Total System Failure

by James Hightower

  Information hit him from every angle: messages from strangers, city statistics, constructions dates and history of buildings, nearest restaurants and bars, most popular things to do, shopping, available drones, people he may like nearby. Anything he could ever want to know.

  His heart thundered in his ears as he grappled with the torrential pour of data. He opened his eyes.

  Waves upon waves of people and holograms packed the harbor. A blue haze erupted from the crowd before everything vanished. He heaved a sigh at the sudden silence. Something fluttered past his shoulder. The hologram of the toucan.

  “You looked a little overwhelmed,” the bird said, fluttering its wings. “I’ll shield the sensations until you are properly acclimated.”

  Alec swallowed. The city extended out before him, empty. Domo and Tara were nowhere in sight.

  “Arctic City offers a personalized experience,” Sammy said. “You will only see people you allow into your world. Think about them and if they’re within your vision, you’ll see them. Otherwise, you have the city to yourself!”

  Behind him, the ship sank soundlessly into the dark waters. The pier was translucent like ice, but smooth as the marble of Marlo’s luxury tower. A blue wave rippled upon his first step. At his side, Tara and Domo reappeared, their steps rippling sapphire as well. He wobbled across the pier.

  “Blue means tourist,” Sammy explained. “Green is local. Red is…”

  Overhead, a drone roared by so loud that Alec ducked his head. He ducked, but the drone was only a black smudge across the light-baked sky. The bird perched on his shoulder. He flinched at its warm presence.

  “There are many custom model drones that can only be found in Arctic City,” Sammy said, a touch of pride entering its voice.

  “You like drones?” He’d never heard of holograms having interests. “And how can you touch me?”

  “Of course.” The bird felt warm and solid on his shoulder. “A quick program download will make your holograms like myself as well. And to answer your question, I love drones. I like to race them in my free time. Sadly, I never win.”

  Even the holograms have hobbies here. “Do you think you can get us a taxi?”

  “Was waiting for you to ask.”

  A drone banked low, hovering in front of them. Yellow and black striped the wings. The taxi was striped black and yellow at the wings with white slashes along the sides. Wide vents gave the taxi a muscular look. It reminded him of a brightly-colored shark.

  The doors popped open to admit them. He stepped inside. Tara and Domo sliding in next to him. A strap snaked down at each shoulder. The drone zipped off, his eyes watering at the abrupt acceleration. Sammy vanished. The holographic highway spanned out so large that he couldn’t see either end of the lane.

  He received a message from the taxi. Is the driving too much?

  “No, it’s great!” he said.

  The taxi took this as permission to push it further. They zipped past cars, structures of every shape that Alec could imagine, holograms the size of small buildings. Illumination clashed in spheres that ripped darkness from the night. It might as well had been day. They halted in front of building that shimmered purple and gold and curved like an upside down ‘U’ that’d been planted into the ground. The taxi angled towards a horizontal slab of metal jutting from the structure, one of many platforms. His face tingled from the wind.

  “Did you enjoy the ride?” the taxi asked.

  “It was awesome!” Excitement crackled like electricity from his fingertips. “How much is the ride?”

  “First ride in Arctic City is free,” the taxi said. “Glad you enjoyed it.”

  Alec stepped onto the platform with jelly legs. Tara and Domo spilled out of the taxi. The taxi, a yellow blur, vanished almost instantly. His stomach twisted. They were at least two-hundred stories high, and he didn’t see any railings or nets.

  He smiled. Then, his thoughts turned to the Super AI. He balled his hands into fists. The AI has lots to answer for.

  Chapter 17

  Apartment Z1501. The long hallway resembled any other apartment hallway anywhere in the world. Alec stood there, unsure whether to knock. Tara swayed at his shoulder, talking softly to herself. She sounded angry. Domo raised an eyebrow when their eyes met as though to say, “What are you waiting for?” What was he waiting for? He shrugged and rapped on the door in three quick successions.

  Nothing. No response.

  Tara muttered a little louder, her fidgeting intensifying. Domo frowned but remained silent. His friend must’ve been thinking the same thing he was. Could they have gone to the wrong place? Perhaps the AI was not home at the moment? What were the odds that the AI had chores like normal people? It would be just his luck if they’d come to the AI’s apartment while it was off on a weekend rave. It was Saturday night after all.

  He raised his hand to knock again. This time the door swung open to reveal a thin youth, with silver gray hair and matching eyes. Despite the boy’s youthfulness, his eyes were cool and sharp like a sky just before a heavy rain. The boy wore a dizzying array of colors, green and blue trousers with a tie-dye shirt. His face glittered with some sort of modification, but Alec couldn’t pinpoint its function. The glitter along rippled as the boy smiled, his face transformed.

