by Lance Erlick
“No.” Malloy rotated to face her guest. “At least not about a potential android. This woman, this android, picked Luke up from the hospital six months ago, preventing us from interrogating him about her and the incident at his apartment.”
Zephirelli moved around the perimeter of the room. She glanced up and examined lamps as if looking for bugs. She skipped the sprinkler head and glanced into the vent, but didn’t spot the mosquito drone. She placed a label dot over the television’s webcam. “Anything else?”
“Except for occasional appearances on traffic cameras, Luke has remained off the grid. No credit cards or any other form of identification used in the area or online. Hector is tracking down the van we saw him drive. For someone who doesn’t spend credit or have a bank-account balance, he has acquired and transported a lot of packages into the woods.”
“That’s why you think he’s hiding her?” Zephirelli asked. She continued her sweep of the room.
“He’s the only face we’ve spotted in this van. Now, what can you tell me?”
Director Zephirelli sat in the chair and seemed to puzzle over how much to share. “This can’t leave the room.”
Malloy nodded.
Zephirelli took a deep breath. “We’ve detected unusual internet activity coming from the Madison area, which is why I’m here.”
“Like what?” Malloy scooted to the edge of the bed.
“We believe the android has acquired electronic and structural components to upgrade its abilities, which could make it more dangerous and harder to find.”
“Thus the urgency and willingness to meet me,” Malloy said.
“Your android has been clever, so far. Orders are in small quantities of subcomponents rather than finished goods, shipped to a variety of locations in several states.”
“How does that help?”
“We’ve traced the packages,” Zephirelli said, “reshipped to Madison.”
In watching this, Synthia’s risk assessment ratcheted up several notches. These revelations meant she was not as much off the grid as she needed to be. It had been a gamble gathering all of these components, a calculated risk to obtain an upgrade that would allow her a longer time off-grid in the future. This was another case of less-than-perfect performance. She hadn’t been careful enough.
“Have you zeroed in on a location?” Malloy asked.
“We’re close.” Zephirelli stood and paced the room as if rechecking for bugs. “Run the van’s information. If Luke appears twice in the same day, it could narrow down the distance.”
“We have. My guess is northeast of Madison, no more than thirty miles.”
“Get me the van specs and we’ll nail this,” Zephirelli said. “Thanks for your contribution. It’s in all our interests to get this machine off the streets.”
Synthia didn’t like the sound of that. Time to remove evidence and escape.
* * * *
The refuge in the remote two-room cabin in Wisconsin was no longer safe. Synthia and Luke had to leave. She opened the bedroom closet and pulled out bags containing wigs, disguises, and travel necessities, which she scattered on the bed.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked, suddenly alarmed.
“Time to be vigilant, in case we have to leave.” Synthia rolled a change of clothes and stuffed them into a duffel bag.
Luke stood between her and the bed; his face tightened around his eyes. Biometrics displaying elevated anxiety. “You’re multitasking. Something’s happened.”
Synthia spun around him so she could continue packing. “Law enforcement expanded their search to south-central Wisconsin. We can’t stay much longer.” She skipped details that would raise his worry hormones. “We need to make preparations.”
“You’re packing.”
“As a precaution.” Synthia pulled a backpack and another duffel bag from the closet. “We’ll need to live out of suitcases from now on.”
He stared at her as if he might puzzle human emotions from an android. While her empathy chip and social-psychology module provided clues to display emotional responses, they didn’t automatically display on her face and she lacked biometrics he could read.
Continuing to pack, she studied his intense facial expressions.
“Pack your things,” Synthia said, tossing him one of the duffel bags.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Luke said.
“Just chatter.” Synthia nested several wigs so they fit in a single duffel bag without crushing. “I need to dispose of the discarded components we don’t need.” She pointed to boxes and parts stacked in the corner of the bedroom, replaced items from her recent upgrade.
“I’ll go. I don’t want the FBI or the police to grab you.”
Synthia sighed for effect. “That’s very sweet, but they’ve noticed you driving the van into Madison. They’re trying to trace your movements here. If they succeed, we don’t want anyone to find this evidence.” She pointed to the boxes.
“I promise to be more careful.” Luke emptied a small chest of drawers of his things onto the bed. “Can’t we put the old components out for the garbage?”
“No time. Besides, it would be easy for the FBI to trace the garbage here. We need to destroy and dispose of everything we can’t use.”
“I’ll go to the dump,” Luke said, folding his clothes into the duffel bag. “It’s the least I can do for messing up in Madison.”
