by Tony Batton
"I only do things because I want to," Kara said.
"I thought you did them because of the plan."
"It can be both."
"Was even the archery contest you challenged me to on my first visit part of the plan?"
"That was just fun. There’s no rule against showing off."
"Or cheating?"
"I don’t cheat."
"But, aren’t you constantly being fed information telling you what to do, and what not to do? How can that not be cheating?"
"That’s not how Darwin works. With limited cycles, the system is highly context-aware. It responds to what is happening: only if it believes the situation is tactical, or of particular relevance, will it activate."
He stared at her. And then his eyes flicked to the inside of his glasses. "Well, since we’re stuck here, how about some more fun. You said you wanted a contest. Maybe I’ll surprise you this time."
"Is that right?" Kara walked over to the nearby archery range. She selected a bow and nocked an arrow then, with barely a glance, sent the arrow flying. It struck just off the centre of the bullseye. "Tell you what. I’ll give you three shots. Because I’m so fair."
"Very impressive. Except you cheated. You’re still wearing your glasses. And this is likely a tactical situation."
Kara hesitated. "My, my, Mr Adams, you surprise me. Who told you about that?" She snapped her fingers. "Had to be Morton. I didn’t have time to… debrief him." She gave a snort and removed her glasses, folding them and hanging them from her shirt. "You’re still going to lose. What do I get if I win?"
Michael shrugged. "The right to watch me continue suffering."
"I already have that. Past consideration is no consideration."
"Fine. Then if you win, I’ll join you."
She smiled. "This is just your way of saying that you want to be here. With us. With me."
"You still have to beat me."
"And what do you want if you win? Not that it will be relevant."
"I want your glasses."
"You need to get your own."
"And you need to take your shot again. Without them."
She turned and nocked another arrow. Without hesitation she released it, the bowstring thrumming. The arrow struck a few centimetres further out from the bullseye. "See, I’ve given you a fighting chance. Now you’re up, Robin Hood. Three shots to do better." She placed the bow down on its stand and stepped away.
"Sure." Michael walked over and took the bow. He felt the tension of the string, then picked an arrow.
Kara waved her automatic rifle at him. "If I even smell that you might be trying to shoot in my direction, I’ll gun you down faster than you can say ‘Carbolic smoke balls’."
"Noted." He looked at the target, glancing briefly at the lenses in front of his eyes. Nothing happened. When he loosed the arrow, it missed the target by more than a metre.
Kara laughed. "At least put up a fight."
Michael shook his head. "I still have two more." The frame of the glasses seemed to vibrate slightly. In the lower left corner, a string of code began to stream. He caught a single word amongst random numbers and letters.
INITIALISATION
There was the sound of a mobile phone ringing. Kara tapped her ear and listened.
He squinted. "So when you’re using those glasses, how do you make them work? Voice control? Mind control?"
"It’s contextually aware. The system will realise you’re holding a bow, it will see the target, and, if it can, it will offer helpful information. Like a targeting grid, which it will overlay on your vision: augmented reality, if you will. But it only works because of the data analytics. It is always collecting data."
"Is it monitoring me too?"
"On this island there are cameras everywhere. Sometimes the system won’t pick up immediately on what you are asking it, but if you do something a couple of times it will catch on and recommend an improved strategy."
Michael blinked. "So it’s iterative?"
"That’s how machine learning works. Now c’mon. A slow game is not a good game."
He nodded, picked up another arrow and fired.
It struck the outer ring of the target.
"Close, but no banana," Kara said.
"I’ve got one shot left."
"Yes, I can count. It won’t make a difference."
Michael removed the third arrow and strung it. He stood straight, forcing himself to keep calm. Exhaling his breath, he felt something change: a signal that he inherently knew and understood because he had helped define it. The stream of data stopped and graphics began to softly overlay his vision. In front of him a translucent grid materialised, shifting as he raised the bow. As he drew the string, he saw adjustments being made for air temperature, humidity, even the weight and other characteristics of the arrow. All he had to do was follow the instructions. The predictions.
With a whisper, he let the arrow go.
He knew what would happen before it reached the target.
The carbon-fibre arrow flexed as it powered through the air. Then it struck Kara’s arrow on the end, splitting it into ribbons before burying itself a centimetre closer to the bullseye.
"What the…" began Kara, her expression one of shock.
Michael moved quickly in her moment of distraction, grabbing another arrow from the rack. Without pausing, he nocked it then tilted upwards and fired it into the sky. "Watch out below!"
Kara raised her rifle. "Stay exactly where you are."
Michael nodded. "Fine with me. You don’t think I aimed the arrow to come back down where I’m standing, do you?"
She snarled. "Like you have any idea where it’s going." Kara glanced upwards uncertainly. "How did you do that?" She pulled her glasses over her eyes and frowned. "Somehow you're using the cycles."
"How long before the arrow lands?" Michael asked. "Think I can hear it coming. Better take cover."
She swore and backed away, glancing around, as if searching for shelter.
