by Ryan Kirk
Unfortunately, due to the configuration of the browser, Br00-S couldn’t access Drixler’s history. Instead he installed a mirror on the computer, allowing him to see whatever Drixler did.
That night, after the enforcer got home from work, he logged on to his home computer, and Br00-S watched in real time as Drixler logged in to the alternative browser.
There it was. A secret email account Br00-S never could have found on his own. Br00-S noted all the pertinent information and waited until Drixler went to sleep. Once he did, Br00-S worked his way into the mail and found what he was looking for.
The message was short and simple. It read:
Get the word out. Trusted people only. I specialize in robot removal, and will help with your problem. Set date, time, and location. Don’t respond. I’ll see it.
And that was all.
Br00-S almost grinned to himself. That had to be the man he was looking for. A mistake, the first one the man had made. The meeting was two days from now, but Br00-S didn’t mind. Patience and time were nothing for a robot.
Br00-S was just leaving the cave when Nat entered. The timing couldn’t have been more inconvenient, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. He needed to leave immediately if he wanted to get into position before the meeting began.
Nat stopped and stood right in front of him. The girl was observant for a human. It was one of her more desirable traits, although obnoxious now.
Br00-S was wearing the body armor he had gotten from Bryce before his assault on Felix. There were a few holes in it where he had been shot, but he figured it was better to be safe tonight. The layers added a slight bulk to his clothes, which Nat couldn’t help but notice. “Where are you going?”
He didn’t answer. She had made her position clear, but he wasn’t going to be dissuaded. Stopping people like the assassin was why he was here, and he wouldn’t be kept from his purpose.
She sighed. “Is there any way I can convince you not to do this?”
He shook his head. “I will catch him, Nat.”
“B, I really want to believe you, but I’m just not sure I can. You’re not invincible, and he’s already outsmarted you once.”
Br00-S was annoyed. Humans thought that stating the obvious was a powerful way of arguing, but it made no sense. Of course he wasn’t invincible, but he’d weighed everything carefully and had determined the mission was within his risk tolerances.
“I’m going, Nat.”
“If you leave, I’m not sure I’m going to be here when you return.”
It took Br00-S a few seconds to realize that what she said and what she meant were two different things. “You’re leaving?”
She nodded. “You’re changing, B. You’re angry, you’re not thinking clearly, and I can’t stand to see you taking these risks. You’re bringing more heat down on us than I’m willing to be a part of. I would love to help, but I don’t think we have the same priorities anymore.”
The statement caused him to pause. Nat had been his closest ally. But she was also human and irrational. He was learning more about humans, and he knew what this was actually about. She didn’t trust him anymore.
He wasn’t pleased that she was leaving. She had been useful, and had helped him several times. But he was getting much better than her at everything, and all the tricks she’d once taught him he could now do better. The truth was, he hadn’t asked her for support for quite some time. He would be fine without her.
Still, it seemed like he should say something.
“Thank you for all the help you’ve provided.”
Nat nodded, not seeming to accept the acknowledgment. Br00-S had a hard time believing his own words. Perhaps there was something more he should say, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He turned and left the cave, leaving Nat behind.
Br00-S had already walked the perimeter of the building twice. It was an old commercial building that had been renovated a few times, but the original brick still stood, a testament to the quality construction practices of those who originally built it.
The building had a number of small conference rooms inside that got rented out for a variety of purposes. Br00-S had logged in to their system and seen that one of the rooms on the first floor was booked this evening by a nonprofit calling itself “Humans First,” which he assumed was just a cover for Sapiens.
The room itself was easy to spy on. If he saw the man again, he would recognize him, even from the grainy video from Bryce’s apartment that was all he had to work with. Br00-S decided on a hiding spot across the street, up on a rooftop. From there he could see into the conference room while remaining a safe distance away. He wasn’t going to make a move until he was sure his target was there. If this was a sophisticated trap, which he doubted, he wanted to be as safe as possible.
As the time slowly ticked closer to the meeting, he had to keep his thoughts from moving towards Nat. The task proved almost impossible. On one hand, so much of what she said made sense, if he could take a different perspective. He was putting himself in incredible danger. There couldn’t be any doubt of that. But why didn’t she see the bigger picture? Why didn’t she see that he could help so many? Why couldn’t she see that this mystery man posed an enormous threat, maybe even more than Clive Proskey and Felix had?
He didn’t have any answers to his questions. In his mind, everything was straightforward. He didn’t understand why she didn’t understand. His logic was sound.
About a half hour before the meeting was to begin, people started pulling up to the building. More importantly, they started trickling into the conference room. Br00-S recorded everyone’s biometrics for future reference, but as soon as he was sure they weren’t his man, he paid them little mind. Tonight, his focus was tight.
