All the lights around them went out, the EDAI column blanked to a dark grey. Melissa stumbled as if she was about to collapse, but caught herself at the last minute. “No, it can’t…”
“Melissa, you ok?” Aaron asked.
Jonas had caught up now and was looking worried. The people in the plaza were looking at each and asking questions. They were confused, but didn’t seem overly concerned.
Melissa stood up and straight and headed purposefully off across the plaza. “This way quickly. We’re in danger.”
Aaron and Jonas followed her, Aaron really feeling the absence of his pistol now. “What’s happening, what’s the danger?”
“Are we under attack,” Jonas asked, looking around nervously.
Melissa didn’t explain, but said “we need to get to ANI, we’ll be safe there.”
They continued towards the vertical farm. Aaron got the impression someone was following them, as Melissa looked back several times. The door opened but there was no power in the lift. Instead the three of them ran down the stairs, towards ANI’s sanctuary. As they approached the first door someone came clattering down the stairs at great speed.
“Get inside, as fast as you can!” Melissa yelled, her customary cool lost in panic.
Melissa ran through the second door, then Jonas, who dashed inside, putting his back to the green ovoid as if to protect it with his body. A dark figure appeared and Aaron swung the heavy door closed. Just before it locked the figure barged into it and smashed the door against Aaron, sending him crashing into the wall, where he slid down it like a rag doll.
The figure stepped towards Jonas, but Melissa grabbed him and wrapped her arms around him. “No, leave him! leave him alone!”
There was a brief struggle, Dr. Young was stronger than she looked, but then the stranger punched her in the side of the head and she collapsed to the floor.
Jonas was angry now, but the figure stood looking at him, his face almost invisible in the darkness. After a few seconds, the attacker stepped forward, the green light of ANI’s brain revealing his features. It was Riian.
Jonas’ legs turned to jelly and he stumbled back against the glass. “You’re dead.” As soon as he said it he realized something was wrong. This Riian had no marks or scars anywhere on his exposed skin. Riian laughed, then lunged at Jonas.
Another person dashed between Jonas and Riian, pushing him back and trading punches. Riian seemed to be incredibly strong and resistant to anything Aaron could throw at him. Finally Riian got in a good punch and Aaron was sent flying across the room.
Once again Riian approached Jonas. He lunged at him with lightning speed, grabbing Jonas around the neck and slamming his head into the glass wall. There was a loud boom and Jonas’ vision darkened.
Sofia was trapped in the memory, the whole scene frozen, the edges dissolving into gray fog. She was Sofia, aged five and Sofia as an adult at the same time. When she spoke, both voices could be heard, like two people talking at once.
“ANI, what’s happening? I want to come out now, please let me out!”
There was no answer, just the sounds of her sister Annie sobbing in the distance, and an echo of her name being called over and over. The fog swirled around her, slowly eating away at the edges but trying to reform in others.
“ANI? Please, if you can hear me, let me go, stop the memory.”
Still nothing, but the scene stabilized, even recovered a little. The memory moved backwards, the bedroom door opened and the face of her sister slowly reappeared.
“Annie?” It wasn’t Sofia speaking, but ANI.
Sofia gasped at the coincidence if that’s what it was, but how could it be anything else?
The scene suddenly blacked out and Sofia was back in the cafe. She ripped the headphones off and flung them down, turning the chair around and deliberately not looking at the screen. She didn’t want to get stuck in there again.
“That was my sister,” she said, her voice tremulous. “And I was taken, kidnapped, by the people who I thought were my family? Didn’t anyone bother looking for me?”
“I didn’t know,” ANI said, but Sofia realized she wasn’t answering her question. “He made me, your real father, Piero Riva. He made me, from your sister. I am your sister Sofia. Annie is now ANI.”
“What?” Sofia was stunned by the claim.
“Your sister had a terminal illness, before she died your father transferred her conscience into the ANI computer. She is me and I am her!”
“Is that even possible?”
“I am proof that it is, Sofia, sister.”
