by Robin Craig
That part was certainly a challenge. But the combination of 90% mindless tedium and 10% hard thinking on how to outwit a witless machine rapidly wore her out.
After a few hours she leaned back, stretched out the kinks in her muscles, and just stopped to think. This wasn’t what she’d had in mind for her exciting crime-fighting career. Unfortunately the image she’d had in her mind, that even her years of study had failed to dislodge, was from her childhood when it involved capes and super-powers. It was a sad fact that neither were issued by the police department. She rubbed her eyes. Oh well, she thought, every profession from acting to politics makes you pay your dues. And for all her pride in her accomplishments to date, she knew that she was now just as much an apprentice as any hopeful carpenter starting out on his or her career. And who knew, maybe she would actually find something worth reporting.
She had her breaks, of course. She got coffee, chatted to the other inhabitants, started to get to know people. Most of them were friendly enough, even if most looked slightly harried by their own pressures. But she was the new girl and people were willing to chat and get to know her. Some of them looked through her as if her existence was not worth noticing, but most were friendly enough. She thought she would like it here.
Before she knew it, her boss popped in again and told her it was time to go. “So, how did you like your first day?”
“Well, it’s not quite what I dreamed of, Chief Ramos, but I know I have to start somewhere. The AI is clinically insane, but I think I’m making progress.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you’re settling in. Your face when I gave you this assignment looked like I might have a rebellion on my hands. Anyway, a bunch of us meet for drinks down at Joe’s. You’re welcome to come along, get to know the crowd some more.”
“Sorry, I’d like that but maybe tomorrow. My family has a little job-start party planned for me tonight. So good night.”
“Good night, Miriam.”
Chapter 4 – Family
Miriam’s family was delighted to celebrate her new job with a party. They were delighted to celebrate anything with a party. They had always told her that if you didn’t take time to enjoy life, why were you living it?
The party was at her favorite uncle’s apartment. Seth Hunter was a grizzled, no-nonsense man several years older than her father; he had never married himself despite having had a string of lady friends. But, he said, he liked the ladies the way he liked horses: the thoroughbreds liked to run free not settle down on the farm to chew hay. Personally she thought he was speaking more about himself than about them: the way she had seen some of them look at him, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t have minded settling down in some hay.
He was also the richest man in her immediate family. Over his years he had converted a little corner hardware store into a string of franchises and eventually sold out to a national chain. Now he put his hand to a variety of business schemes, some successful, others less so, but inexorably his wealth grew.
One result was this apartment, an elegantly appointed suite high above the city streets. Miriam had been coming here since she was a child and loved just looking out at the city. When she was a little girl it had looked to her like a fairyland of lights. Now she knew that down in the streets it was often a tawdry, dirty place; a home to villains, bullies and scoundrels. But up here all that was purified by distance and the essence of the city was distilled into a place of magic possibilities, as if the grime of the city’s underside could not touch the spirit that made it beautiful. The possibility had never occurred to her that anything could happen to make her so cynical that she could see it differently.
Uncle Seth had hired caterers for the evening. He believed that parties were to be enjoyed not worked at, and he was quite happy to spread his wealth to others in order to achieve that end. So there was nothing for Miriam to do but wander around chatting to friends and family, browse from the delicious morsels that came within reach and sip the delightfully fresh champagne. Eventually she found herself where she always ended up, at the window looking out over the city.
Seth saw her from across the room and smiled. My memories of her are like time-lapse photos, he thought to himself. She has been standing at that window like that since she was a little girl. Now look at her. Her hair was still dark, even darker than her skin, cascading in ringlets past her shoulders. But now in place of the gangly little girl she had been stood a tall, slender but full-breasted woman, relaxed and confident, looking out at her city. That is how she always looked: as if it is her city.
He loved her as if she was his own. He loved all his nephews and nieces, but Miriam owned a special place in his affections. Her quick wits and self-confidence captivated him and her determination and drive impressed him. In her life she had seen her share of ugliness, but it had not touched her; she shrugged the mud off her Teflon skin as if it wasn’t worthy of her attention. He smiled, remembering the time when he had been visiting his brother and she had come home crying, bruised and bleeding. On her way home from school she had come across another child being bullied. Her temper had escalated from outrage when she first saw it to incandescence when the bullies ignored her perfectly reasonable demand to stop. Her common sense had no chance against her anger any more than her fists had a chance against the bullies, and she had suffered along with that other child. But her response after the tears and Band-Aids had been to learn not prudence but martial arts.
He was not surprised that she had chosen a career in the police force. Her family would have preferred the greater pay and safety of a legal career but Miriam had done what she always did: listened, considered, and did what she thought was best. He knew she would see even more ugliness in her new career. He hoped that she would remain untouched by it; that she would always look at the world the way she was looking at it now. The world, he thought, might not deserve that: but she did.
