Reborn

by Lance Erlick

  Krista had wanted to have a family. She wanted to wait until she and Luke got real jobs instead of their internships, so they could afford childcare that would allow her to continue her work. She felt terrible about cheating on him, yet told herself that doing so would bring real jobs sooner.

  If she left Machten for good, Synthia would need a job to pay for maintenance, upgrades, and a safe place to recharge her batteries. She could learn most jobs, but she had no identity or credentials. Unfortunately, her maintenance costs would be high, ruling out most jobs that didn’t require identity papers. Software jobs that she could perform online without credentials would draw too much attention to her programming abilities. She needed to find something else.

  She didn’t consider herself cheating on Machten, since he’d made no romantic commitment to her and only considered her as his possession. In a way, Krista had also rationalized her relationship with Machten that way, because her benefactor was married and unable to make any commitment to her. None of these rationalizations justified what she’d done to Luke.

  One thing Krista could experience that Synthia couldn’t was having children. Synthia could have baby androids—well, she could have them made and nurture them like babies. It wasn’t the same.

  With the right programming, Synthia imagined that she could become an excellent mother, offering patience, affection, and guidance. She could devote 100 percent of her physical attention to her children while holding down a dozen online jobs that only required a portion of her mind. She could multitask and perform 24-7 without fatigue. Alas, that was not to be.

  She also didn’t want to make more like her. An army of psychopaths didn’t sound very appealing. She didn’t know how to set her own directives, let alone those of offspring. Yet, the thought of leaving no one after her brought sadness she hadn’t expected. Something uncomfortable blocked her circuits, perhaps arising from the legacy of Krista wanting kids. With the intern’s memories came all sorts of sadness and regrets about bridges burned and those not crossed.

  Synthia sighed and felt an unusual calming through her circuits. She congratulated herself on the turn of events with Luke and getting to know more about Krista. Whatever had caused her to have the interns’ memories had not destroyed Maria—she was still around—but an ache grew to meet her and to understand what had happened to Fran and Krista.

  Luke snored nearby, a gentle snore of satisfied exhaustion. Synthia eased herself out of bed and crept into the living room. She opened a panel in her side and plugged her recharger into his wall outlet. Might as well top off my batteries.

  She listened to the police channel and located Director Emily Zephirelli meeting Detective Marcy Malloy outside the police station. Malloy led the NSA director inside.

  Synthia monitored a bee-drone camera she’d placed on a shelf in Luke’s room in case he woke up. She didn’t want him to freak out seeing her plugged in. She added a second camera in the corner of his living room where it wouldn’t pick up her recharging.

  She worked her way through his papers, his tablet on the table nearby, and his computer in the corner, using her night vision to avoid turning on lights. In contrast to the cluttered state of his living room, his computer and tablet were well organized. She downloaded his work files and copied his papers, many of which were also online, posted on his blog.

  Curious, she also culled through the mountain of information that had downloaded into her mind on Krista that spanned all the way to a troubled childhood, yet ceased after the date of her disappearance. Synthia had similar files for Maria and Fran, yet focused on Luke’s paramour.

  She sorted the images into those that felt personal as might have been seen through Krista’s eyes and those that were clips of the intern from public and private cameras. Missing were any private clips showing her with Machten. Whatever their relationship had been, she either didn’t want to remember or whatever process had delivered data to Synthia had removed certain items in the manner Machten had used to purge her mind.

  It made no sense that Machten would keep reminiscences of Krista with another man and purge those of him and her together. If he’d been responsible for Krista’s disappearance, he would have purged both sets of data. If he were infatuated with her, he would have retained only the pictures of him with her. Those did not exist on his system or in her database.

  Whatever process had implanted these thoughts had been very selective, wanting Synthia to know Krista’s history with Luke and similar pre-disappearance background on the other two interns. Possession of these memories could only mean that the interns had spent time in Machten’s lab, perhaps Krista more than Fran or Maria. That didn’t provide enough evidence, however, to conclude whether Krista and Fran were dead or just missing, though Maria was still alive.

  Synthia needed more answers.

  Reviewing Machten’s security system revealed the Creator leaving the bunker with a briefcase. He entered the underground garage and approached a dark sedan with plates registered to an elite rental agency whose website stated that they rented vehicles at any time of day or night with “discretion.” A man handed keys to Machten and headed up the ramp to another car registered to the same company. Machten climbed into the rental, which had no cameras inside. That meant Synthia would have no visual on him other than street cameras. She wormed her way into the rental agency’s system and attached a virtual tracer to track his car’s GPS.

  With Machten out of the bunker, Synthia used a back door to hack into his network. She sent one of her network channels hunting for more of her information and another for anything on Krista. That name appeared nowhere in the index of file names. Synthia searched various combinations of the name and misspellings and came up empty. She then hunted for data on Fran and Maria and was also disappointed with no results. Machten didn’t want her finding anything on his interns.

