by Ryan Kirk
But then there was a third side to the coin, nothing more than a rumor even to most members of Sapiens and Sapiens First: highly intelligent, driven, and successful professionals who bridged the two worlds. They were the masters who pulled the strings and changed the course of the future. Drake was one of them.
Thus, despite being one of the most powerful enforcers in the Sapiens organization, few within the movement even knew of Drake’s existence. All the same, over the past day, he had made a series of phone calls that had sent an impressive collection of resources in the direction of one Matt Jones, the latest victim of the AI infestation.
He had personally contacted Matt via phone almost immediately after Matt recovered consciousness. His femur had been reset, and although he would be out of work for weeks and probably have a bit of a limp for the rest of his life, he was otherwise unharmed.
Drake had used a gentle voice scrambler, not one as distorted as they were depicted in movies, but one that changed just the tones of his voice so he sounded like an entirely different man. Matt had been drugged nearly to delirium, but Drake made the first contact to let him know that Sapiens was going to take care of everything. It didn’t even matter that Matt had never had any affiliation with the group.
Today’s call was to make sure nothing had been missed. By now, the man should be more clearheaded and able to articulate any remaining needs better.
“Matt?” Drake asked.
“Hi, sir,” the other man responded. Drake hadn’t given his name on the last call.
“There are a few reasons I wanted to call today, but first, how are you doing?”
“Well, sir, I’m in an awful lot of pain, but other than that, everything seems okay. I’m grateful for everything you have done for me.”
“It’s nothing, Matt. We’re always glad to help.”
“Help’s one thing. Sapiens saved my life. My wife has money so she can still buy groceries, and thanks to the help of that lawyer you set me up with, I’m guaranteed to get my job back as soon as I can walk again. I thought I’d be fired for sure.”
“You’ve been pleased with Mr. Adair’s services?”
There was a bit of a laugh on the other end of the line. “I don’t know how much you know about me, sir, but there’s no way I could afford someone like him. He looks like he only helps the rich and famous. I’m not sure what he did, but my boss actually called me here in the hospital to assure me that my job would be ready and waiting as soon as I’m healed. Hell, my boss actually told me to take all the time I needed. I’ve never heard anything like it in my life.”
“We’re glad.”
Drake was telling the truth. The robot, like far too many humans, didn’t consider the costs of the violence it engaged in. Whether or not it thought it was on the side of justice, it hurt people, prevented them from working, and made them responsible for tremendous medical costs. Matt, more so than most of the robot’s victims, had been innocent. If Sapiens could step in and make the victims’ lives better, they were doing good work. It wasn’t propaganda. It was simply the right thing to do.
There was a moment of silence on the phone as Drake thought about how to phrase his next question. “Mr. Jones, could you tell me everything you remember about the incident?”
There was a hint of suspicion in the answer he received. “I’ve already told the police everything I know.”
“Yes, but, there are other methods that may be available to us.”
Drake didn’t dare say more than that over an unencrypted phone line. But Matt understood well enough.
Matt recounted his story, which was much as Drake had heard from the police report. But the facts of the case didn’t get at what he was really interested in.
“Could you describe how the robot acted?”
There were a few seconds of silence as Matt dredged up his painful memories. “Honestly, it’s hard to say because it was a robot. But if I didn’t know better, I would have said that it was angry.”
Drake’s mouth twitched up in a bit of a smile. It was as he anticipated, then.
He asked a few more questions of the man, genuine ones to make sure that he would be well taken care of. He also gave Matt the number of the local Sapiens office to call if he needed assistance of any kind. They couldn’t entirely repair all the damage that Matt had suffered, but they could reduce it as much as possible.
The day was bright and chilly, with a slight breeze cutting through the sweatshirt Drake wore. The combination of sun and cold was one Drake always associated with the Midwest. Looking outside at the glorious, cloudless sky, it was hard to believe the temperature was just above freezing.
If possible, he would have preferred not to do this task in person, but there was no viable alternative. Drake lived his life as a ghost and hated meeting with anyone, but it couldn’t always be avoided. They had contacted Mr. Jones, who told Adair, and so on and so forth, until word came down from on high that Drake needed to meet them.
If he was a laughing sort of person, he would certainly be doing so now. Their two sides couldn’t be more opposed, and yet here they were, working under a temporary truce. Crisis made for strange bedfellows, it appeared. Of course, they’d never know who he truly was.
He knew that as soon as they saw his face they’d run more records checks on him than most people visiting the President suffered through. Their technology made it easy. If ever his online security was going to be tested, now was the time. He was confident, but still, there was a flutter of hesitation in his heartbeat as he walked towards the meet.