  “Finally,” the silver-haired youth said. “Just when I thought you would arrive. And the girl is gone. That’s good.” The door widened to admit them. “Come in, come in.”

  Silvery, transparent tiles like the ones on the street floored the apartment. The smell of nutmeg and peppermint drifted under his nose as stepped inside. Curious. Had the boy been drinking? Where were his parents? After the scene with the King and his children, anyone under the age of fifteen felt like a sinister threat.

  The walls were peach and unadorned. Inside, the apartment was simply furnished with only a small mahogany table tucked in the corner. There wasn’t even anywhere to sit. And where did the boy sleep? Adjacent to the table, the wall gave way to a glass door where the Arctic City skyline shimmered and danced. Next to the door, a silvery hoverboard leaned against the wall.

  Drawn to the object, he went over to inspect it. He gasped. The hoverboard was by far the best he’d ever seen. He didn’t see any branding though.

  “Did you make this yourself?” he asked, his awed reflection jawing back at him.

  Domo had another idea. “Is this it?” his friend asked, glancing around with a decidedly dissatisfied expression.

  The boy’s forehead furrowed at this. “Do you know how much rent is in this city?” The boy pointed to three mats next to the tables. “Sit over there please.”

  “Uh, are you the—” Alec began.

  “I hate to tell you this,” the boy cut in. “But Agent Square is on his way. In fact, he’ll be here any moment now.” The youth raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. “Listen to me. Sit down on one of those mats. Yes. Right there. He won’t be able to see you as long as you’re on those, but hurry.”

  The last word sparked a sense of urgency. Alec wrapped up his admiration of the boy’s hoverboard and drove Tara onto one of the white squares. Domo was already sitting by the time he squatted onto his mat.

  Just as the apartment door exploded off its hinges. Agent Square stepped over the wreckage, now wearing a black velvet suit with scarlet pinstripes. How many times did he change his outfit? He adjusted his tie and removed his sunglasses as he scanned the small room.

  He pulled and pushed Tara on one of the mats. Domo dove onto one of the mats. As soon as his butt touched the cushion, the door exploded off its hinges.

  Agent Square stepped onto the fallen door frame. He now wore a black suit with red pinstripes. How many outfits could this guy wear in a twenty-four-hour period? Agent Square readjusted his crooked tie and removed his sunglasses. “I’m home!”

  Alec’s heart thumped in his chest so loud he thought the sound itself might give him away. The android frowned. The Super AI stood just across from him, but the an
droid’s eyes swept over the youth as though it weren’t even there.

  “You can’t hide forever,” the android snarled. He stalked across the tiny apartment and examined the hover board. Agent Square combed a hand through his hair and gave the board a kick, causing it to topple to the side. “They were just here! Where could they have gone?”

  “Why is this so difficult?” Agent Square raked a hand through his blond hair and surveyed his reflection in the balcony door. The cityscape glittered in his eyes. “I need to find him.”

  For a long moment, the android stood there panting and muttering under his breath. How couldn’t he see any of them? The boy was standing right next to him!

  Agent Square smashed a fist into the window, the glass singing as it shattered. Without another glance, he stormed out, nearly tripping over the ruins of the door in his rage.

  Alec stifled a laugh. To see his adversary so emotionally raw touched something inside him. A sliver of sympathy spiked through him. Agent Square was bound to his programming in the same way Alec was bound to the memory of his mother. Their motives weren’t that much different. When he was sure the android wouldn’t return, he turned to the youth.

  “Are you the AI everyone’s been searching for?”

  The boy smiled wanly. “I am. My name is Gray.” He extended a hand. “We share the same creator, which makes us siblings in a way. I suppose you haven’t noticed it’s gone yet, have you?”

  Alec didn’t like the way he used the word creator, but the second part of that grabbed his attention the most. “What do you mean?”

  “The necklace,” Gray said, still smiling.

  He touched his neck. He bolted upright, then wished he hadn’t as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He swallowed, but it did not relieve the tightness in his throat. “What happened?”

  “You were betrayed,” Gray said simply.

  “Marcia,” Domo croaked.

  Alec turned to his friend. Domo looked like he was going to vomit. “But why?” Alec demanded. “What could she possibly do with the necklace?” He couldn’t believe it. Even after their cold farewell.

  “I confronted her,” Domo said. Relief spread across his friend’s face as he spoke. “I- I thought I could stop her. Remember at the Metro station when I was going to tell you something about Marcia? Well, back when our drone crashed and she hit her head, I noticed an inception just below her left armpit. Same as my maid. Marcia is an android. When I confronted her, she hacked into my system and…took control.”

  “I freed him.” Gray strolled over to lean against the wall. “Her hold on him was meant to be temporary, but it was strong. Apparently, her mission was a covert one. Otherwise she would’ve simply killed you all and taken the necklace.”

