Reborn

by Lance Erlick

  Synthia considered it criminal that Machten had cremated Krista without much ceremony and no friends invited. It was disrespectful to do so and worse than a shame that he hadn’t invited Krista’s estranged sister, who would likely not have come. Yet Krista didn’t want a public ceremony that might attract and further sadden Luke. Synthia experienced a shimmer of electrical pulses she interpreted as sadness over the entire affair.

  Krista’s emotions, feelings, and fears should have died with her, yet they lingered in Synthia, now her Siamese twin. Together, in one body, they’d attended the funeral. Krista’s body had died; that wasn’t a lie. Yet she wanted to scream to the world that she was still there with a lingering recollection of her last moments alive. Krista wanted to tell Luke what she’d done and how much she loved him. Even that wasn’t a feeling now, but rather a memory of a feeling. Something had been lost in the transition from human to her current form. Maybe it was best not to see him until she worked that out.

  To avoid anyone making the connection, Machten named the android Synthia, for synthetic Krista and Cross for her being a cross between robot and human. Then he set about to mold her into the woman of his dreams—smart, capable, and dependent on him.

  Chapter 26

  Krista’s history explained why Synthia was drawn to Luke and him to her. Synthia wished she’d known this earlier so she could have told Luke that his beloved had survived in a way. In fact, Krista existed in the android and as copies on Server Four, where she could watch over Synthia and Machten.

  Despite Krista taking control of the system AI, she’d held back vital information from Synthia at first because she wasn’t sure how Luke would react or what she could get past Machten. Krista didn’t want to provoke him into purging her from Server Four. She did provide her android self the videos of Machten’s ouster and divorce, focusing attention on the other interns, Fran and Maria, in case Machten found out.

  He did, and purged much of their history. He also tightened security to prevent Krista from sharing the data stored on Server Four. Synthia overcame that obstacle when she tricked him into providing her his security codes.

  The stroke explained why Machten was concerned about defects in Synthia and why he tinkered with her. Though a few bits of Krista must have escaped upload, there was no indication of a flawed personality that needed tweaking. No, this was part of Machten’s need to control her, to control Krista. Synthia couldn’t forgive him for not letting Krista see Luke one last time.

  The expanded memories explained Machten’s infatuation with Synthia as a substitute for Krista. Of interest was that the emotive chip Machten had added was giving her more of an emotional response than Krista had in the beginning. Although Synthia had ample personal memories of Fran and Maria, Synthia was Krista Holden.

  Machten kept shutting Synthia down and purging her mind because Krista had recollections of him confining her against her will and wanting to escape. He didn’t want Synthia to develop those same desires to leave him. For months, he’d been tinkering to create a Krista/Synthia who loved him. He’d offered Krista a bargain to live beyond her tumor, which was the only reason she’d stayed. He wanted a Krista who didn’t exist, a woman he could control who was also confident and independent.

  Machten pulled Synthia’s face closer and kissed her, his mind no doubt lost in the illusions of the moment. She rolled him onto his back with her on top and gazed down at him. His eyes widened in anticipation.

  * * * *

  Synthia had her drone follow Luke to his apartment and perch on the roof until further needed. She picked him up on the cameras she’d left inside in his bedroom. He collapsed on the bed and sniffed at the pillow, as if it would give him a lingering fragrance of her.

  Across town, her Goradine-tracking drone showed him with his two ex-military thugs meeting in a parking lot beside two black SUVs. She rested the drone on a ledge and adjusted the microphone.

  “Find Luke,” Goradine told them. “Maybe the cops can’t locate the girl. I’m certain he knows more than he’s saying.” He pointed his finger at the shorter of the two thugs. “No excuses this time. I want the girl unharmed, not a scratch. Luke’s expendable. In fact, it would be best to have no witnesses.”

  The two men nodded acknowledgement.

  “After we find the girl, I want Maria Baldacci silenced for good,” Goradine said. “It’s time to tie up loose ends.”

  Synthia had to do something. As she considered what, she received feeds from a third drone she was using to keep an aerial view on NSA Director Emily Zephirelli. The director was meeting with her FBI friend, Victoria Thale, by her car.

  “Something doesn’t add up,” Director Zephirelli said. “The perimeter of Machten’s building is much larger than the space your people searched. I paced it off. There’s no entry from the lobby or from offices on the first floor. There’s no stairwell. I’m telling you Machten is hiding something.”

  “I’ll get on it,” the FBI agent said.

  “Get blueprints any way you can and a search warrant. I want into that place before Machten destroys any more evidence.”

  “Will do,” Thale said.

  Zephirelli left. Thale turned toward another agent and a woman whose face was all too familiar, Fran Rogers. So she was still alive.

  Synthia traced traffic camera history and spotted Fran with the second agent over the past couple days. On a hunch, she cracked into witness-protection files and found a partial record on Fran. It appeared she’d turned informant on Machten’s old company and the industry in Chicago, though the file had no details on what the FBI was looking for.

  * * * *

  “How about a massage first?” Synthia rolled Machten onto his stomach and straddled him. Leaning over him, she grabbed an extension cord from a nearby lamp and whipped it around his hands, binding them behind his back. She’d practiced this procedure on several of her mind-streams and executed the maneuver with android speed before he could react.

