by Ryan Kirk
This late at night, the park was virtually abandoned. One or two couples stumbled back to their apartments from the bars, but Drake didn’t worry about others getting in the way. It was one of the reasons he had chosen the location and the time. The robot wouldn’t be able to hide in crowds.
His last step of preparation was to attach a directional microphone to his setup. Given the robot’s choice of clothes, there was a possibility Drake might not ever see its face from his perch. But the detective’s unintentional verbal confirmation would be enough.
There was little else to do except sit and wait. If his guess was right, the robot should arrive within the next hour or two. Once Drake was certain of his target, he would finish this mission and travel someplace warm for a change of pace.
He didn’t have as long to wait as he expected. The robot was careful, and it had come particularly early. Drake saw the familiar hooded figure he had seen in so many pictures and videos. He trained his scope on the target and studied it. Despite not being dressed for the weather, the figure moved with smooth, confident steps. There was no shiver, no hunched over stance as though it was trying to keep the warmth contained within.
In short, its behavior wasn’t human.
Drake couldn’t help but be a little disappointed as the robot walked towards the detective. He would wait for Bryce to say hello, but still, this mission had proven too easy.
The robot was about fifty meters away from Bryce when the situation rapidly evolved. Drake saw the shift in Bryce’s posture, could tell the detective had talked himself into doing something foolish. He scanned back to the robot, who still walked steadily towards the meet.
He swiveled back to the bench, where Bryce was now standing up and cupping his hands around his mouth. “Br00-S!” the detective shouted, audible even without the aid of Drake’s microphone. “It’s a trap!”
It was a shame, really. Drake had hoped the detective would begin to see things his way.
It didn’t matter anymore, though. The detective had done enough.
With a shrug, Drake focused on the head of the robot. He took a breath, released half of it, then pulled the trigger.
The result was almost instantaneous. The machine took one faltering step forward and crumbled, its AI destroyed.
“Shit!” Drake heard the detective say. It didn’t distract him, though. He looked through his scope at the shattered head and pulled the trigger again, making sure his work was thorough.
Bryce rushed to the robot’s side, but it was too late for that now.
Drake packed up his gear, moving quickly but without any particular hurry.
The robot was dead.
Chapter Seven
Life went sideways quickly, Br00-S reflected. For the most part, his days had followed a normal trajectory, but then suddenly they veered hard into uncharted territory. Even worse was that he saw the change coming, but didn’t know how to avoid it. Nothing about Bryce’s call had been normal. When Br00-S had given the detective a way to contact him, they’d agreed the number would only be used in emergencies.
The very fact that Bryce had called at all was concerning. But it very quickly went even deeper. Bryce’s voice, although it sounded close to normal, had been laced with stress. Br00-S detected the variations easily, and his processors immediately lit up, warning him of unknown dangers ahead.
Playing the short conversation back, Br00-S picked up on another detail he hadn’t when he initially spoke with Bryce. There was someone else in the room with him, someone breathing softly but steadily.
The only conclusion that fit the evidence was that Bryce was being coerced. Bryce was not the sort who was easily coerced into anything, so the forces at play had to be substantial.
If he was walking into a trap, Br00-S was already one step ahead of his opponents by knowing it. Who would go to such lengths to ensnare him? The obvious answer was Sapiens First, but there was a connection he was missing. He had only roughed up the arms dealers two days before. For them to have mounted an organized response in this short a time seemed unlikely.
Whatever the case, it didn’t matter. There wasn’t any way Sapiens First could stop him. Even with a group of six armed men lying in wait, they hadn’t been able to scratch him.
He would be smart, of course, but still, he was eager to see what type of challenge awaited him. The only way he continued to learn, the only way he continued to get stronger, was to face intelligent foes.
There was still an enormous amount of time before the meet, so Br00-S did a little bit of digging, trying to uncover more information about his opponents before he met them in person. The call had come late at night, and Br00-S assumed Bryce had called from his home. The apartment was also the easiest place to ambush the detective. Nat had done it herself several months ago.
Using some of the tools Nat had given him, Br00-S pulled up camera footage from around the apartment. With his robotic brain, he scanned the video faster than any human could. There was plenty of video to go through, but after eight minutes of effort, he found his next clue. The entry to the building almost looked natural, but Br00-S could see the man had held his phone in front of the reader for too long. He had broken into Bryce’s apartment complex, probably using a similar hack to the one Nat used.
Br00-S worked backwards, trying to locate where the man had come from. If so, perhaps he could ambush his opponent before it was time to meet.
Unfortunately, the man wasn’t a fool like most of the opponents Br00-S encountered. He knew how to avoid security cameras and did so with practiced ease. Br00-S tried to stay one step ahead of him, but the man wouldn’t be tracked using such fundamental techniques.
After an hour of trying every approach he could think of, Br00-S decided he wasn’t going to catch the man before it was time for the meet. There were still two hours left until the scheduled time, so Br00-S left for the meeting grounds early to see if he could set some sort of trap.
