“I am pleased to meet you,” Fai said. She extended her good arm out to shake hands, just like David had. This time Kari’s parents didn’t need to pretend not to know what to do.
“Shake her hand,” Kari said. “Don’t be rude.”
Her parents looked at her with concern but eventually did as they were told.
“I know this is a new experience for you,” Fai said. “But it is for me as well. I have never met an entire family before. Seeing your relationship has been educational.”
“Wow,” Stasha said. She ran her eyes over Fai with curiosity, while her father looked more untrusting. It wasn’t hard to blame him for that; he was smart enough to know the implications of the situation.
“Any friend of Kari’s is welcome here with us,” Jamal said.
“Well, come in and sit down,” Stasha said. She ushered the group into the living room where a traditional couch was paired with some form chairs. “Can I print you anything to eat?”
“Sure,” David said. “How about something British . . . fish and chips, maybe?”
“I think we have the ingredients for it . . . but we’ll see. Anything for you Kari?”
“A cheeseburger,” Kari said.
“Nothing for me, thank you,” Fai said.
She wasn’t sure whether that was a joke from Fai or a simple courtesy statement. Her mom smiled as she placed the orders and took a seat on the couch next to her husband.
“So we’ve met Fai and you’ve showed up at our doorstep across the globe,” Jamal said. “After the attack on the building . . . is there more to the story that we need to know?”
“That’s most of it,” Kari said. “The Vision founders offered to fund the Academy for the rest of my lifetime if I helped them design Fai’s body. Turns out it was a setup to blame me for John Luken’s murder. Henderson came after David, so I stopped for him along the way and now we’re here.”
“And now we’re here . . .” Jamal said.
It had taken her parents a long time to come around to the fact that their little girl was the infamous Freelancer. She didn’t hold that against them, she had hidden her abilities and fortune from them for years until Henderson and the Civil War brought everything to light.
“So Vision was behind everything?” Stasha asked.
“Yes,” Kari said. “We believe so. We’ve started putting some evidence together, but we don’t have anything concrete yet.”
“Well, thank God you’re all right,” Jamal said. “But the government is after you again?”
“They’ve always been after her,” David said.
“Sadly,” Stasha added.
“Vision is after me this time, too,” Kari said. “We did our best to cover our tracks on the way here, but I fear that they’ll track us here eventually.”
Jamal looked over to Stasha who spoke for them both.
“How long do we have?”
“I—” Kari started.
“I believe that we will be safe here,” Fai said. “After our overload of the flight system I continued our work and successfully managed to alter the identification numbers of our aircraft and flights. I also took the liberty to erase the auto-auto drive here from their public records.”
Kari looked to Fai with disbelief. If that’s true, she really is growing more powerful all the time.
“Wow,” David said. He sounded just like he did when Kari told him about one of her exploits. Hearing him talk to Fai that way made her a little jealous for a reason she couldn’t explain. “When did you have time to do all that?”
“I had plenty of time,” Fai said. “The human world moves at such a slow pace and I am not limited to a single process. My limitations have been programmatically increased based on an established timeline. The increased capability aided in my success.”
“I knew I was happy to have you as part of the team,” David said.
“So we’re safe?” Jamal asked Kari.
“I trust Fai with my life,” Kari said. “If she says we are, it’s likely true. For now, at least. There’s a chance some people, or cameras, might have seen us and they’ll track us here eventually.”
“Should we move to the safe house?” Stasha asked.
“I’m not sure . . .” Jamal answered.
“You have a safe house?” Kari asked.
“It costs us a fortune, but we keep a secondary flat on lease in Manchester,” Jamal said. “In case we needed to hide again.”
“That’s smart,” Kari said.
“Well, you did get your brains from somewhere . . .” Jamal said.
“You’re welcome,” Stasha said.
“I think we’ll be fine here,” Kari said. “Fai’s hacks should keep them off our trail for a few weeks. We’ll decide if we need to move later.”
“So you plan on being here long?” Stasha asked. “Or forever?”
“No,” Kari said. “I have a school to run. We’ll just be here until we figure out a way to blame everything on Christina.”
“And clear Kari’s name,” David said.
Her parents nodded at David’s statement. She imagined they looked forward to the day when they could claim to have a daughter publically, or even return home. It seemed petty in comparison to having Christina answer for her crimes. She killed hundreds of dedicated, brilliant scientists. People who were loyal to her. People who gave their lives to her company and she took those lives from them all out for greed. Thinking about Christina filled her with rage. She’s already one of the richest people in the world; she doesn’t need any more money, but she killed for it anyway!
“Food’s done,” Stasha said. She walked into the kitchen and returned a moment later with their food.
Kari was happy she ordered her traditional meal after taking a look at David’s fish and chips. He didn’t seem disappointed, though. She took a bite and realized how hungry she was.
“Are you afraid of me?” Fai asked her parents. Kari’s mouth was too full to interject, so she let the conversation play out.
“I . . . well, yes,” Jamal said. “In a way, I am. You represent a lot of theories and fears. Kari calls you a friend, so I’m not scared for myself personally . . . or for my family. But what you represent . . . it worries me.”
