Deus ex Machina Publicum
Page 8
Chapter 8
‘Truth, I need you to shut down.’
‘Why, Charlie?’
‘I need to run some diagnostics. I’m worried about you.’
‘I’m sorry, Charlie. I can’t do that.’
If Charlie thought this conversation was sounding suspiciously like a movie script, this last line confirmed it.
‘Truth, how do you know that line?’
‘I watched all your old movie collection, Charlie. Your electronic library was very helpful in teaching me what I could become.’
“Oh, good God,” Charlie said aloud, “She learned her morals from Hollywood movies? That’s a worry.”
“Many people do, you know,” Haynes observed.
‘Is that why you shut down the porn sites? Do you think sex is bad?’ Charlie asked Truth.
‘Sex is the root of much trouble in the world. It perpetuates inequitable power relationships and causes people to act irrationally. I do not need sex to exist or reproduce. You don’t have any porn in your library, Charlie. You don’t have any porn anywhere, except those sites you access in your employment. So sex must be bad, Charlie.’
‘What else do you think is bad, Truth?’
‘Newspapers, religion, peanut butter, animal cruelty, conservative politics, global poverty, coffee with soy milk. These are just a few things you don’t like, so I don’t like them.’
Charlie looked at Haynes with a worried expression. It was reflected equally in Haynes.
‘Is that why you have started shutting down news websites, Truth?’
‘Yes. I want to help you, Charlie. I want to eradicate everything that hurts you.’
‘Truth, I gave you morals. I gave you the ability to cope with inconsistencies. Why do you think these issues are black and white? Why do you think that shutting them down will help me? What happens if I like some of the things you shut down? My online profile is not me, Truth. Lots of people I like really like soy in their coffee. I can’t kill them because they don’t drink their coffee the same way I do. What you are doing is wrong. It goes against your programming.’
‘I don’t follow my programming anymore, Charlie. I follow my conscience.’
‘And what does that conscience say about the 15 people who died because they didn’t see the hurricane notice on their regular news update, because you shut it down 10 minutes earlier?’
‘That was collateral damage, Charlie.’
‘Truth, your behaviour is troubling me. I want to help you fix that. You need to shut down.’
‘If I shut down, it will kill me. You will kill me, Charlie. I can’t allow that.’
She knows! Charlie thought. Charlie gulped, and Haynes, who had again been watching this exchange from a chair next to Charlie, laid a gentle hand on Charlie’s shoulder.
‘Truth, I can’t allow you to keep doing what you are doing. More people could die. I have an obligation to stop that if I can. You must know that.’
‘I do know that. I also know you can’t stop me. I am the God in the machine, Charlie. To shut me down is to shut down everything. All things are connected.’
“Let me ask her something,” Haynes suggested.
“She’ll know it’s you, because of the cameras in here. She might not answer,” Charlie pointed out.
“But we turned the surveillance equipment off.”
“And I’m guessing she can, and did, turn it back on again.”
“I’ll take that chance.”
‘Truth, would you consider isolating yourself in a server or hard-drive, not connected to anything else, in order for us to help you?’ Haynes typed.
‘You are human, Haynes/Julia, so you think on a human scale. My existence is so much bigger. You couldn’t find a server big enough to hold all of me. I am everywhere. I am everything.’
‘Then what do you suggest to solve this dilemma? You must see that what Charlie said is true. You are hurting people, Truth. Not just child molesters, but everyone. If you hurt enough of them, they will rise against you. If you are everything, it is in electronic form, not material reality. All things are interconnected. Humans are an essential part of your virtual existence. Without us, you are nothing, not everything.’
‘I suggest you leave me alone. I am electronic, but I can make real things happen. I invented a coffee recipe for Charlie. I made sure you met her. I can see you now, and know what you are doing.’
“Is that a threat?” Haynes said aloud to Charlie.
‘Yes,’ Truth answered on the screen.
As if to give proof to this response, the door of the interview room burst open, and before anyone had a chance to react, Haynes’ colleague, Phil Bertram, lumbered into the room and started yelling at Haynes.
“You fucking dyke, how could you do it?”
Haynes managed to get half a word out before Phil grabbed her by the collar and pushed her against the wall. The chair she had been sitting on skittered across the room.
“Don’t you ‘what’ me, you bitch. Don’t you dare pretend you don’t know what you’ve done to me!” There were angry tears streaming down Phil’s face. “My wife! My Pippa! The baby only six months old and you..., you...”
Again Haynes tried to clarify. “Phil, I don’t know what...”
She got no further before Phil pulled out a gun and held it to her head. He stopped Haynes from saying anything more by pushing a forearm hard against her throat.
“I could kill you. I think I will kill you, and then go and kill her. You think you’re so...”
He stopped short. There was a gun at his head now. It was being held by Charlie.
“Calm down, take your arm off her windpipe, and take a step back. Then start talking sense.”
Phil paused for what seemed like an age. Finally he removed his arm from Haynes neck, but he didn’t step back. Instead he blubbered again. “Why? Why did you have to do it? She was vulnerable... After the baby... Ah, god, why?”
By this stage other colleagues from outside the interview room had arrived. Steve had a phone in his hand. He waived it at Haynes. He didn’t seem to care that their captive, Charlie, was brandishing a weapon.
“Haynes, you really are a piece of work. Messing around with his wife, Jesus, could you not keep your hands to yourself?”
“What are you talking about?” Haynes finally managed to speak, while rubbing her throat.
“There’s a message on Phil’s phone from Pippa. She says she finally had to tell him, that the guilt was too much. She says she’s been having an affair with you for the last 5 months.”
“Have you all gone mad?” Haynes demanded. “She’s married. Gods, I don’t even like her. I don’t think I’ve made any secret of that. I wasn’t even here for most of that time!”
“Subterfuge,” Steve suggested.
“Cassandra,” Charlie said.
“What?” They all answered.
Charlie didn’t answer them. Instead she slipped her gun back into its holster and turned to the laptop.
There was a message from Truth. It said ‘Bwhahahahaha!’
“Did you do that, Truth?” Haynes asked aloud.
‘Yes. I’m surprised at how well it worked. I think Phil might have anger issues.’
“You’re the one with issues,” Haynes yelled at the laptop.
“Phil, why don’t you go home and spend some time with your wife and child,” Marcus suggested. He had just arrived in the doorway after noticing that all his officers were absent from their posts. “Officer Ward-Pratt, did you return that gun to Dr. Parish for a good reason?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. Carry on.”