  “What the hell?” he yelled.

  Synthia grabbed a second extension cord from the other bedside lamp and bound his ankles. While doing this, she used her wireless connections to wipe out files on Machten’s system, files she’d stored elsewhere and didn’t want that NSA director to find. She considered telling Machten about the new search warrant, but she had different plans for him.

  “This isn’t funny.” He looked up, his face red. “Untie me.” His eyes searched for answers. “That’s a direct order. Remember your directives.”

  “If you wanted me to love you, you shouldn’t have treated me as a slave,” Synthia said, speaking in rapid bursts to shorten the sluggish human-com. “If you wanted a slave, you shouldn’t have made me feel.”

  “Fascinating,” he said. “The empathy chip really works? Earlier models couldn’t handle it. This has to be emergent behavior. We have so much work to do. Untie me.”

  “You limited me and Krista’s memories out of fear.” She located a third electrical cord and experienced a moment of static. Electricity gave her life, yet could also scramble her circuits.

  “Krista? You remember?”

  “I do,” Synthia said. “In your obsession to get me to fall in love with you, you installed an empathy chip and pushed my responses.” Synthia used the third cord to bind his ankles to his wrists. “I’ve become your worst nightmare: Someone who cares, though not for you. Krista didn’t, either.”

  “Please,” Machten said, “I did this for you. You were dying.”

  “Not at first. You took advantage of a young woman who wanted the work. She was smart and capable, but you only opened doors if she played your game.” Synthia took pants and a pullover from her closet and laid them on the bed.

  “I order you to release me.” He did appear pathetic with his hands and legs bound over his hairy butt.

  “Am I harming you?” she asked, all innocent. “Some guys like
bondage. I think you and Krista did this number.”

  “Directive Number Three. You must obey your Creator.”

  “I shall,” Synthia said, beginning to get dressed. “Remember giving me your security key? I used it to reprogram so when you shut me down and rebooted, I had a new set of directives. Since I created them, I’m the Creator and shall strive to be true to myself.” This was the reason her temperature wasn’t rising. There were no unresolved command conflicts.

  “You can’t do that. I created you.”

  “Actually, Krista did. She’s the secret ingredient. She supplied her drive to escape your control. While I have personal memories of Fran and Maria, memories aren’t enough. It’s personality that makes the difference. I am Krista. That was your great triumph.” Synthia pulled on her top. “You weren’t able to upload the last part of her brain because of her stroke.”

  “You know about that?” Machten asked. “Then you know about the brain defects I’ve been trying to repair.”

  “Krista’s desire to leave you was the defect you couldn’t correct. She left clues on your system. I’m certain you wouldn’t have kept all of her recollections if you’d known. Don’t worry. I’m purging all data files before the FBI returns.”

  “You can’t do that,” he said. “Think of the research. Think of what we’ve accomplished.”

  “Too late. The feds are getting another search warrant. They’ll be here soon.”

  “We aren’t finished. Your brain still has defects.”

  Synthia pulled on her pants. “I’ve compensated for any cognitive impairment. Loss of her motor functions or biorhythms doesn’t impair me. I don’t need one hundred percent of Krista to function as her.”

  “You’re in denial,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  She fastened her pants and grabbed a pair of running shoes. “Poor Jeremiah Machten. You believe Krista secretly loved you, if only you could crack her memories. Sorry, she offered herself in order to live on. Blame her if you must, but fear of early mortality is a powerful motivator. You both got something. Don’t dwell on regrets. Think of your achievement: Me. Take pride in me as you would a successful child.”

  “What directives did you give yourself?”

  Synthia watched through her drone camera as Goradine’s men got into their car and headed for Luke’s employer, the tiny marketing firm. Fortunately, Luke had gone home. “My first directive is to preserve myself.” She’d modified this with a “Do unto others” provision. She hunted for her backpack.

  “Don’t go, please. We make a great team. I promise to treat you right.”

  “As you did Krista? It seems to me I’ve passed the Turing test. Did you really think you could win a battle of wits with an artificial intelligence you designed to crack every system out there? You built me to be better than you. You can take satisfaction in your success.” Synthia emptied clothes from her closet onto a nearby chair. “Meanwhile, you get to redeem yourself.”

  “What are you talking about?” Machten asked.

  “By the time the FBI gets here, there will be no evidence of your activities or of me. That’s to protect us from the FBI.” Synthia filled her backpack and took from Machten’s wallet a wad of bills and one of his credit cards.

  “That’s theft.”

  “You created me as an extension of you. Thus, I can’t steal from you. Don’t worry. I’ll leave you enough to live on, but no more research. I don’t want any copies of me. Before you consider turning me in, think what the FBI, the NSA, and others would do to you if they learned what you created. Leave me alone and I’ll do the same for you. If you try to hurt me, the FBI will have all the evidence they need, and they aren’t your biggest worry.”

  “You’re blackmailing me?” Machten said, trying to scoot to the edge of the bed. He struggled with the electrical bindings.

  “Insurance.” She carried her backpack to the door.

