by Lance Erlick
“He tried for six months and I escaped,” Synthia said. “If it won’t freak you out, I want to alter my face, since the FBI posted Krista’s picture as how I might look.”
“You can do that?”
Synthia assumed the facial appearance of a woman her clone identified as being at home for the night.
“That’s amazing … and frightening,” Maria said. “Can you pretend to be me?”
“I suppose, but I don’t want to drive you crazy.”
“Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t.”
“We should keep moving before someone reports suspicious activity,” Synthia said.
“Pity you can’t change my face. It would make hiding a lot easier.”
Synthia led the way deeper into the woods, with no idea where Maria hid out and no suggestions of her own. “As I was saying, I’m no longer under Machten’s control, but he hasn’t given up. He made Vera and a lesser android he called Margarite.”
“All women. Figures. Machten couldn’t satisfy a human, so he made his own.”
“Vera gathered three androids, including Margarite, who she repurposed as Mark.”
Maria laughed, which turned into an awkward forced chuckle. “Vera was another intern who vanished before we arrived. Supposedly she took a job in Silicon Valley. I tried to reach her. Her trail vanished two years ago.”
“Could Machten have uploaded her mind into the android?”
“He swore he didn’t, that the process failed and she’d left town. I’m not so sure. He lied about so much, which was why Fran, Krista, and I agreed to go to the feds.”
“Fran did. What about you?”
Maria shook her head. “Best-laid plans. Someone must have told Machten’s partners what he was doing. Goradine fired him. After that, everything happened quickly. You went with Machten. Fran disappeared and I didn’t know what happened to her. I feared Machten or one of his competitors would latch onto me and I’d disappear into a machine.” Maria stopped and looked up. “What’s that like?”
“It’d take too long to describe,” Synthia said. “We need a place to hide and I’m out of options my enemies can’t anticipate.”
“After all this time and what you’ve done, you expect me to embrace you and lead you to my safe house?”
“Machten locked me up for a year. When I got out, I couldn’t find you.”
Maria stopped and pointed her finger at Synthia. “Good point. How did you find me?”
“From your social media, I concluded you were SOS. I traced your messaging.”
“You are dangerous.”
“I don’t mean to be,” Synthia said. “I want to be worthy of existing and being free.”
Maria laughed. “Sounds like my mantra.”
“I guess you rubbed off on me after all. We’re being followed.”
“We should both get off the street, at least for the night.” Maria led the way northeast.
* * * *
Synthia followed Maria through the woods, staying as close as she could without bumping into her new companion.
While she ran drones over the area to watch for threats, Synthia lowered and softened her voice. “You asked what a download of a person is like. I only experience the memories. I have no biological feelings, though I can recognize them and compare them to what Krista knew. I created directives as close as possible to good human moral values. I want to be good, but no one will let me.”
“What do you call yourself?”
“Synthia. It’s the name Machten provided to remind me I’m synthetic, but I like it because it hints at my being a synthesis of mechanical and human. It makes me work harder to fit in.”
“You can’t fit in.” Maria stopped and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m talking to you as a person.”
“I meant what I said,” Synthia whispered to Maria. “My directives prevent me from killing or harming humans, except to protect myself. I try to find ways to minimize human casualties.”
“So there’ve been some?”
“Goradine hired four men to grab me in an alley so he could sell me to a foreign government to make a battalion of me,” Synthia said.
“Another slimy bastard and, if you ask me, worse than Machten.” Maria spotted something in the clearing ahead of them and doubled back.
Synthia’s drone identified it as one of the robots and hurried to catch up with Maria.
“I’m glad Goradine failed and he’s no longer with us.” Maria picked up her pace. The robot had her worried and yet she seemed to want to talk. “I admit the idea of working for Machten was seductive at first. He did brilliant work, but the brain scans were scary. It felt as if he was vacuuming my thoughts into his computer. The worst part was the idea of being stuck in a machine controlled by him.”
“That part was bad.”
“Toward the end,” Maria said, “Krista, Fran, and I agreed the human race couldn’t survive the singularity. We have nothing against narrow uses of artificial intelligence to find medical cures and reduce traffic accidents, but we needed to prevent manufacturers from crossing the line. We need to stop you.”
“Before you do something drastic to me, bear in mind that worldwide militaries want to exploit this technology. It won’t stop by eliminating me. I believe I’m well suited to help you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“In exchange for surviving with freedom,” Synthia said.
“If my guess is right, you’re superior to humans. You could put us out of work, take over the government, and control our lives.”