He got to the meeting place early and scanned it, both with his eyes and with digital surveillance equipment. He could see that the opposing team was already in place, also well-prepared. Drake was working alone, and he was outnumbered here at least ten to one. An interesting challenge if the meet went sideways. He marked the location of their van and the handful of spotters around the location. Fortunately, it seemed as though none of them were explicitly prepared for violence. They were simply being careful, just as he was.
He came into view ten minutes before the meeting, sitting down on a bench in the public park. They were downtown, near the river in a very public area. Behind them, a local theater sign announced in glaring scrolling letters that it was performing Shakespeare that night. Women with small dogs walked along the river walkway, and the occasional jogger ran nearby, persistent despite the nip in the air. No one would try anything untoward, not here.
At exactly the designated time, a woman came and sat down next to him. She was attractive, and Drake could tell from the way she moved and the way her eyes were constantly scanning the area that she had a military background. Special Forces, most likely. They were the only ones hired by Radius. When you could afford the best, that was what you got.
“Who are you?” she asked, getting straight to the point.
Drake detested lying, but if Radius really knew who was sitting next to them, he’d be shot dead in a crowded park in the middle of the day and no one would ever find the shooter. That was the power of the people he was playing with. Moving slowly, he pulled out a badge and handed it to her. The badge was an exquisite fake, labeled across the top with the logo of the Department of Homeland Security. His picture and a different name decorated the rest of the front.
He didn’t say anything else. The badge was deception enough.
She handed it back to him.
“So, how can I help you today, Mr. Miller?”
“I’d prefer to believe that we can help each other.”
Her look indicated that she didn’t care about semantics. A woman after his own heart, if only they were on the same side of the war. The department she worked for, Radius’ ultra-secret cleanup crew, didn’t officially exist. The fact that he had called her indicated he already knew why she was in the city, so there was little need for formality. “I believe that I’ll be able to give you, sometime soon, the location of the target you’re seeking.”
She glanced a
t him warily. “Why us?”
He shrugged. “You have more resources in the area than we do. We both want it off the streets. No reason not to cooperate.” He had no doubt his biometrics were being monitored, but every statement he gave was true.
She was still wary, but he could see her defenses lower a little. Both agencies had a large stake in not letting news of a rogue robot become public. It would make sense for them to cooperate. And Radius really did have many more resources than the federal government. That wasn’t even in question.
“What’s the catch?” she asked.
“No catch. Just keep it quiet.”
She looked around, pretending to be thinking. Drake didn’t buy it for a moment. Everything they were saying was being recorded and analyzed. She had a whole team of people behind her, coaching every word she said. If she said yes, it was an official proclamation from her superiors.
“Fine. Send the coordinates and time to this address. We’ll be ready, if we don’t get it done before then.”
Drake looked at the physical business card she had handed him. There was an email address on there, one he recognized that would disappear without a trace seconds after it received a message. Good procedure on their part.
He nodded, and the woman stood up, as cold as the weather.
Drake remained on the bench as their team left, watching as the van and spotters slowly departed the area, one at a time in such a way as to not attract the attention of a less-skilled operative. He relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine. If the robot had any idea the trouble that was coming its way, it would run and hide.
Chapter Ten
Br00-S figured Nat hadn’t been back to the cave for a few days. At the very least, her path hadn’t crossed with his own. A quick check showed that her van was on the move, so he simply accepted that she was out and about. There wasn’t any expectation that she be around whenever he was. Their partnership didn’t work that way. In fact, their partnership didn’t seem to work much at all as of late.
He didn’t mind. He had more important things to worry about than a girl who was upset with him. He needed to find the man who had hunted him, who had come so close to succeeding.
After a few days of effort, there was nothing. Despite his advanced intelligence and access to computer systems, this man left no trace. He could disappear from cameras with ease, and he left no record of where he’d been. There was no video evidence, no financial trail, nothing. With all the tools available, he was forced to hunt on websites where Sapiens First members frequently posted. Perhaps the man wouldn’t slip up, but one of the people he associated with would. It was endlessly frustrating, but his persistence would pay off. He was certain of it.
When Nat returned, Br00-S could tell that she was still angry. Her footfalls were loud and her shoulders were set, but he ignored her, opting instead to keep his processing powers focused on trolling the Sapiens First websites for information.
She stood behind him, glaring silently. Finally, she sighed, perhaps realizing there wasn’t any way she was going to win a silent-treatment contest with a robot. “Br00-S.”
He ignored her for a few moments longer than necessary. He was annoyed that she was interrupting his investigation, pointless as it seemed to be.
“Br00-S,” she repeated.
He shifted the investigation to the background of his mind and turned to her. “Yes?”
“What are you working on?”
That was a dumb question. She knew what he was working on. The only reason she asked was because she couldn’t bring herself to directly address what was on her mind.
Nevertheless, he answered her. “I’m searching for the man who tried to kill me.”