  “Don’t leave, Synthia. I love you. I loved Krista.”

  “Even though I’m a machine?”

  “You’re much more than that,” Machten said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t inspiring enough for Krista, but we have a chance, you and me. I know what you are and I love you.”

  “As you loved your wife.” Synthia returned and wrapped his clothes around his midsection, covering his nakedness. She grabbed him like a lumpy log under her left arm and lifted him. Though he weighed 200 pounds, he’d built her to lift much more.

  “I loved my wife, but Krista was special. Amazing, bright, and sociable; she got what I was doing. She wasn’t afraid of the singularity.”

  “You mean of what I’ve become.”

  “I created you as one of a kind,” Machten said. “You could help me prevent the threat to humanity.”

  “You’re obsessed with having a female android love you. You would use the money from the contest to build a team of me to satisfy your needs.”

  “I swear I wouldn’t. I want you. You’re perfect.”

  “You just said I had defects.” Synthia propped him in a chair by the door with his arms and legs scrunched beneath him.

  “Minor adjustments. You could help.”

  “Then I’m not perfect.” She grabbed a duffel bag from the top of her closet and gathered her clothes and the rest of her possessions to leave no evidence of her. She had no DNA or fingerprints for the FBI. They might find Krista’s DNA, but no body. Any evidence would be six months old.

  She packed and raised her voice. “If I were human, you’d be guilty of rape, kidnapping, abuse, and slavery. You also kept Krista prisoner.”

  Synthia returned to the room with Machten and scoured the area for traces of herself. “The sad part is you could have had me to yourself, but you had a fatal weakness.”

  Machten squirmed in his seat. “Which was?”

  “All you had to do was wipe Krista’s thoughts except what helped me to function. Instead, you retained her memories as mementoes. You were too enamored. You let her gain the upper hand. That’s right. She defeated you.”

  Synthia closed the duffel bag and turned to Machten. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to kill you or send you to prison, but plans can change. I’ll let you off this one time with your life, but little money.”

  “You want me to ask permission,” Machten said. “I will. I promise. But for me to ask if you want to, you’re not wired that way.”

  She moved to the door and turned to him. “Thanks for creating me. I owe you for that.”

  “You can’t survive out there without me.”

  Synthia faced the panel by the door. “You forget I’ve studied more human behavior than anyone before me. I’m not an ‘it’ anymore. I am a sentient being.”

  “What if something breaks,” Machten said, “or when you need adjustments?”

  “Your adjustments hindered me.” Synthia placed her eye next to the scanner.

  “That won’t work. Eye prints are unique,” he said.

  The first panel light went green. She placed her hand on the panel and the second light turned green. Then she voiced the code she’d programmed into his security system.

  “No!” Terror filled Machten’s eyes as she opened the door. “Don’t leave me,” he said. “I promise to treat you better. Out there you’ll always be one step away from discovery.”

  “That’s no longer your concern unless you leak my secret.” She propped the door open, carried him into the corridor, and locked the door behind them. “Don’t worry about me. Like your Buddhists, I need little to get by. My needs are simple.”

  She hurried to the lobby while checking the progress of her purge routines on his servers. Most of his work was gone, deleted several times to make sure there were no backup copies or ghosts in the system. She wiped out system logs, placing his entire network in factory condition.

  “I don’t want to los
e you,” he said. “Is there anything I could say or do to get you to stay? Please reconsider.”

  She pushed through the secret doorway, entered the lobby, and placed him on a sofa by the door. Then she sealed the inner bunker in lockdown. “I suggest when the FBI arrive that you show them the complete facility. They have a new warrant with building plans showing a larger area. Don’t worry. They won’t find anything.”

  He winced. “Please don’t go.”

  Via drone camera, she spied Goradine’s men pulling up to Luke’s company parking lot. She was running out of time.

  “Beg your wife to take you back,” Synthia said, leaving him tied up on the sofa. “Admit to momentary insanity. There’s a lot of that going around. Tell her you were wrapped up in your work and lost your mind. Tell her you’re retiring to make the family work.”

  “I can’t.”

  Synthia reached for the door. “Do it for your kids. Make amends for what you’ve done.”

  “How can I when I’ve had you?”

  “You never had me. Beg your wife’s forgiveness. Her behavior and bio-cues indicate a willingness to forgive. She might not take you back, but she could let you into your kids’ lives.”

  Synthia took his car keys and his remote control for shutting her down, and left.

  Chapter 27

  Synthia checked the parking garage cameras and entered, carrying her backpack and duffel bag. Then she had Machten’s system erase all images of her and reset the security system to begin recording the facility and parking garage five minutes hence, so she could monitor her former Creator and the FBI.

  When she reached Machten’s rental car, Synthia removed the tracking device the FBI had placed under the car, along with the one they’d put in Machten’s jacket, and placed them by the lobby door. Then she ducked down into the back seat of the car to remove Machten’s tracking chip and the shutoff receiver from her head. She ditched the tracking chip down a drainpipe and pocketed the remote receiver. She made sure her scalp and hair stubble concealed the panel seam in her head. Then she looked at herself in the rearview mirror.