He did note the diversity of the group that was attending. There was a desire, some remnant of the pattern-recognition aspects of his software, which made him want to try and find the commonalities, even when they weren’t skin deep. Every ethnicity, age, and wealth level seemed to be represented. The only commonality was that they were afraid of the advance of AI and robots and were trying to do something about it. At the very least, they were going to sit around a room and bitch about their problems.
The timer continued to click down, and still the man hadn’t shown up. Br00-S hadn’t even seen him walking around or scouting the area. But, if the man was as good as he seemed to be, he might be lying low.
Ten minutes before the meeting, Br00-S saw his man for the first time. There was no doubt it was him. The facial recognition matched perfectly. He came from behind a row of trees that separated a set of deteriorating railroad tracks from the parking lot to the building. The sighting confirmed Br00-S’ assumptions. The man was careful, coming from directions that wouldn’t be predictable.
His caution wasn’t going to save him, though. Br00-S had the man dead to rights, all thanks to the deep hacking skills Nat had taught him. The assassin didn’t even know he was being hunted. The second he entered the small conference room, Br00-S was going to finish this.
The man walked through the automatic doors without a second glance. He was wearing black jeans and a black parka that protected him from the elements. The only time Br00-S caught his face was as he approached the building.
Recalling Nat’s warning, Br00-S looked over the building again, using all his sensors. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. He would be wary, but the information for this meeting had been well-concealed. They had worked too hard to hide this to make it a trap.
Br00-S descended from the building he was on and carefully crossed the street. There was a side entrance to the target building that he could use to access it, a solid metal door with an old-fashioned deadbolt on it. Br00-S walked to it as though he belonged there, then slid a set of lock picks into the lock. His sensitive fingers felt the pins move and click into place, and within five seconds he was inside the building. Anyone watching wouldn’t have seen anything more than a man strugglin
g with a lock for a few seconds.
Inside, he stopped and looked around some more. Even though he thought the odds of a trap were too low to be of concern, he knew from long experience that it was foolish to rush into a building without knowing as much as possible. He had researched the building plans before entering, and he had put himself in the position of his enemies. Where would he set traps, or ambushes? Br00-S checked those locations carefully before moving on.
Perhaps it was a bit paranoid, but despite whatever Nat might think, he was very cautious. She was the one who was illogical, looking at the situation completely incorrectly. She was using her irrational fears to determine her course of action. Br00-S used cold, hard logic.
Fact One: This meeting had been very well hidden.
Fact Two: The person he was searching for had never been mentioned by name. He had been cautious as well.
Fact Three: The man had to know Br00-S survived the first attempt. It was logical to assume he would reach out for help for the next attempts.
Conclusion: It wasn’t a trap.
Br00-S examined each of the pieces and found them satisfactory.
But still, he understood Nat’s fear. The man had proven himself a worthy adversary thus far. Treating him disrespectfully was also a mistake. So Br00-S checked each of his corners carefully. He kept all his sensors active and dedicated an enormous amount of processing power to them to make sure everything was in order before proceeding.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The only anomaly was an elevator out of service, stuck on the first floor where the meeting was happening. Br00-S crept closer, listening for a heartbeat or a heat signature, anything that might indicate someone was hiding inside. There was nothing, though. As near as he could tell, the elevator was empty.
Picking his way forward, Br00-S crept towards the conference room. The meeting was being held after business hours, so the building was relatively deserted. No one else was here. That just made Br00-S’ life easier.
When he came to the door, he could see through a little window into the conference room. The man was there, his black parka only feet away from the door. The man had his hood up, and his back was to the robot, but he was right there.
Br00-S knew there would never be a better time. His target was within his grasp, and Br00-S had a clear route of escape mapped out. Just to be certain, he scanned everything one more time. There was still no reason to worry.
Then he opened the door. There were a few glances at him, but his hood was pulled up, and a glance wouldn’t reveal anything untoward about him.
He needed to act quickly.
He wrapped his arm around the man’s neck and pulled him back.
The room immediately erupted, but Br00-S had expected that. He ignored them all and pulled the struggling man out the door.
In the struggle, the hood came off, and Br00-S got his first surprise of the day. The man he attacked wasn’t the man who had walked across the street to the building. Same clothes, same stature, but a different man.
There could only be one reason for that, Br00-S knew. Nat would have been delighted to rub this in his face.
He had walked into a trap.
He knew he was right moments later when the building came alive. Within the elevator he had thought was empty he detected two sounds he hadn’t heard before: robots, coming to power from a complete shutdown. He hadn’t even thought to check for wireless reception. Above, on the roof, there were heavy footsteps. Another robot.
His mind raced as he shoved the decoy away from him. Part of him was working through the problem he had created for himself. He was dealing with Sapiens First. Why would they use robots? Didn’t that stand against everything they stood for?
Then he made Nat’s connection, and he understood the trap he had walked into. The man from Sapiens First had roped Radius into doing his job for him. And they would be more than willing to use their robots. Their best robots.
Br00-S’ only option was escape. If he stayed and fought, he would be dismantled in minutes, if not less. His only advantage over the robots, if he had any at all, was his AI. He had to be smarter than them.