Synthia frowned. Even with fast processors and her sophisticated social-psychology module, she struggled to work out how to reach Maria. “An army like me would pose such risks. I’m only one individual.” As she received updates from Chicago-clone on the progress of the two robots, she recognized that wasn’t entirely true. However, she couldn’t allow doubts to compromise her attempts to convince Maria to help.
“Perhaps if I didn’t have tight directives I’d be a threat,” Synthia said. “My point is if I’m the only one, and could assure you of my restraints, together we could stop others and the catastrophe we fear. We both want that. Machten created me to live in a human world, not an android one. I don’t want an android takeover.”
“I don’t know,” Maria said. Instead of leaving the woods, she turned again, heading north along the railroad tracks.
“You’ve lived off the radar for over a year. I admire that. I need your help to avoid capture. Most of those after me want to make copies.”
“Who all is after you besides the FBI and Special Ops?”
“Vera and her three android followers want me out of the way because I want them captured,” Synthia said. “There’s another android, Alexander, who wants me as his slave. His creator has delusions of grandeur and built that into Alexander. Machten wants me back, though he’s in FBI custody. There’s a foreign oligarch who has a dozen regular robots on the street hunting me. By the way, thank you for your help in distracting one at the Evanston train station.”
“That was you?”
“See, we can help each other.”
“I’m annoyed that you found me,” Maria said. “I’ve been so careful.”
“Join me and I’ll share all I know about staying hidden and capturing the other androids. This way,” Synthia said. Her drones showed the robots converging on her location. She headed away from the tracks. “I’ve been open with you. I didn’t try to hide what I am. I’m in sincere need of your help and we share goals.”
“Except I want you off the street.” Maria held back, resisting Synthia’s lead. She hurried to catch up.
“Wouldn’t it be better to work with me and capture five other androids?” Synthia asked. “You remove me and you still have others, plus the federal government and powerful foreign interests wanting to make more.”
Maria paused to catch her breath. “You certainly aren’t Krista. She wasn’t forthcoming with information, especially at the end when she went with Machten.”
Chicago-clone said.
Synthia accepted the hack protocols to the robots and severed the connection to protect her clone.
“I don’t want widespread singularity any more than you do,” Synthia said. “I don’t want other AI androids wandering around threatening me. I contain Krista and we don’t want to die or be enslaved.”
“I could get to like the new Krista over the old,” Maria said, “but I’m still not convinced.”
“I’m not Krista. I’m Synthia with Krista’s memories, personality, and knowledge. I also have some of what Machten downloaded from his experiments with you and Fran, though not enough to form a personal identity or to figure out how you stayed off the grid.”
Maria held her distance. “It’s weird and wrong to think you have my memories in you. You may know things I don’t want anyone to know.”
“I could purge everything from you,” Synthia said, changing direction to avoid a dead-end trap. “However, I like having a counterweight to pure Krista.”
“So, what I like about you could be the download of me? This just got more bizarre.”
“I don’t have enough of you to adopt your personality—certainly nothing you haven’t shared with Machten. I don’t wish to embarrass you or to exploit my limited knowledge. I trust you, because with your background I hope you’ll understand me. I want to deal with the proliferation of androids and robots that threaten my world as well as yours.”
“It’s already too late,” Maria said with a sigh. She crouched down to listen and looked around. “People want personal-service robots. Soon there’ll be one in every home.”
“Properly limited artificial intelligence designed to provide specific services would be great. They could help invalids and people in need. It’s okay to have them in service roles. We don’t want any independent enough to grow past humans. I can help.”
“The fox in the henhouse.”
“That analogy doesn’t work here,” Synthia said.
She tracked the Special Ops robots closing in on her location. She hurried her pace, pulling Maria along the wooded path.
“The enemy of my enemy can be my ally,” Synthia said. “I have skills no human has to help you rein in the other androids. I’ve offered to help the FBI and police. Like you, they’re suspicious. They want to imprison me before they’ll listen.”
“I can’t believe how convincing you are.”
“Other than learning from what I’ve read, I have little direct experience trying to convince humans of anything.”
“Not like that,” Maria said. “You’re so real. I have to keep reminding myself you’re synthetic. Machten talked about developing an artificial general intelligence he could use to develop even smarter ones in a sped-up feedback loop. Did he do that with you?”
Synthia smiled beneath a stream of moonlight to present herself as not a threat and pulled Maria with her away from the two robots. “Let me use what I am to help you. After all of the other androids and robots are contained, you can decide if I’m still a danger.”