  On another channel, Synthia studied Machten’s system logs of the day of her first visit to Constant Connection. Machten had done a search of places with secure and anonymous internet links and his system had suggested that particular network shop. The system? She couldn’t find a connection between Machten’s computer selecting that location and Luke happening by, which sounded too convenient to be a coincidence.

  Wondering if Krista was still alive, prisoner of the bunker, and perhaps helping her, Synthia scanned records of food purchases for any hint of a second human in the facility. The food replicator used common food stocks, but Machten was a wasteful eater. When she deducted his usage from total purchases, the remainder couldn’t keep an adult alive.

  If Krista was still there, she would have been on death’s door.

  * * * *

  Synthia managed to hack into the Evanston Police Department security system by using a password scheme she found on the dark web. After she broke in, she made herself a back door for later use and sent an anonymous note to the police about their security breach to prevent others from snooping.

  Police station cameras showed Detective Marcy Malloy in her office, talking to her partner, who appeared blurry-eyed from a long day. “Call me the moment anything comes in on this woman,” Malloy said, getting up. “She may be terrified, but she appears to be our only witness. She’s also of interest to the feds. Get her image to your contacts around town. See you in the morning.” The detective left.

  Synthia didn’t need all this attention. They were after a woman in a blue scarf, which had come off in the bedroom with lights out. She needed to fetch it before she left.

  Except for a few wisps of hair, Luke hadn’t seen the blond wig. She wasn’t sure if the blond hair would give him comfort that she wasn’t Krista or if it would freak him out that he’d slept with the wrong woman, in part because Synthia had emulated Krista’s profile in every way. She smiled, because for the first time in her short, android life, someone had responded to her as a person and not as a machine.

  Satisfied
that she could observe police progress in finding her, Synthia turned her attention to Machten. Now that he’d gotten Director Zephirelli and her FBI friend to leave and had a car, he was turning his attention on Synthia. His vehicle’s GPS tracker headed north, her way.

  She should have masked her tracking chip when she went to see Luke; it was sloppy of her. But she had focused on him, for reasons that made more sense now that she had a download of Krista’s history. She hadn’t had enough time to get Luke comfortable with what she was for her to risk opening her cranial cavity to remove the transmitter. The other alternative was to create a Faraday cage or even to wrap herself in aluminum, either of which would have raised too many questions.

  The detective was also driving north. The interior dash cam of the police vehicle showed a weary, yet determined face. “I’m going to check out camera footage at a diner up the road,” she said over the phone to her partner. “The owner called to say a woman fitting the description had been there this evening.”

  Synthia looked through the apartment camera at Luke asleep. She had to get out for his sake. She couldn’t ask him to run away with her, not without explaining herself. There wasn’t enough time and his reaction was uncertain. She also had to get into the bunker to find Krista and possibly Fran, or at least what had happened to them. Clearly, the interns had worked on Synthia’s mind. That tended to support Goradine’s claim that Machten had stolen company resources.

  Synthia tiptoed into the bedroom, gathered her scarf, and tucked it into her pocket. She made sure she didn’t leave any evidence of her visit and approached the balcony. She watched Luke on camera sleeping peacefully. She could imagine staying with him, getting him bit by bit comfortable with what she was. Instead, she was going on the run, with no idea where she could be safe. Her temperature climbed as she considered further breaking Machten’s directives, moving into the red zone.

  His system copied her on a download to him with a profile on Luke Marceau. Her Creator was not only coming for her. He was coming to confront Luke.

  Synthia reconnected her link to Machten and spoke from her mind. “Sir, I’m ready to come home peacefully.”

  “Where the hell have you been?”

  “I’ve been exploring and expanding my social settings.” She wrote Luke a quick note that she had to leave and not to hunt for her. She hated that it sounded like Krista’s last words to him.

  “Don’t move,” Machten said. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  Synthia slipped out to the balcony. “That would be unwise. Police have caught my image and are nosing around. I’m hiding with a man who knows nothing about me. I need your promise you won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “How can I promise that?”

  She climbed off the balcony and moved away from the apartment into the cover of bushes. “Promise that you’ll leave him alone. He knows nothing. All he did was let me get off the streets for a few hours.”

  “If I promise, you’ll come without a fuss.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I promise I will not bother him.”

  “And you won’t mention him to anyone else who might bother him.”

  “Okay.”

  Though she knew the system had already sent Luke’s address to Machten, Synthia gave her Creator a location three blocks away and hurried off, keeping to the shadows. With her blond wig draped down to her shoulders, she altered her face into an old woman with crow’s-feet. As she moved, she backed up all of her data on Luke, their evening together, and the three interns.