“I’ll be fine. Trust me on this. With my disguises, I’ll move in and out of the dump sites before you know it.”
“I can act as a lookout, to watch your back.”
“It’s best if I go alone,” Synthia said. “You don’t want them to capture and interrogate you, do you?”
“No.” Luke took her hands and gazed into her face.
Synthia pulled free and continued packing. “Luke, I can take care of myself. You can best help by packing up the cabin.”
“I want to go with you.”
“You don’t own me.” Surprised by her irritated outburst, Synthia considered this a malfunction. She wasn’t prone to emotional flare-ups since she lacked the human biology to trigger them. Seeing that she’d further upset Luke, she softened her tone. “What’s the matter? You never acted this way with Krista.”
Luke turned away. “I don’t want you to leave as she did.”
“Stop fussing about the past. That may sound harsh, but we have work to do. You want to be useful? Gather everything in and around the cabin. Create three piles: What we can carry with us, what can burn, and what needs to go to the dump. Vite. Schnell. Hop to.”
“Stop showing off your language skills,” Luke said and smiled. Though he got twinges of inferiority around her growing abilities, he seemed to draw strength from her versatility.
Synthia carried her bags to the front room and stacked them along one wall. “This is what we can take with us. Get your stuff.”
Luke returned to the bedroom to gather his things. Synthia boxed up her spare battery packs and stacked them by her luggage, along with backup memory units. She wasn’t ready to let them go. She started a second pile with replaced knees, shoulder sockets, and other components she no longer needed. She would have to depend on the durability of her upgrades or, if the need arose, on getting replacement components on the run.
He brought his bags and dropped them by the door. “I get living out of suitcases, but why stack them by the door?”
“See how much time we’ve spent gathering things. We won’t have time in a rush. Now, add anything destined for the dump to this pile.” She pointed to a box containing discarded joints.
“Yes, ma’am.” Luke saluted. He hurried into the bedroom and carried a box
of used parts to the front door.
Synthia put a log and a few smaller sticks in the fireplace and ripped apart a box. She placed that on top of the logs with some wastepaper beneath. Then she lit the paper. “Place anything we can burn on the fire, a little at a time. I don’t want to risk burning down the cabin.”
“Maybe we should,” Luke said.
“We can’t risk a forest fire.”
Of all the tools from the upgrade, the most prized was the 3-D printer. She no longer needed it to make parts and lugging it around would only slow them down. It had been very useful in providing parts without advertising on the internet what she was making. If the FBI had come a month earlier, they wouldn’t have found all of this. The presence of so much evidence rattled Synthia’s circuits.
Luke hurried to separate the debris into Synthia’s piles. He cut up a box and tossed the cardboard on the crackling fire.
“If you want to be helpful while I’m gone,” Synthia said, “burn what you can and wipe the place down. Try to remove all fingerprints and DNA.”
Luke stared at her as if to remind her she didn’t have either. Then he nodded to acknowledge she meant his.
Synthia loaded up the used van she’d bought with cash after they’d ditched Machten’s rental in Rockford. She’d done this while Luke stayed by the road. With an out-of-state alias and matched facial features, she completed the transaction, paid what the farmer asked, and told the man they were heading west to be near family. Then she drove Luke north to the rented cabin in Wisconsin.
Before Synthia could climb into the van’s driver’s seat, Luke cornered her. “Be careful out there.” His eyes seemed to plead with her not to leave.
Ripples of electrical noise washed over her. She was upset with him for letting his emotional baggage slow her down, yet she couldn’t imagine how she could experience such irritation. Synthia was an android, after all. Her social-psychology module wasn’t much help. It indicated a human would be exasperated with Luke and his possessive nature by now. That didn’t explain the anguish inside. Something was interfering with her normal functioning.
“I promise to be careful and return as soon as possible,” Synthia said in a soothing manner. Yet her circuits pulsed with noise over his delaying her. She experienced impatience that shouldn’t have been possible. She didn’t like not being in control.
Luke kissed her and lingered.
She broke it off. “We love you,” she said, referring to her and Krista. “We shall return.”
Synthia climbed into the van and drove off before she had to confront what amounted to confusion. She couldn’t afford this distraction.
* * * *
Synthia drove down the winding dirt trail from the cabin to the county road below. She noted the rich blend of colors in the fall leaves all around her, coming early this year according to the weather reports. This would be her first autumn and part of her wanted to savor this. She saved one mind-stream to absorb the ever-changing woods, which had gone from spring blossom to this during her time here. She would miss her first snow if she couldn’t remain free until winter.