After all their time together, he was getting much better at reading her emotions. He could tell she was debating several different approaches, trying to convince him he was wrong. Unfortunately for her, he had mapped out all possible conversations before she even figured out which path she would take. “Br00-S, I’m worried this is too much for you.”
“I can catch him.”
“Maybe. I’m not underestimating you, Br00-S, but there’s more that you don’t know.”
She told him about the Radius team at Bryan Adair’s office. She needed to connect a few dots for him, but he understood quickly. Everything was connected; it simply took the ability and perspective to see it all. The man, whoever he was, was weaving a net around him, waiting to pull it tight.
Br00-S scanned for information about Radius and their retrieval teams. Not surprisingly, there was almost no public information. There were rumors online written by sites that specialized in conspiracies and the paranormal, but nothing substantiated. The only fact everyone agreed on was that the Radius retrieval robots were a class above anything publicly available, which made perfect sense.
The odds of him succeeding against the sniper now varied widely. He didn’t doubt Nat’s information, but it introduced too many variables for him to compute. Even an educated guess was essentially useless.
In a bid to get more information, Br00-S researched what was known about Radius’ combat robots. The news wasn’t promising. Physically, they were far superior to him. In most situations, they would destroy him without even warming up their processors. The big question, and the one he didn’t have any information on, was how developed their AI was. Based on his unique developmental experiences, he might have an edge that he could take advantage of. It wouldn’t be much, and it would disappear quickly, but it might be enough to survive if they made contact.
The tapping of Nat’s foot made him realize he hadn’t spoken for almost twelve seconds since her last statement.
“Well?” she demanded.
“Well what?” This time he genuinely wasn’t sure what she was looking for. He hadn’t been paying enough attention to her.
“Are you going to stop?”
“No.”
“B!” she cried, exasperated. “You’re brilliant. How can you not see that you don’t have a chance here?”
She was technically inaccurate. He had a chance, it just was lower than before. He didn’t bring that point up.
“The man almost killed me, Nat. He needs to pay.”
Nat was staring at him warily. Br00-S realized his mistake, but there was no point in backtracking. She’d never buy the lie anyway.
“This can’t be about you, Br00-S. All of this, this is something bigger than you and me. It has to be for it to mean anything.”
“I can beat him, Nat. If you’d help, there’s no chance that he would get away from us.”
Nat shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to be a part of this. This is too much, and I’ve found something else worth fighting for.”
Br00-S tried not to laugh. Diamond’s campaign, as it stood, was a joke. It got a lot of media attention for its positions, but there was little chance of her upsetting the race. “Then let me work in peace.”
Nat’s eyes watered, but then they hardened and dried up. She nodded and walked over to her computer station.
As soon as he was sure their conversation was over, Br00-S turned back around and refocused his AI on his hunt.
Another day passed and he still hadn’t unearthed the information he sought. Br00-S kept tabs on everything, checking all websites whenever they were updated. Something had to give. If not, he needed a new strategy.
The next day, Br00-S received his first hints of the man’s whereabouts. Someone in the Sapiens First organization, someone Br00-S had never heard of, was planning a meeting of like-minded people. The message was cryptic, saying only that Sapiens First was going to be getting some extra help with their mission of creating a better, robot-free world.
The message was immediately upvoted and pinned, and within hours, a large private meeting of Sapiens First supporters was planned. Br00-S didn’t care much about the meeting. Similar events popped up every once in a while, an occasional support group for the misguided, Br00-S supposed.
What interested
him were the comments about new help coming in. When others queried the original poster, the response was cryptic as well, just saying there was someone new in town who was experienced at dealing with robot problems. Perhaps it was coincidence, but Br00-S didn’t think so. Whoever had posted the meeting notice knew about the man that had come after him.
Of course, there was always the chance it was a trap.
Br00-S investigated. How did the poster of the original message know the sniper was in town? At some point, he had to have made contact with Br00-S’ mystery man.
Br00-S turned his processing power on the original poster, HumansFirst2048. A quick dive into the man’s records revealed a surprisingly familiar name: Walt Drixler. He had been an enforcer for Proskey Enterprises, and had once assaulted Nat. He had been released early and was out on the streets, although it looked as though his old habits died hard.
The robot went through Drixler’s records, unpeeling the man. He tracked movements and spending for the last two weeks, not finding anything of any particular interest. As near as he could tell, Drixler and the assassin had never physically met.
That wasn’t too surprising to Br00-S, although he was disappointed. Meeting in person carried a number of risks the assassin would want to avoid.
That left online. A few minutes of hacking brought up all of Drixler’s accounts. Br00-S scanned everything carefully but didn’t find what he was looking for.
There had to be more.
Br00-S rooted through Drixler’s home computer, eventually finding another clue. An onion browser was installed, making website traffic more difficult to detect. If Drixler was up to illegal activities, that would be what he used.