The moment that she looked away, Michael began running. Translucent graphics filled his vision, based on data about Kara: where she was standing, where she was looking, the characteristics of her weapon, her habits and propensity to fire. The overlay offered him a route that maximised cover and minimised opportunity. Making her shot, if she decided to take it, near impossible.
There was a clatter as the arrow hit something metal. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw it bounce off the roof of the surfboard rack. Kara was hiding underneath. Her look of alarm said better than words that she couldn’t believe he had predicted where she would hide.
But she wasn’t hiding any more. With a look of pure fury, she launched herself in his direction.
Michael ran.
One Hundred Three
Craig felt his heart beating in his chest as he stared at the ENTER key on the keyboard. Everything had led to this moment. All he had to do was press one key. Just move one finger, and he could stop everything.
He felt a trickle of sweat on the back of his neck. His mouth felt dry.
"You don’t have the guts," Errington said.
Craig took a sharp breath. "It’s not really a question of guts, but logic. I believe, without a doubt, that you are going to kill me anyway as soon as I give you what you want."
"Ah, but you can’t know that. You can say it’s logic, but you aren’t sweating over a maths problem. No, my friend, this is real. And even if you had access to Darwin, you couldn’t know that the prediction you were being shown isn’t wrong. It’s been wrong before."
"Has it?" Craig replied. "Maybe the system has told us all what we needed to hear to bring me here, to this precise moment, so that I could stop you."
"That would mean we’ve each been shown our own personal predictions. How intriguing. But then, if there were two predictions, one would be a subset of the other: one the master, the other the slave. Your prediction would be nested within mine, knowing that the only reason you would come here
was if you had hope: a reason to believe you could end this."
Craig gritted his teeth. "Just because you’re confident, doesn’t make you right."
"You might have designed this system, but I’ve lived with it for fifteen years. It has enabled my vision all this time. Now it’s ready to take the next step."
"Maybe it lied to both of us and yours isn’t the master plan after all?"
"Then press the button and see what happens."
Craig stared at the screen. CHARGES ACTIVATED. PRESS ENTER WHEN READY.
He leaned forward, raising his index finger. In his mind’s eye, he lowered it purposefully onto the key.
But in reality he could not make himself do it.
He fell back in his chair.
Errington shook his head and pushed past Craig. "It brought you here, with your hopes and dreams, your plan of sacrifice. It made you part of my plan. Which is why I will succeed, when you will not." And then Errington pressed the ENTER key.
Around the room there was a change in timbre to the humming and whirring of the air-filters and other equipment. The Parallel system lit up with blue light. Then it started to hum too.
Craig gasped. There was no explosion.
Errington smiled. "The Parallel system is initialising. After which the Darwin transfer will begin. Your role is complete."
"But the…"
"…explosives? They were anticipated. Like I said, you were told what you needed to hear."
"And what about Michael?"
"We didn’t need him after all. In fact", Errington laughed, "I didn’t need you it turns out, except to make sure there were no problems. Well, that – and to make sure that helping me is the last thing you do." He reached into his jacket pocket and removed a pistol. "Goodbye, Craig."
One Hundred Four
In Michael’s lenses, graphics blurred and re-shaped, directing him ahead. Behind him Kara was moving fast, but there was enough undergrowth that she couldn’t be sure which way he was going. Michael followed the random pattern he was shown, but it was a small island and there was only one possible destination: his father. Once he found him, they somehow had to escape. Michael had not thought that far ahead.
A red graphic started flashing insistently in his vision. It looked important. What did it mean? As if responding to the thought, a guard stepped from the undergrowth, apparently as startled by Michael’s appearance as Michael was in return. The guard was carrying a rifle similar to the one Kara had. Michael’s glasses wrapped it in an outline, flagging its make and model: a ZAT high-specification weapon. The guard hesitated just long enough. Michael moved inside his reach and, guided by the graphics, launched a blow to his chin. He could feel what he needed to do. The blow, targeted with perfect precision, lifted the man off his feet and he dropped his gun. Michael picked up the weapon and ran on.
He glanced down at the rifle, which was angrily suggesting he was not authorised to carry it. A stream of digits parsed in the display and Michael quickly typed the override code onto a keypad at the rear of the weapon.
Some distance behind him, Kara was swearing at the fallen guard. Ahead he saw the cluster of buildings around the big house.
He burst from cover, encouraged by the graphics, and found himself staring at two guards. The directions in his glasses made him turn the rifle away from them, targeting a metal drum. His right hand thumbed the firearm’s grip, selecting a different ammunition option: incendiary rounds.
He fired a single shot as the men began to raise their weapons. The shell struck the drum, which flared into an explosion. It knocked the two guards off their feet and would have done the same to Michael if his display had not perfectly predicted the shockwave and told him to lean into it.
He steadied himself and moved towards the door. He was not quick enough.
"Stop where you are," said Kara’s voice from behind him, much closer than she should have been. "Drop that weapon."
He came to a halt as a bullet hit the ground next to his foot. He let the rifle fall and turned around.