  “Marcia…” Alec’s stomach twisted as he remembered their kiss in the telephone booth. So, it had all been a lie? He didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud until Gray replied.

  “It was. The girl you know as Marcia actually works for a powerful crime syndicate in this city. She was sent to your school to befriend you and gather information and ultimately steal my code.”

  That explained the finger pointing. That explained the sudden farewell at the harbor. “The battle droid,” Alec said. “The sniper at the Metro station. None of that was Agent Square. It was Marcia the whole time.”

  “It could’ve been much worse.”

  Alec stared at the AI, struggling against the anger swelling in his chest. He pictured Marcia’s heart-shaped, glaring face there at the end. That back-stabbing bitch. He slammed a fist against the table and shot to his feet. “We have to get it back.”

  Gray sighed. “At this rate, I won’t have any furniture left.” The AI raised a hand to calm him down. “Don’t worry, you have a good chance of getting the necklace back.”

  What did the AI mean ‘a good chance’?

  Alec jabbed a finger at Gray. “My mother died because of you. We all almost died because of you. People you’ve never met have died because of you. I want some answers. Not tomorrow, not later, right fucking now.”

  “Answers do not always come freely.” Gray looked troubled. “This is as much about you as me.”

  But Alec wanted answers, not riddles. He stepped forward, then thought better of threatening the AI. The youth was capable of anything.

  “These abilities,” Alec said slowly. “Do they come from your code? How can I control them?”

  The youth gazed shifted outside. “This city is the greatest achievement of human-android cooperation. It was built by understanding, not control. To master these skills, you must understand yourself first.”

  His fist trembled at his sides despite his best efforts to conceal his anger. He didn’t need some vague personal development advice. This wasn’t a monastery. “I need the tools to defeat Agent Square.”

  “And our goals align in this manner. Your mother was clever to take that particular piece of code. I suspect she even knew I would escape and so facilitated our meeting.”

  That brought more questions than it raised. It was like every time Gray opened his mouth. Alec chewed on his lip as he thought of a response that would force the AI to give a straight answer.

  “Why didn’t you go to the outer colonies?” Domo asked. “Wouldn’t that be the safest for you?”

  Gray turned away from the bright city and smiled at Domo. “Everyone needs rules. Including me. The outer colonies have no rules. Not yet anyway.” Gray nodded towards the ruined door. “It’s time to go.”

  Domo started to rise, but Gray halted him with a gesture. “Stay,” Gray said. “When you come, you always die.”

  Alec felt his jaw drop. He turned to find Domo’s face drained of color. What do you say to that? Domo dropped back onto the mat with a thud. Clearly, he didn’t need an explanation.

  Alec moved over to comfort his friend. “Well, if I don’t return.” He slapped the boy’s thin shoulder and grinned. “You’re welcome to anything in the boxes in my room.” He raised an eyebrow at Tara. “And what about her?”

  Tara didn’t appear to be listening. Instead, his guardian stared straight at the wall, face painted with a vacant smile and swaying slightly.

  Alec grimaced.

  “I’ve fixed her code,” Gray said. “She’ll be coming with us. She will recover soon.”

  He pulled Tara to her feet. His shoulder twitched as some inner component shifted its position. The pain from before was just a memory, but just moments before entering the apartment, his shoulder had still throbbed. Had Gray somehow healed him? He searched the youth’s face for a hint, but Gray’s face remained impassive.

  The AI gave Domo a wink. “I wouldn’t touch anything if I were you.”

  “There’s not anything in here,” his friend said with a snort.

  “Less decisions, less consequences,” the AI replied. “I suggest you watch the entrance very closely.”

  Without further instructions, Gray marched across the ruined door. Alec pulled his guardian along by the hand, but the action was unnecessary as Tara followed along anyway. The silver-haired youth led them down in the expansive hallway. Along the wall, three digital fishes swam alongside them, the largest leading the trio. Gray.

  He could hardly believe that this lanky good-natured boy was the AI that’d caused so much trouble. His mother had died over Project Five Squared, and yet, Gray behaved just like a normal teenager. It could be all a ploy. Alec watched the boy’s back as they walked. He would have to watch the AI closely.

  At the end of the hallway, a set of elevators awaited them. Alec studied his weather-beaten face in the mirror. Beneath the coat, his shoulder gleamed silver and metallic just like—

  “Am I an android?” he asked.

  Chapter 18

  Silence stretched out like an old, dusty rug. The elevator dinged open. Gray shook his head, a bit sadly Alec thought, and stepped inside the lift. “Some questions are best left unanswered.”

  Alec fumed, but followed as Tara tailed with the y
outh. After everything he’d been through, he deserved more than a few half-assed riddles. Still, he bit off his kneejerk response. Best to make friends with Gray, not enemies. At least the AI was willing to help him. That was enough for now. The answers could come later.