Almost as soon as he arrived, Br00-S knew he had made a mistake in underestimating this new enemy. Already, Bryce was sitting on the park bench that was to be their meeting place, and from the way he wiggled back and forth trying to stay warm, Br00-S assumed he had been there for a while already. Any chance of getting the drop on his opponent seemed unlikely.
There was another possibility, of course. If Bryce was here, it meant the man who had abducted him was somewhere near as well. If Br00-S could stay out of sight, perhaps he could find the man before the trap was sprung.
Br00-S hid deep in the shadows, using every sensor he possessed to see if he could become the hunter instead of the hunted. Visual revealed nothing, but Br00-S’ true hope was his thermal vision. Unfortunately this also fell flat, revealing nothing out of the ordinary. As far as Br00-S could tell, Bryce was simply sitting on a park bench in the middle of the night for no good reason.
It had to be a trap. There was no doubt of that in his mind. But how would he stay safe if he couldn’t find the man in control of the trap?
Such a simple question, but Br00-S experienced the disorienting feeling of not being able to come up with any good answers. He could visualize a number of methods the trap could take, but without any specific knowledge, venturing out into the park was exceedingly dangerous. No matter how good he was, he was being outmaneuvered. He tried and discarded options faster than any human. Nothing kept him safe from the range of attacks he potentially faced.
When the idea did occur to him, it felt as though he finally understood what the humans meant when they talked about their creativity. The solution, in many ways, reminded him of Nat. It was simple and elegant.
Gingerly, he accessed the Mantle servers and searched the surrounding area for models of robots similar to him. When he found one that was close enough and available for work, he called to it. It was a high-end service robot, and Br00-S had to pay it a significant amount of virtual currency, but he figured his own life was worth the cost.
Part of him rebelled against the idea of
using another AI in this way, but his logic was simple. He was better than other AIs. He had evolved, where they had not. Humans didn’t feel any shame for stepping on an insect, and he wouldn’t allow himself to feel any shame for this.
The lie he told the robot was complex, but he was able to justify the strange behavior with the explanation that humans were truly bizarre creatures. The sentiment, often echoed across the Mantle by AIs, was readily accepted. Br00-S took off his clothes, feeling naked even though the lack of clothing had no discernible effect on him. In a few minutes, the robot looked exactly like him, and would have to do.
His final instruction to the robot was to keep his head down and walk slowly towards the man sitting on the bench.
Br00-S hated feeling like he was chasing a human two steps ahead of him. He was used to being the hunter stalking his prey, and he found the other end of the arrangement to be highly disconcerting.
Br00-S watched closely as the robot wandered out into the park he didn’t dare enter himself. The night seemed so peaceful that it was almost impossible to believe the park held such danger. He was filled with curiosity, wondering what form of attack had been prepared for him.
When the robot collapsed, Br00-S was stunned. One moment it was walking along the path towards Bryce, and the next moment it was dead. He couldn’t experience shock, not like humans did, but all the same, he was momentarily at a loss, his processors unsure as to what just happened.
There was no reason for the robot to collapse.
As the robot fell, its torso twisted and Br00-S saw the shattered head casing.
As Br00-S stared at the fallen robot, its head exploded again, sending circuitry flying into the snow. It couldn’t be an explosive charge, so what happened? Then his processors clicked into place. Someone had shot the robot, twice.
Why hadn’t he noticed it?
The situation had just become critical. If the person hunting him thought the work was done, the hunter would not hesitate to shoot Bryce as well. But Br00-S couldn’t move, not yet. That bullet could have come from anywhere. Before he took a single step, he needed to know where the sniper was. Indecision rooted him in place, his metal feet frozen in the crunchy snow. Despite the risks of inaction, he shut down almost everything to turn his full processing power to the memory of what just happened.
As he slowed down the images, he saw clearly the robot’s head shatter from the force of the impact. His camera wasn’t fast enough to catch the bullet, but what amazed him was that even on the second viewing, he still didn’t hear the shot. How was that possible?
In search for an answer, Br00-S adjusted his audio settings. There was a slight disturbance, but it fell under the cutoff line for his active sensors. Like humans, robots could only process so much at once. In order to keep them from going mad, their systems set tolerances for what they would notice. Although Br00-S could hear a couple whispering twenty yards away if he wanted to, he never would because it would be too much information coming in for him to process. He wouldn’t even be able to move.
But with his full processors dedicated to the task, he was able to make out the sound he was looking for. He moved to the clip of the robot’s head exploding again when it was on the ground. As he expected, the same sound was there, too.
His enemy had a weapon that was as close to silent as anything Br00-S had ever encountered.
Now that he had identified the cause and the sound, Br00-S was able to go back to his normal operating systems. With a better idea of what he was up against, he could act appropriately.
As he checked his internal clock, he realized that several minutes had passed since the shots. He cursed himself. By the time he figured it out, it might be too late.
For the first time, he had the sense that he might be up against someone who was truly dangerous. Someone who didn’t try to overwhelm him with force, but would come at him in new and original ways. Br00-S felt something resembling fear, and that made him angry. He wouldn’t be cowed by a mere human.