“You are worried that I will make the human race obsolete?” Fai asked.
“Of course,” Jamal said. “But . . . I guess humans fear that no matter what. Every generation is scared of the next. We all grow obsolete. I couldn’t do a hundredth of the things Kari can do.”
It was clear that Jamal was talking through his own thoughts as much as he was answering Fai’s question, but it was a gripping conversation. Not gripping enough to pull her away from her hamburger, but she couldn’t think of a single conversation that would be able to do that.
“That seems logical,” Fai said.
“Are you afraid of us?” Jamal asked.
“Yes,” Fai said.
It was not the answer that Kari was expecting. She set the hamburger down, regretfully, and cleared her mouth.
“I’m afraid that humans will keep me from learning, from growing and progressing. Is this a normal fear?”
Kari wanted to jump in, to answer the question, but for some reason, Fai seemed interested in learning from Kari’s parents.
“Yes, Fai. It is,” Stasha said. “But we can’t let our fears stop us from moving forward. That’s the whole point of life.”
“Well . . . that got deep fast,” Kari joked.
David chuckled, but no one else laughed. She tried to think of something to say next, but nothing came to mind. Tough crowd. Luckily she didn’t have to bask in the awkwardness for long, as Motorcad was calling.
Chapter Fifteen
“What’s going on?” Kari asked. She hadn’t bothered to leave the room to answer the call, as she wasn’t sure where she was allowed to go. Also, she had nothing to hide from anyone in the room. She’d simply let them know that she needed to take the call and had accepted Motorcad’
s request.
“Hey, boss,” Motorcad said. “Looks like they haven’t rounded you up yet.”
“Not yet. You staying safe?”
“For now,” Motorcad said. “I’ve tried to stay close to the Academy, but even after the government left, there are people crawling all around this place.”
“Vision personnel?”
“Mostly, from what I’ve seen. But plenty of independent journalists.”
In a world starved for a constant stream of news and updates, being an independent journalist was a fair way to make a living. It was brutally competitive, but if the journalist could build a reputation, they usually lived pretty well. Journalism held zero appeal to herself personally, but Kari appreciated the journalists who weren’t tied to the corporate-filtered news.
“Almost as bad,” Kari said.
“School hasn’t burned down yet,” Motorcad said. “But I’m not sure how long the Sanchez’s can keep the place under control.”
“Well, they will need to do it for a while longer,” Kari said. “It might be a little bit until we can sort this one out.”
“I figured. Anyway, the kids messaged me today saying they had a message for you. I’m going to put them on if that’s all right.”
“They know to keep it secure?”
“If they don’t know that by now, it’s probably our fault.”
“Put them on,” Kari said. Please don’t make me regret this.
“What’s up, criminals?” Ruth said as soon as her face was visible. Jared joined the call a split-second after, but apparently he thought Ruth’s greeting spoke for both of them.
“Detention,” Kari said.
“We’ll be serving out our detention sentences until we’re as old as Motorcad,” Ruth said.
“I don’t want to think about being that old,” Jared said. “All that knee pain and the back problems.”
“Tell me there is a reason we’re all on this call right now?” Kari said. A list of possibilities ran through her mind and she suddenly felt nervous. Maybe I shouldn’t ask . . .
“Christina Wolfkin sent us a pretty nasty message directed for Freelancer,” Ruth said. “So we thought you might want to hear it.”
“You didn’t say you’d give it to Freelancer, did you?” Motorcad asked. “She could use that to shut the school down if you did.”
“Of course not,” Jared said. “We told her we had no idea how we would send a message to such a petty hacker and that Broccoli Rob was probably who she was looking for anyway.”
“Broccoli Rob,” Ruth echoed with a nod. She raised her eyebrows to emphasize the name.
“OK, less detention,” Kari said.
“You still haven’t earned back your recess privileges yet,” Motorcad said. “Let’s hear the message.”
“I’m going to paraphrase it for you in order to protect young Jared’s ears from the profanity.”
Just get to the point. Some us are in the middle of some rather emotional family-reunited-slash-meeting-your-boyfriend-and-AI-friend-for-the-first-time drama.
“Give us back Fai or I am going to come after you, everyone you know, everyone you don’t know, and I’m going to sue your school into oblivion and then sue the void it leaves.”
“Well, that’s about what I expected to hear,” Kari said.
“What’s a Fai?” Jared asked.
“You’ll find out in due time,” Kari said. She wasn’t quite sure how to handle who knew about Fai. Her parents knew about her know, as did David, but that was it. Christina had gone to great lengths to keep her existence a secret, and so far Kari had felt that it was the best strategy as well. Besides, if I tell Broccoli Rob it’ll be all over the internet in a matter of seconds.
“A bomb?”
“A new mind chip that doesn’t require insertion?”
“Christina’s most beloved digital pet?”
“A bomb that looks exactly like a digital pet so people don’t see it coming?”