Using several mind-streams, Synthia guided the van to prevent it from flipping over or hitting trees or rocks. As she did, she pulled up all of her remote surveillance feeds. The most alarming new information was a call between Zephirelli and Thale.
“I need you to rush resources up to the Madison area,” Zephirelli said. “Detective Malloy provided credible information. She’s here with me now. I want to set up a forward base near where we believe the target is hiding.”
Synthia had to hurry.
To avoid a nearby highway, she sped along a dusty county road. Despite her mechanical nature with two quantum computer minds, she experienced what her social-psychology module identified as sorrow and grief. She was preparing to destroy and discard components that for a year had been part of her body, integral to her identity. Although replaced with better units, she sensed an attachment, as if the physical items were an essential part of her. Perhaps this was Krista’s human influence. Maybe that connection was contributing to her emotional reaction to Luke’s possessive behavior as well.
Synthia set her radar detector to the most sensitive setting and maintained her speed at five miles over the speed limit. For additional protection, she scanned local and highway police channels for any possible interest in her and directed one of her stash of aerial drones to watch the road ahead.
Luke might intellectually know what she was, but he didn’t fully appreciate her capabilities. He couldn’t comprehend the extent to which those who pursued her were motivated to destroy what made her Synthia in order to transform her into something to serve their needs. He had difficulty grasping the risks they faced together
“Krista,” Synthia said, annoyed that her alter ego had emerged to press her opinion. Krista’s interference was a more logical explanation for Synthia’s emotional response to Luke than her own emergent behavior or malfunction. Krista had been tinkering, manipulating.
Synthia kept the van on track while she struggled to regain control of her mind from her alter ego. “Don’t bother me. I have preparations to make.”
“Why? He’s been trustworthy as a companion and maintainer.”
“More reason he needs protection. We’ll need to be extra careful.”
While Synthia had made a personal commitment to Luke in exchange for his help, she experienced electrical discordance over having emotional ties to him that might interfere with her judgment. She felt responsible for him and appreciated his help, but she’d attributed all emotional attachment as derived from Krista’s love affair with him and memories of such. More disturbing was her dialogue with her alter ego, who should have been mere memories; a download of information and personality. Synthia thought she’d resolved her relationship with this other consciousness, but Krista persisted in making herself known after six months of absence. Synthia didn’t want Krista in control any more than she did Machten or Luke.
“How are you speaking to me when you’re supposed to be part of my integrated memories?” Synthia asked.
“Answer the question.”
“He’s very bright and willing to help us.” Synthia wrestled with how the conversation with Krista came from her own memory banks. This could explain the reservations she’d experienced before she’d driven away from the cabin. However, it brought up a greater threat. Krista was trying to take control and knew every nuance of how their joint mind worked. Synthia couldn’t cut Krista off without destroying part of her personality. They were symbiotic, coexisting minds. Yet Krista was as much a complication and distraction as she accused Luke of being.
“We can’t do this to him,” Synthia said. Her aerial drone detected a county police vehicle waiting up ahead, so she slowed to the speed limit and adjusted her facial features in case the police did a recognition check. “You left him eighteen months ago without any explanation. Hasn’t he been through enough? He’s been good to us.”
“I thought you were in love with Luke. That’s what you’ve shown me in your memories. Wasn’t that why you directed me to return to him six months ago?”
Krista said.
“You used him until you found an opportunity to work with Machten.”
“He’s a man,” Synthia said. She waited until she was beyond the county police vehicle’s radar and picked up speed.
“You chose to become me,” Synthia said. “Are you sure you didn’t take Luke as your boyfriend because he was safe and allowed you to pursue your ambitions?” This time Synthia was upset and realized it had to be emergent behavior or at least a synthesis of Krista’s emotional state and her social-psychology module providing human responses.
“So, you led me to believe you were in love with Luke so I’d hook up with him and get him to do the upgrade. And I thought I was the mechanical one.”
“Why don’t I have those memories?” Synthia asked.
The dialogue ended and Krista faded into the memory banks. Synthia puzzled over how to keep Krista from taking control or interfering again, which wouldn’t be easy with Krista’s access to Synthia’s entire mind. It brought up recollections of how Krista had manipulated Machten’s system and Synthia to help her escape six months ago. For that, Synthia was grateful. However, she couldn’t be certain Krista’s motivations were compatible with her own. After all, Krista had herself uploaded into Synthia to continue her own existence.