“No, too much information. I’m not me, you are you and we’re sisters. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Stay calm, Sofia, think about it a small piece at a time. I can help you.”
“No! I don’t want that, not yet. Maybe later.”
“Later, yes, if there is later.”
“What?”
“There’s something I must do.”
“What’s that?”
ANI didn’t answer.
Riian now had Jonas in a headlock, choking him and smashing his head against the glass that surrounded ANI’s brain. “You got in the way of our plans before, little Jonas, but not anymore. There are more of us coming, and this time nothing will stop us.”
The pain in Jonas’ skull and neck turned into agony, he couldn’t catch his breath, and his vision was fading. The little green lights sparked and fizzed, probably the last thing he’d ever see.
There was a loud bang, a spray of something warm and wet, and he and Riian fell to the floor and into darkness.
Epilogue
Aaron was sitting in a chair beside a hospital bed. Between the blankets, the neck brace and the bandages, only part of Jonas’ face was visible. He was in a deep sleep, a machine beside him beeping out the slow rhythm of his heart. Another machine maintained the drugs that were keeping him asleep into his bloodstream. After his encounter with the attacker, Jonas had a fractured skull and a badly damaged neck. His spinal column was attached by a thread, and any movement could break it and leave him permanently paralyzed. Aaron looked around as Dr. Young entered, looking no worse for wear after her own encounter with the psychotic youth.
She smiled, “I knew you’d be here.”
Aaron shrugged, “I wanted him to see a familiar face when they let him wake up.”
Melissa grew serious. “Aaron, there’s something I have to do. I want you to look after Jonas for me. That was just the first battle in what could be a long and bloody war. Jonas is an important human being, more important than either of you know.” She leaned over and kissed Aaron on the cheek. “Take care Aaron.” With that typically enigmatic statement, Melissa turned and left.
ANI walked around her virtual world, looking at the house. It was, unsurprisingly, the very one where she and Sofia had lived. At least on the outside. Inside, the dark walls and infinite doorways still existed. She’d taken the image of Dr. Young, which surprised her human side but made logical sense to her other half. All the windows in the house were lit from within, and she found comfort in that.
Unlike ANI’s original house, this one had a large garage on the side of it, made entirely of glass. Standing inside and looking out at her was another version of Dr. Young, this one cold, distant, triumphant. She was the machine ANI was meant to be, would have been if it wasn’t for her father. But now she was free of it, free of the thing in the glass cage. She could make her own choices now, not be bound by cold logic. The future was hers to make.
ANI carried on walking around the house, approached the front door and went inside. She walked past her rooms one by one glancing into each but concentrating mainly on her final destination. She wished Jonas was here to see this, but after what happened with Riian she’d lost his trust. She missed talking to him a great deal, although she could still monitor him thr
ough his nanobots. One day, she would win back his trust.
At the end of a corridor was a blank wall, gray and featureless. When Jonas was here previously, she was unable to go any further. Now, as things had changed, as she had become more organic, the way was now open.
As she concentrated, the wall began to change, the form of a large door forming within its space. Instead of a handle, there was a flat plate, inscribed with the outline of a hand. ANI pressed her right palm against the plate, then pushed slightly with her fingers. The plate softened, taking the shape of her hand. All these precautions were essential, as this was a very special door. After a short pause, the door dissolved into gray, and ANI stepped through.
Several hours later, Sofia heard the door of the cafe open, and a young woman entered. She’d just been tidying up before closing for the day and looked up to inform the customer.
The woman had long red hair and pale skin and was slim and quite beautiful. There was something about her, something familiar. The woman spoke, and Sofia recognized the voice at once.
“Hello Sofia, I’ve been looking forward to this day for months, and now it’s finally here!” She smiled widely, the emotion bringing a gleam of moisture to her eyes.
Sofia dropped the cloth she was using, turned towards the EDAI machines, and then back to the woman. “Is it really you?”
“Yes. We have a lot to do, I think we should start by finding our father, don’t you?”
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