Kara stood aiming her rifle, glasses back in place. "You’ve become an annoyance."
"Aren’t I an essential element of the plan? Your system won’t let me die. Not yet."
"It doesn’t make the final decision. I do."
"Actually," said someone else, "you don’t." The wires from a taser shot from amongst the trees and struck Kara in the chest. She jerked and fell to the ground, her glasses falling off.
Kelly stepped from cover. "Hi, Michael. Good to see you’re still alive."
Michael blinked. "Your timing is impeccable. How did you find us?"
"Good old-fashioned deduction. Now go help your father. Let me worry about our mutual friend here. I’ve been looking forward to our second meeting."
Michael nodded, picked up the rifle he had dropped, and charged through the doors of the big house.
One Hundred Five
Kelly stood over Kara, smiling. "Good to see you again."
Kara blinked her eyes open. "I thought you were dead."
"I’m full of surprises." She walked forward, kicked Kara’s rifle among the trees, then stepped on her glasses. There was a loud crunching sound.
"Those were expensive," Kara groaned. "And you shocked me again. I guess you feel in control now. How did you even come to be here?"
"You left more traces than you realised. We managed to connect the dots."
"We? So you aren’t here alone."
"I’m just a distraction while the others get into position."
"They’ll be spotted by the system."
"Your system isn’t quite as infallible as you think. It didn’t spot me."
Kara frowned. "We have been running out of cycles. That’s not going to be a problem for much longer."
"Too late for you, even if you’re right."
Kara’s smile shifted into a frown. "If you think we didn’t learn from our previous mistakes, you’re mistaken. After you neutralised me last time, we made some modifications to our standard suits. This one deflected most of the energy from your taser." She swept her legs out, taking Kelly’s from under her and knocking her to the ground, her rifle rolling away.
Kara grabbed the rifle, letting the movement carry her into a crouched position. She flicked the weapon’s safety catch and aimed, but Kelly hadn’t waited, diving into the cover of the trees as the hail of bullets struck the ground.
"I’m going to let you drop my rifle before I override it." Kelly shouted. "It might not knock you out for long, but it’ll be long enough."
There was a curse then the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. "You really are tiresome, you know."
Kelly rolled sideways and peered out of the trees.
Kara stood waiting. "Are you going to come out and fight? Actually, before you do, I want to know how you found the antidote to the toxin."
"I don’t know what to tell you. I got better."
Kara tipped her head on one side. "You didn’t get treatment?"
"Maybe I just have a quick metabolism."
"Impossible. That toxin was tailored to kill you."
Kelly stepped from the trees. "Maybe your system wanted me to survive."
"Max didn’t want you to survive, and he is the system." Kara leapt forward, swinging her right leg in an arc, her foot directed at Kelly’s head.
Kelly blocked the kick with a forearm
Kara grunted, then swung again. Again she was blocked. "Are you going to fight back?"
"I’m just assessing what I’m up against," Kelly replied. "Gathering intelligence, if you will." She slid forward and jabbed with her left fist, catching her opponent in the ribs.
Kara grunted, and returned a right fist.
Kelly ducked. "When did you last fight someone who knew how to fight?" She circled, taking a pace back.
"I have never lost."
"Because you don’t fight fair."
"You think that makes you better than me?" Kara asked.
"I am better than you. You kidnapped Jenson’s daughter. Who does that to a ten-year old?" Kelly jumped forward, kicking straight.
Kara leapt back out of range. "I think you’ll find I was the one that saved her from that group of thugs."
"After you hired them to kidnap her so you could make it look like Jenson was using the micro-drones for his own purposes."
"Everything was connected."
Kelly moved left then swung sharply right, leaping up and extending her right foot. It caught Kara in the side of her face, and she stumbled back and fell to the ground, spitting blood.
"What does your plan say now?" Kelly asked. "Oh, I forgot, you can’t see your system."
"Morton told you about the glasses, as well?" Kara said furiously.
"He didn’t like that you lied to him."
"He was always going on about the truth being our weapon. But a lie can be a weapon as well, especially when you have credibility."
"So you just abandoned him."
"We didn’t need him anymore. He became a loose-end, but there wasn’t time for me to deal with him. Now, this has been fun but I’m needed elsewhere." She reached into her pocket and pulled out another set of glasses then slipped them on.
Kelly swore and took a step back. "So you’re admitting defeat?"
"I’m not too bothered by the whole honour thing. In the end, winning is the only thing." Kara swept her gaze back and forth as Kelly charged forwards, her fists flying in a rapid combination. Kara deflected every blow, then snapped her arms around Kelly, hoisting her. With an ugly headbutt, she sent Kelly tumbling.
Kara laughed as she watched Kelly reach behind her back. "Looking for this?" Kara asked, holding up an automatic pistol. "That really was rather careless." She examined the weapon. "An old-fashioned model. No electric discharge for me to worry about. You should have killed me when you had the chance, but I knew you wouldn’t."
"I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to arrest you."