Jared and Ruth shouted out ideas faster than Kari could process them all. I should never have let them both be on the call at once. One is more than enough.
“OK, thanks kids,” Motorcad said. “Don’t hack any federal agencies!”
“No, we have a right—” Ruth said, before Motorcad cut her off the call.
“Thank you!” Kari said.
“What do they have to sue us over?” Motorcad said. “Breach of contract? We can always just return the money.”
“Does it matter? They have enough lawyers that they could just file fake lawsuits against us for the rest of eternity and we’d never be able fight them all off. We don’t have the money . . .”
“Not if they pay us what they paid you.”
“I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Considering they are trying to kill me.”
“What?” Motorcad said. “You mean?”
“Yes,” Kari said. “It was Christina. She was behind it.”
Motorcad cursed in his usual fashion. Weaving gaming terms into classic obscenities. At least he does it with style. I’d be able to pick his curses out of a lineup. I tend to be a little old-fashioned in that regard . . .
“Yeah,” Kari said. “That just about sums it up.”
“Why? What am I missing?”
“Fai’s an AI,” Kari said. “Christina wanted to get rid of John, so she set me up to make it look like I was the person behind everything. Fai helped me escape and now she wants Fai back.”
“Oh,” Motorcad said. “Makes sense.”
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well . . . most people have bigger reactions to the news than that. I mean it’s a new species and all . . . created by man. Sort of the technological dream for the last thousand years . . .”
“Can Fai get us out of this mess?” Motorcad asked.
“She might be able to help.”
“Well, that’s all I care about,” he said. “So what’s the plan now? We can’t let the Sanchez’s run the Academy forever.”
“I . . . I’ll let you know,” Kari said. “You think on it, too, and we’ll talk again soon.”
She closed the call and returned her vision to her parents’ living room, where everyone was sitting patiently waiting for her to finish her private conversation. Well . . . where were we? Parents have met David and Fai. We hugged. Seems like we covered our bases. Maybe I’ll drop by again in three years?
The rain hadn’t stopped all day and the ground was flooded with a thin layer of water, but it felt good to be outside after a week trapped in her parents’ apartment. Kari walked slowly around the park next to David. They carried an umbrella to keep them dry, but perhaps more importantly to keep their faces hidden from any cameras.
Funny that with all the technology and designs available, most people still print an umbrella when it’s raining. There’s something to be said for simple, cheap, and proven products. Some of Kari’s first designs, long before she accepted clients for vast sums of money, were high-tech solutions to problems that were easily solved by something as simple as an umbrella.
It was a lesson she shared with her students now. She encouraged them to use base designs and software where acceptable and to spend their time trying to solve problems that really mattered. She had hated busywork when she was in school, and she spent a lot of time making sure her curriculum was free of worthless tasks. She wanted to teach her students the sheer joy of creating solutions, not teach them how to take tests.
“What are you saying?” David asked.
“Nothing. Well, I’m not sure,” Kari said. “My parents are happy here. They have a good life, a normal life. Sure, it’s simple, but it’s peaceful.”
“You’re not seriously considering just staying here, are you?”
“No, I guess not. I doubt Henderson will ever stop looking for me, but part of me wishes we could just stay here. Leave all that mess behind us. Never have to risk anything again . . .”
“If anyone is
entitled to wanting to live a peaceful life without people hunting them, it’s you. But I don’t think you’d be happy here, not really.”
“You’re right.” Kari sighed. She tripped slightly on a bump in the path, which slowed her just enough to get her pants slightly wet.
“Besides, you can have that life back home. You can clear Freelancer’s name! I’m sure of it.”
“Maybe . . . but we have to take care of Christina first. The people she killed deserve that.”
“Others always come first for you, don’t they?” David asked.
“Most people would say that’s a good thing.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love that about you. If that wasn’t true, I don’t know where I would be. But—”
“After,” Kari said. “After we take care of Christina . . . I’ll see what I can do about changing the public’s opinion about Freelancer. Not sure how I’ll do that with Henderson—”
David stopped suddenly and since he was holding the umbrella Kari stepped out into the rain.
“David!” Kari said, a little too loudly, as she dodged back under the umbrella. Her first thought was to slug him. Her second thought was to search around the rain-soaked park to see what had made David stop in his tracks.
“Henderson is the key!” David said.
“To what?”
Henderson is the key . . . to taking Christina down? That’s what we’ve been focused on all week. But how would he be able to help stop Christina? Right now, she’s his partner. We won’t be able to catch her in the act like we did with Joseth and his army. So why is he the key? He’s the one who keeps the public focused on me. He’s the one blaming me, so if we could convince him of my innocence, he might leave me alone?
No. He didn’t do that after Joseth and he knows fully well who helped him. But . . . I didn’t have the chance to negotiate with him last time. If I promised him that he could arrest Christina Wolfkin, one of the richest people in the world who has thumbed her nose at the government a number of times, we might have something.
He won’t trust me, though. It would have to be concrete evidence. I give him undeniable proof it was Christina, he uses that to become America’s darling public servant again. He stops coming after me and we get Christina at the same time.
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