“I knew you’d end up here,” said a gravelly voice at Miriam’s shoulder. “Oh, Uncle Seth, thanks for this,” she said, leaning her head onto his shoulder. “Well, I’ve finally done it. I’m a real cop now.”
“Is it what you expected?”
She laughed. “It’s only been one day! Truth be told, not so far. They’ve put me straight onto hackwork. But I suppose they always do. Eventually I’ll get a break into something more exciting. Worse comes to worse, next year we might get another newbie or two. Then I can stroll around lording it over them.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Made any friends yet?”
“I haven’t had time to make any real friends except with the coffee machine. You’d like him. Strong, sensual, just a hint of the unpredictable. But most of the people there are nice. Some of them act as if I’m not there but I haven’t had much chance to show I am yet.”
“Any problem characters? I imagine there are, in a police station.”
“Oh, not really. One guy seems to resent my presence. Detective Stone. Well, former detective Stone. He’s been promoted to a desk job in reward for his years of service but I think it’s chafing on him. I had to get some information from him and he looked at me as if I’m an idiot, as if I should know everything about the place after five minutes. Maybe he’s like you, doesn’t like girls,” she teased. “Or maybe he’s just unpleasant. I’m sure I’ll be able to cope, whatever his problem is.”
He smiled and shook her hand formally. “Well, congratulations again, my little girl. And here’s cheers to your sparkling new career!” They toasted sparkling new champagne to that then he headed off to chat with more relatives.
“And of course you’re staying the night,” he called over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about having to drive home: relax and enjoy yourself.”
Tired as she was after her day, Miriam spent the rest of the evening in a pleasant haze of chatting about the past, catching up with the news of her relatives’ families and careers, sipping champagne and speculating on the future. In her dreams the pleasant buzz conti
nued as background while the shapes of the future rose from the city before her and beckoned. But when she woke, she could not say what those shapes had been or where they had taken her.
Chapter 5 – AI
Miriam settled into her routine. She got better and faster at importing old data into the system, while the AI became better and faster at inventing imaginary connections. Slowly she got to know the people she worked with and they her. Some people stayed much as they were on her first day, polite but uninterested in allowing her into their personal universe; a few remained cold; some became friends. Much like any new job, she supposed.
Overall, she was unexcited by her job’s routine but happy about its potential and happy to be here. There was nothing else to do, she thought, but to do the best she could, take whatever opportunities presented themselves, and hope for a break sooner rather than later.
After six months she was efficient at the boring parts and finding more pleasure in dealing with the still flakey AI. She had even promoted a few of its less eccentric offerings up her chain of command. So visible progress was being made. Not enough to make her thrilled and certainly not enough to make the departmental gods thrilled, but enough to propitiate their wrath.
She saw that IT had succeeded in dumping another large load of data into her system and wondered what the AI would make of this lot. She had a lot to do with the IT department, of course. She was not officially in charge of the project, but her position as prime AI interpreter and trainer made her the first port of call in any questions and issues. And from her side she needed to keep her finger on the pulse of what IT was doing.
Having made sure the data was digestible, Miriam let the AI loose on it and waited for the results. She had nothing to do but wait for now, so she took the opportunity to sip on her coffee and just follow her thoughts where they would lead her.
They quickly led her to the IT department. She wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad at the moment when it came to them: or more accurately one of them. She had started a friendship with Fergus, the cute – at least in her estimation – guy who had introduced her to the AI, and it had rapidly developed into something more. While relationships among staff were forbidden if they went out into the world together with guns, nobody cared about rookies and engineers. They had had a really good time together, but after the first flush of romance faded both had come to realize that too much time together just wasn’t going to work. Not that anything was wrong with either of them, just that they weren’t right for each other. So they had regretfully called it a day.
Ah well, she thought, it was something; and it had been good. Not just the sex but the romance and the fun had certainly helped ease the tension of the job for both of them. Miriam refused to have regrets for having a happy time even if the happy time had to end: in her view the pain of ending merely underlined the happiness that had been lived. The pain would fade, she knew, while having been happy could never be lost.
She had even picked up a few colorful curses during their time together, a kind of souvenir of the relationship that also would never be lost. Not unusually for geeks he had a penchant for fantasy and epic mythology: and why limit yourself to Christian mythology, he had pointed out with his cheeky grin, when there are so many more exotic ones to choose from? She smiled at the memory. She had heard he had now taken up with a very cute blonde in the public relations department; he seemed to be on a one-man mission to rescue the reputation of geeks everywhere.
She came out of her reverie when the AI had finished digesting its lunch and started making a few suggestions. More of the same, she decided. No. No. No. You must be kidding. No. Nice try, but no. Sigh. I need to invent an AI to screen the AI’s output, she thought. But hang on, this one is interesting. Weird, but interesting. A string of minor but odd burglaries, if you could call it a string when it was scattered across half the city and into the suburbs. Normally she would promote it up the usual chain for the attention of property crimes but this time the AI had highlighted other correlations, one of which made her eyes bug.
