to sit down.
“Their AI is a total loss, the whole complex exploded. The Chinese assume someone came to destroy it, and who but us would have an interest in doing that?”
Daniel contemplated the thought for a moment, but wasn’t convinced.
“They must have found out it’s being sold, too.”
Heretics or not, they weren’t stupid.
“God knows their thought process, I do not, but they have the audacity to blame us and call us liars. His Holiness will not stand for that.” Bishop Fisher’s head took on a red tone while speaking, talking himself into a rage, but Daniel wasn’t interested in listening to a sermon in the middle of the night. Another episode had plagued him on the way here, in his capsule, and he had suppressed it with the drug he had obtained just recently. Now all his senses were hyperactive, and the words of the bishop kept hammering in his head. It would take a while for the side-effects to abate.
The Inquisitor in the room had been watching them in silence, and he didn’t intervene now either. Collins couldn’t see his eyes under the hood of the robe, and the face was expressionless.
“About the mission…”
The bishop looked irritated for a moment. A deep frown lay on his face, as he turned his gaze on Daniel, then the cloud passed and he changed the topic.
“We found out that whoever stole it, will sell it. We also found out when this will happen. There are three possible locations listed in the report though, but since you’ll be on your way immediately, we won’t be able to find out the last details in time for your departure. We might get that information while you’re on your way, but if we don’t, it will be your task to find out. All we know is that the transaction will take place in Europe, Frankfurt.”
Frankfurt was a big city. It was the second biggest on that continent, after the quakes had destroyed London, and only Paris had a higher population. Europe was among the last regions still inhabitable on the surface. The rising sea levels and the devastating storms everywhere else in the world hadn’t been too bad there yet. The population had exploded, and the city grew into a true megalopolis. He’d have a hard time finding out where the transaction would happen in time to intercept it, but that was a problem he’d deal with when he got there.
“Any details about the buyer?”
The bishop shrugged. “Does it matter?”
This, Collins knew, was a rhetorical question.
“When will the sub be ready?” he asked instead.
“We arranged your departure for nine o’clock. You’ll have time to go home and pack your bags, but not much more.”
“Understood.”
“Your partner will be Brother Gregor, he will wait for you at the harbour.”
Bishop Fisher gestured towards the inquisitor who now moved for the first time since Daniel had entered the room. The slender figure nodded, and for a split-second, the hood sled back just enough to reveal the man’s glowing red eyes.
Daniel felt like sighing, but stopped himself from doing so. He nodded instead.
***
Daniel was stuffing a shirt into his suitcase when his call finally connected. He stopped the music he had been listening to when it did, the other side had taken its sweet time. He saw the small first aid kit he had prepared earlier. It sat on his counter, and he snatched it, too. Maybe it would come in handy at some point.
“I’ll need a favour,” Daniel said instead of a greeting. The man in the window on top of his field of vision laughed.
“What is it, cultist?”
Collins hadn’t expected a warm response. He would let it slide this time.
“I need you guys to take care of someone. He’ll be on his way to the eastern docks and arrive there a bit before nine o’clock.”
“Take care…?” the man asked.
“Just keep him busy for a while. It’s better to not kill him.”
The man’s eyebrows shot up, and he stopped chewing whatever was in his mouth.
“Who’s that guy you want us to play with?”
“To be honest, he’s from the Inquisition Office. Just keep him occupied for a few minutes, so he won’t get on board of my sub, and we’ll be even.” He sent the information packet he had assembled earlier.