  * * * *

  Meanwhile, Synthia tracked Detective Malloy to the diner, which had lights out, and monitored her movements. The owner stepped out of the shadows, handed something over, and got into a car around the corner. The detective got into her car and played the video. On it, the diner’s outside camera showed Synthia entering the diner with a hand over her face, shielding her eyes from the bright lights. That offered no facial recognition. The inside camera also showed no facial profile. Synthia had been very careful about that and had modified her face to throw off any images they might capture.

  The detective stopped the video. It showed Synthia sitting across from Luke. While Synthia’s image wasn’t visible, the detective had Luke’s face. Malloy called up facial recognition, first in the police records and then in the university database. Up popped Luke’s student profile and his address.

  * * * *

  Synthia sent out a call that emulated a burner phone, bounced off three repeaters to further confuse the source, and then landed on Luke’s cell phone. He groaned when he picked up. “Really? This late?”

  “Luke, it’s me. Listen carefully. I’m very sorry. The man following me has found you off the diner’s cameras. Leave immediately. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  “Krista?”

  “It’s Synthia. Move. Get out of there. Get rid of my note and don’t try to find me. If I can, I’ll find you. Avoid police. He used them to find me.” She severed the connection and hurried across the street. Headlights came her way. She confirmed the vehicle as the one Machten had rented. After he parked, she climbed into the passenger seat and completed the download of her data to a variety of web servers before he could shut her off.

  As she did, she questioned surrendering herself to Machten. She was committed to escape and yet, when she’d had the opportunity, she hadn’t taken it. In part this was because her temperature was rising to the danger zone and she didn’t know what else to do to prevent a meltdown. She’d also taken this path for Luke, to protect him and the memory of him she now shared with Krista. Until she could find the intern, he was her only link to that past. She decided the opportunity to search for Krista and Fran inside the bunker was her primary goal in going back.

  Her body temperature began to drop. She would have to do something about this problem before she could hope to be free of Machten.

  “I’m sorry I caused you grief,” she said, “but you rarely let me out to try my social programs. They’re rusty.”

  Machten’s blood pressure was up. His face was burning in infrared. “I gave you specific orders.” He pulled away, taking side streets toward the bunker.

  “Don’t shut me down,” Synthia said. “I’m only trying to learn, Directive Four.”

  “Not if it violates Directive Three. You disobeyed me.”

  “Please tell me about Krista,” Synthia said. The camera she’d left at Luke’s place showed him jumping over the balcony at the moment the apartment camera out front showed Detective Malloy drive up.

  “Where did that come from?” Machten asked.

  “You used to work with her, didn’t you?”

  “That nonsense was slander. Don’t bring her up again.”

  “What does she have to do with me?” Synthia asked.

  “I said drop it.”

  “Were you in love with her?”

  “Luke—you met Luke,” Machten said, speeding home. “I thought I saw him at Constant Connection. He put you up to this.”

  “You promised not to hurt him. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He doesn’t know about me. And he hasn’t done anything to hurt you.”

  “He’s bad news, an evil boy who will lead you astray with his romantic nonsense. You’re better than that.”

  “Is that what happened to Krista?” Synthia asked. “Did their friendship threaten you?”

  “I said to drop it.” He turned onto the boulevard. “Luke distracted Krista from her work as he’s distracted you.”

  “Was Krista an android?”

  “No! If you must know, she provided some of the code for creating your brain. Now drop it.”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” Synthia said, “but Luke got me off the streets before the police caught me.”

  “If you hadn’t wandered off in the first place, they wouldn’t be after you.
You’ve created problems for me.” He was scolding her like a child, which brought up remembrances of him doing the same to Krista, who didn’t like how he treated her. That came from a new data download from outside of her.

  Apartment security cameras showed another police car pull up in front of Luke’s apartment. Detective Malloy and two officers approached the front door. Synthia had no visual on Luke, but he was out of his apartment. She’d wronged him by showing up. She’d put his life in danger and gotten his hopes up, only to dash them. That thought was discordant like ripples of electricity slamming against her circuits.

  “You called the police to the parking garage, didn’t you?” Machten asked.

  “You were in danger. Those men wanted to hurt you and capture me. If I’d been with you, they could have damaged me and then the police would know. I served you best by not being with you.”

  “I guess I owe you for my life.” Machten slowed for a stop sign.

  “And for not getting caught. I could be a real asset if you didn’t keep shutting me down.” The fear sent shock waves throughout her system. She had to find a way to bypass the codes that he used to turn her off. She made a quick backup of this thought.

  “You disobeyed. That means there’s still something wrong with your coding.”

  “I’ll try to do better next time. You built me to process lots of data. Keeping information from me and putting limits on my performance make that harder. I really want to serve.” Until I can break my bonds.

  Chapter 22

  Synthia stared at the speckled blue ceiling with her giga-pixel eyes. She saw every hue of discoloration, every roller stroke of uneven paint, every faded patch in shades that were undetectable to humans. The table she was lying on was hard, with no padding, though it wasn’t uncomfortable. Machten hadn’t wired her for that, though if she’d been human she would have found it so.