She decided to do a bit more investigating herself and started quizzing the AI. Half an hour later she was looking at a printout that summarized their findings. She still didn’t know what it meant, but her instincts told her it meant something.
Chapter 6 – Geneh
Miriam walked briskly up to her boss’s office, resisting the impulse to actually skip; the door was open so she went in. He was standing with a couple of detectives, looking at his screen and pointing. They all looked both puzzled and grim. She did not think she should interrupt so she started to back out, but Ramos saw her and said, “Yes, Hunter?”
“Sorry to interrupt, Chief. I’ve found something interesting I thought you should see. But it isn’t urgent and I can come back later.”
“No, stay, a break from this bit of craziness won’t hurt. What is it?”
“Well, the AI flagged a string of minor burglaries where some jewelry was stolen. They all represent a fair bit of money to people like us, but not if you look at the income of the owners. Half of them probably wouldn’t even have reported it if they didn’t have to for their insurance. But would you believe, at random times since the burglaries five of the victims have had amounts of money from half a million to two million dollars mysteriously vanish from their accounts, destination unknown. And that’s not all. You know how IT has started feeding in news from the wider community as well? The AI, bless it’s brainless bits, noted that a full quarter of the victims were present at a big fundraiser last year for President Felton.”
“Coincidence?”
“I quizzed the AI. I can’t vouch for the details of its calculations, but according to the AI’s statistical subsystem the probability of it being chance is only two percent.”
His eyebrows went up. “So! Interesting! Let me see what you’ve got there.”
She handed him the printout and he scanned it. Then his eyes went very still. He called the other detectives over to take a look. Then they all glanced at each other. Ramos said, “Hunter, I think you should see this. See this list of attendees at that fundraiser? See this name, that isn’t on your list of burglaries?”
He turned his screen around so she could see it. “This image was taken from a short video captured by a security camera near the city apartment of that man. Shortly after a minor robbery in his apartment last night. Some gems were taken.”
Miriam looked at the screen. The image was slightly blurred and enhanced for light, but clear enough to see why the detectives had been so serious. It was a woman leaping across the rooftops, caught in mid flight, looking past the camera as if she hadn’t noticed it, or perhaps had known it was there but didn’t care. She had large, luminous golden eyes that seemed to reflect the lights beyond. And a long black tail streaming behind her.
Miriam looked at Ramos, startled. “What the hell?” she asked.
“What the hell indeed,” he agreed. “What do you make of it?”
“Well, if it wasn’t both illegal and unlikely, I’d say it was a cross between a girl and a cat!”
“Watch this.”
He played the video from which the still had been taken. The woman was extremely fast and agile, and she was only visible for a couple of seconds as she bounded into and out of camera range.
“I don’t suppose that video is a hoax?”
“The techs say not. I suppose if the CIA was trying to fool us they might be able to do it, but we’re pretty sure it’s genuine. That’s not a video sent in by a member of the public who might be pranking us. It’s taken from a fairly secure feed and there are no digital signs of tampering.”
She examined the still image more carefully. Not really a cross between a girl and a cat, she saw: more a girl with a few catlike additions. Science fiction stories from her youth, romantic tales of genetics before the whole field of human genetic engineering had been made illegal, now haunted her thoughts and would not be silenced. Instead they escaped through her tongue.
“Um, Chief, would you fire me if I said that looked like a geneh?”
“Genehs don’t exist. You know the penalty is death. The scientists who used to work on it are lucky the penalty applied to the genehs not the scientists.”
“I know. But look at it! What do you think it is?”
“If I knew, I might have fired you. But I don’t have any better ideas right now.”
The childhood ghosts haunting her memory shoved one of their number forward into sharper focus. A man who had been a hero in her young mind, now disgraced and largely forgotten. “I think I know someone we could ask,” she said uncertainly.
Ramos looked at her. “I think I know who you mean. But really, if I thought it was a geneh I’d pass this on to GenInt Enforcement – except something this hot might ruin my reputation if it’s the false alarm it almost certainly is. And we don’t have the staff to spare to follow thin leads like that, especially ones leading to a man like him who is unlikely to let police anywhere near him.”
She looked around at the others in the room, who were all regarding her silently. “I could go,” she offered timidly but hopefully.
He stared at her with narrowed eyes. “Really keen to escape your desk job, aren’t you, Hunter?” he said. Then he paused. “But sometimes... yes. Someone else has been keen to escape his desk lately too. Maybe I’ll give you both a field excursion. Then when you’re sent packing at least we can file it, bump it up to someone who will forget it, and you can both get back to your real jobs.”
He tapped on his phone. “Stone, get in here.”
~~~
Stone came in and Ramos said, “Stone, you know Hunter here. Well, she’s found something interesting. Take a look at this.”