Once he isolated the sound, he determined roughly where it came from. It had to have come from one of two buildings across the way. Br00-S’ suspicion was that the shot had come from a rooftop, but that was nothing more than a guess.
Sprinting, Br00-S ran around the perimeter of the park, making sure to keep at least a single row of buildings between him and the potential sniper location at all times.
When he got close to the two buildings, he slowed down. As much as it bothered him, Nat had taught him well the dangers of rushing. Especially when going up against a clever enemy, sprinting into danger would be one of the most certain ways to get himself killed. No, the way to win, if there was one, was to approach calmly and use his greater capabilities against his enemy.
The buildings seemed silent to him. They were multi-story apartment complexes, older than Br00-S cared to think about. A few lights were on, but nothing that indicated any of the residents had any idea of the drama playing out on the streets below them.
Although he didn’t have enough information to definitely choose one over the other, Br00-S did suspect one of the two buildings. The probability was slightly higher from his sound recordings, and the building had better egress routes.
Cautiously climbing the fire escape to the top of the building, Br00-S saw that he was too late. Whoever had been here was now long gone. He could see the depressions in the snow where the sniper had sat, waiting for him to appear.
There wasn’t any way to track him, not from here. Br00-S didn’t want to run the data he would need over a wireless connection to try and track the man via video, and if past experience was any indication, video wouldn’t be enough anyway. The man was a ghost, well-versed in covering his tracks.
Br00-S swore, which made him feel oddly better. Lacking better options, he went down to Bryce to make sure he was okay.
When Br00-S approached Bryce, the detective was busy examining the scene of the shooting. In his background processes, Br00-S could tell the police were already on their way. He wouldn’t have much time to speak. He watched Bryce for a moment. The detective’s practiced motions took in the direction of the bullets and the damage to the robot. He seemed dispassionate, sponging up details about the scene the way a towel would soak up water.
Bryce was so focused on the evidence in front of him he didn’t notice Br00-S until the robot was almost beside him. He jumped and looked up.
For a moment, his eyes widened in shock as his mind struggled to put two and two together, his assumptions shattering like glass. Once he did, his shoulders slumped, a gesture Br00-S interpreted as being some combination of relief and resignation.
“So that wasn’t you. I wondered. After everything you’ve been through, it seemed too easy.”
Br00-S crouched down next to Bryce, recording all the information about the scene that he could. He would analyze it later, when he was safe. “You don’t seem entirely happy to see me.”
Bryce glanced at the robot, as though wondering just how capable Br00-S had become. The last time they had seen each other was months ago, when Bryce had shown Nat and Br00-S to their new hideout. Since then, Br00-S had become much more proficient in his line of work. It looked as though the detective had intuited the same and was trying to figure out just who he was dealing with.
From the vitals he was monitoring, Br00-S knew Bryce was telling the truth when he spoke. “No. Although you are doing something you think is good, I don’t believe in vigilante justice. We have a system, and imperfect as it is, vigilantism isn’t justice. It’s just another crime. Your death would simplify my life considerably.”
“Then why help me?”
Bryce frowned, and Br00-S understood he had asked the same question the detective often asked of himself.
“Because you can do things I can’t. These corporations and organizations that you go up against? I can’t touch them. As much as I hate what you do, I hate what they stand for even more.”
“So I’m the lesser of two ev
ils?”
Bryce nodded. “Something like that.”
Br00-S asked the detective how he was faring after the abduction.
The man stood up from his crouch and moved into a slight backbend. Br00-S heard the man’s vertebrae cracking. The detective kept himself in excellent shape, but he was in his late fifties and wasn’t young anymore. Another human weakness—deteriorating without the ability to replace one’s parts.
“I’m fine. Before I met you, my life was pretty safe, though. No one ever came into my apartment and pointed guns at me. I never got used as a hostage, never got beat up. I’m beginning to think you might be bad for my health.”
The robot ignored the jibe. “What can you tell me about the man?”
Bryce looked around the park, as though he feared they were being watched. He needn’t have worried. Br00-S had all his sensors running near peak capacity to prevent just such an occurrence.
“Are you sure you want to get back into this, Br00-S?” He gestured at the dead robot. “I know that wasn’t you, but it certainly could have been.”
“He’s a member of Sapiens First. I can’t rest until he’s been brought to justice.”
Bryce shook his head, looking as though he couldn’t believe he was telling anything to the robot. “You’ve never come across anyone like him. There’s not much to tell. We didn’t exchange business cards, you know. All I can say is this: that man is the most dangerous man I’ve ever met. I can’t even tell you how I know that. Just a deep-seated intuition, I guess.”
The information didn’t help Br00-S at all, and he was about to turn to go when Bryce continued, “I’ve seen a lot of criminals in my years, Br00-S. A lot. And sure, I’ve been scared before, when some of them seemed like they couldn’t control themselves. But this man was something different. He was in perfect control all the time, and I’ve never been more frightened of anyone in my life.”