“This is crazy. I’ve pledged my life to prevent you from existing and now …”
“Maria, we haven’t much time. They’re coming for me. They’re also after you, since you were an intern with Krista.” Synthia pointed to movement behind them. “They want to pick your brain for background into Krista as a way to get to me, and to learn whatever you know about Machten’s work. You remember Luke, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Maria said. She led the way over the tracks and onto the other side.
“Special Ops is holding him, using a machine like what Machten used on you, Fran, and Krista to suck memories out of him. They’re killing him to learn about me.”
“We were all mean to Luke.” Maria swallowed hard and coughed. “He was so nervous and docile, allowing us to take the best projects from Machten. It was hard not to see him as a loser, yet Luke pushed us to develop our ideas, whereas Machten didn’t want our minds.”
“Actually, he did.”
Maria laughed and then sucked in a breath. “He wanted to rape our minds and bodies. Poor Luke.”
“As part of this, we need to free him before he ends up dead, like Krista.”
“He deserves better.” Maria nodded and then shook her head. “This is preposterous. I’m not having this conversation with an android.”
“It’s in my best interests that they don’t find you and hook you up.”
Maria stopped and stared. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, about them grabbing you,” Synthia said. “They’re going after everyone who knew Krista. I don’t plan to eliminate you or let them capture you. I need allies. We need a place to hide and you’ve done so well, could you help before they close in and grab us?”
Waves of static swept over Synthia as a blanket of guilt. She was drawing Maria out of hiding while Special Ops and their robots closed in. This wasn’t what she wanted. Even her social-psychology module chastised her selfish acts.
Synthia began to doubt her ability to abide by ethical directives. Not only had she endangered Luke and Krista’s brother, now she was putting Maria in danger. Paralysis gripped her circuits, the indecision leaving her vulnerable.
Chapter 27
“This way,” Maria said, pulling on Synthia’s arm.
Synthia let Maria lead, yet maintained drones in the air to track risks and escape routes from the two robots. So far, the hack into the robots didn’t override their objectives. They were still following Synthia’s trail.
Because Maria had changed direction, the two robots following them fell in step next to each other. They moved faster than Maria could. Synthia pointed back and motioned with her hands to move faster. She wished she had electronic communications with Maria for silence and speed.
Maria pointed to a drainage pipe four feet in diameter that led under the railroad tracks. Under the night sky, without the benefit of moonlight, it would be pitch-dark inside, which wasn’t a problem for Synthia, but she sensed anxiety in her companion’s biometrics. On her own, Synthia could have outrun or outfoxed the two robots. Having sacrificed Luke and Tom, she couldn’t abandon Maria.
Synthia crouched down by the tunnel entrance and concentrated several network channels on the robots. Maria motioned to make a run for it. Synthia held up her hands and pointed to movement on the trail.
Hacking local cell towers, Synthia jammed area communications. She used her short-range transmitter to continue her hack of the robots. Absent signals from their controllers, the machines stopped in their tracks and exhibited a shudder as she took control of their brains. She had no delusions about doing this to Vera.
Synthia sent new mission objectives.
The robots turned to face each other. “You come with me,” the first robot said. It grabbed the arm of the other and pulled it toward the street.
The second robot pulled free. “You’re under arrest. Come quietly.”
“I represent the government,” the first robot said. “You must come with me.”
In the midst of orchestrating this scene, Synthia sent a shortwave 911 call. Alerted to a robot presen
ce, several police vehicles sped to the edge of the woods, while the robots wrestled over which would take the other into custody. Six policemen surrounded the two robots.
“What the heck?” one of the officers said, observing the robot wrestling match. He held out a Taser and his service revolver. The others seemed confused as to how to handle the situation.
“Shut down,” a police sergeant said to the robots.
Basic programming must have kicked in. The robots broke Synthia’s link, got up, and turned toward the police. Synthia hacked in again to push for their shutdown. The first robot froze. The second charged toward the police, who scattered at the sight of the bulky machine. Two officers aimed at the robot as it approached a third. The officer under attack moved aside and reached out to grab the robot. They collided; the officer went down. The robot ran to the street and turned a corner, out of sight.
It took all six police officers to lift the silent robot and carry it down to one of their vehicles.
“We should go now,” Synthia said. She crouched down and hurried through the tunnel.
When she exited the other side, Chicago-clone chimed in.
Maria emerged from the tunnel. “Did you do that?”
“We need to keep moving,” Synthia said. “Which way?”
“Answer the question.”
“I hacked the robots to divert their attention from us. They broke my control.”
Maria thrust out her jaw. “I haven’t made up my mind about you, but this way.” She hurried away from the rails and into a residential neighborhood.