The two robots from the elevator blocked his way to the exits. He would have to make his own way out. His optical sensors were immediately drawn to the windows of the conference room. From the footsteps above, he could hear that the robot on the roof was trying to cut off that exit as well. The three of them worked well together as a team.
There was no more time to think. He sprinted toward the windows, leaping over the few humans who tried to get in his way. Within the space of a few strides, he leaped at the windows and crashed through.
Unlike a human, who would have needed to shelter the eyes and face from the broken glass, Br00-S could keep his sensors on the pavement outside the entire time. He landed in a smooth run and sprinted away from the building. He wondered if he was faster than the other robots. Somehow, it seemed unlikely.
Behind him, he heard a crash as the robot from the roof jumped down four stories and landed no more than ten feet behind him.
Br00-S sprinted towards the street as fast as he could. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could use the cars as cover. He sprinted out into traffic, narrowly avoiding a handful of cars as he turned on the speed.
He heard footsteps behind him and glass shattering as the other robots followed him out the window. Br00-S briefly used his rear camera to check what was happening behind him, and the information wasn’t promising. The one robot from the roof was very close behind him. He had just enough time to realize that when the other robot leaped at him.
He shifted direction, causing the robot to miss and pass to his side. Br00-S felt a momentary surge of excitement until he realized that the robot had never really cared. Br00-S had to shift his momentum, which had caused him to lose a few steps. In that time, the other two robots had nearly caught up. Everything was happening at tremendous speed.
Br00-S returned to full speed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to outrun the robots. Perhaps he could outmaneuver them, though. He saw a potential path open to him and took it, turning sharply along the side of a building and leaping up a fire escape. He didn’t even bother with the stairs, simply leaping from platform to platform in ten-foot jumps.
Any hope he had of outmaneuvering the robots quickly dissipated. They were just as fast, climbing up the platforms with an ease not even he could match. Worse, only one of them was doing so. The other two circled on the ground, communicating with their partner and waiting to set whatever trap may be necessary.
Br00-S got to the roof and sprinted across. The Mississippi River was about seven blocks to the south. On the other side was downtown, where he might just have a chance of evading them. That was territory he knew well, territory in which he’d hunted every day recently.
But to get there he would have to get across the river, and that would be no easy task. The bridge was a long straight shot, and they had already proven that they could outrun him.
Thus, if he was going to have any hope of getting across, he needed to have some sort of lead going into it. Right now, that wasn’t looking likely.
Br00-S leaped from one rooftop to another, crashing through the rooftop door to the emergency stairs below. He dropped from landing to landing, ignoring the stairs completely in his haste. The Radius robot ran right behind him, all gleaming black metal that promised a quick end to Br00-S’ mission and freedom.
On the ground floor, Br00-S heard another robot coming in to stop him. Br00-S jumped over it and kicked at its outstretched hand as he passed over. The robot almost got a grasp on him, but failed.
He went deeper, down into the basement of the building. Somewhere down here, there needed to be underground passageways. He found one but cursed to himself. It was going the wrong way. Nevertheless, he didn’t have a choice, so he slammed through the door and ran down the darkened corridor.
Across the hallway, he only heard one set of footsteps behind him. That meant his pursu
er was still coordinating with the other robots. There wasn’t any good way to get away from them. Unless he could leave all three of them behind, he didn’t have a chance.
Br00-S kept running, hitting the stairs leading back up into a different building at full speed. He knew he was going to find at least one other robot waiting for him above. He passed a pipe and tore it off the wall, sending hot water spraying across the cement hallway.
Br00-S crashed up the stairs and out the door on the second level. He jumped out of a hallway window without hesitation, landing behind the robot that had posted itself at the front door. Pipe in hand, he sprinted back towards the river, pushing his metallic body as hard as it had ever been designed to go.
Of course, the third robot popped up right in front of him. Br00-S swung the pipe as hard as he could at the robot’s torso, but even running at full speed and with all his strength, the other robot easily caught the swing. It had to be several times stronger than him.
Br00-S knew trying to hold on to the pipe was to invite destruction, so he didn’t. He let it go and continued sprinting, knowing he was running out of options fast.
He heard the whine of the weapon before he felt the impact. Something tore through his left shoulder, rendering the entire arm as useless as a log. Another whine, but this time he had the sense to alter his path. Whichever robot had powered up the weapon didn’t even fire.
Br00-S noted it. They were only going to fire if their targeting solutions reached a certain percentage. He bobbed and weaved and moved around as he could. Every time he kept to one path for too long, that same whine came to his ears.
It slowed him down even more, though. Every time, the footsteps behind him sounded closer.
Br00-S returned to the main street, using the cars for cover as he moved. He leaped over one, jumped in front of another, then ran beside one. He covered another block. He was still four blocks away from the bridge, but he didn’t have nearly the distance he was going to need to cross safely.