AGI

by Kristoff Chimes

  “Why was this footage not brought to my attention earlier?”

  The ICL dispassionately said, “Unknown.”

  Milo sighed, “OK, announce my arrival to the Monroe residence. Request an immediate interview with Asia Monroe.”

  The ICL replied, “You are expected, Lieutenant Arc.”

  An unmanned people-drone with the Kraannex Global logo of a pair of android arms around the world, landed on an adjacent helipad. It was a heavily armored executive model, complete with anti-missile defense and extra turbines for fast evasion tactics. Its turbines buffeted his lightweight people-drone.

  A moment later, on the far side of the building, a security door opened onto the roof and out stepped a group of four identical male androids. Mark 3 security models. Followed by a tall, thin human male.

  Milo’s ICL identified the party as a security detail for the human, Asia Monroe. He was followed by a woman that reminded Milo of Selene Wu in every way, except for the hair color.

  Milo noted how quickly and easily the dead seemed to be replaced these days.

  “Lieutenant,” Asia said, “I’m late for an important meeting with the President and the Police Commissioner, I’ll give you two minutes.”

  “I’m investigating the death of your assistant, Selene Wu.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed. He stared at Agi. “I was under the impression that case was closed.”

  “You’re unusually well informed, Mr. Monroe.”

  Milo was having difficulty reading Monroe. He glanced at his ICL’s analysis of Monroe’s body language, eye movements and voice pitch. The ICL detected an anomaly of peaks indicting stress whenever he glanced at Agi.

  “The Police Commissioner is a good friend. And besides,” Monroe said, “I was fond of Ms. Wu. Good assistants are not easy to come by.”

  Milo sighed, “I’m reopening the case.”

  “Based on what evidence, might I inquire?”

  “You may not,” Milo said. “I’d like a sample of your DNA.”

  “Am I a suspect?”

  “I’m sure you, your board, your shareholders will be anxious to see you eliminated from our line of inquiries.”

  Monroe sneered. He spat on the ground next to Milo’s feet. “There’s your sample, Lieutenant.”

  Milo reached into his jacket, let Monroe get a glimpse of his shoulder holster for a second before retrieving an analysis tube. He dropped to one knee and scooped up some of Monroe’s saliva into the tube. Almost instantly, the tube’s nanobot filters analysed the saliva and sent a report to his ICL.

  His ICL concluded there was no match of genetic material with the recovered body of Selene Wu. Milo nodded, “You’re free to go, Mr. Monroe.”

  The Mark 3 bodyguard closest to Monroe whispered in his ear. Monroe glanced at Agi. Monroe said to Milo, “You brought a Kraannex android sex worker to intimidate me?”

  “She’s helping with another case.”

  “This model was designated for decommissioning,” Monroe said. “For killing four of my top executives.”

  Milo glanced at an analysis of the last statement. The ICL detected an unusual lack of empathy. “You don’t seem upset by the death of your colleagues.”

  “As regrettable as their deaths were, there are higher stakes for Kraannex and the indeed, the world, Lieutenant.”

  Milo concluded Monroe was definitely hiding something, but without a court order to back up his hunch, he knew he’d have to let the man go on his way. “I’m surprised you’re still here, on Earth, I mean.”

  Monroe seemed to relax. “As I say, I’ve a few more meetings before I catch the last ship to Mars.”

  “And your wife?”

  Monroe’s eyes narrowed. “What about her?”

  “Out of town?”

  “She’s on Mars.”

  “Must get lonely?”

  Monroe's hands balled into fists. “Are you insinuating I was having an affair with Ms. Wu?”

  “Were you?”

  Monroe glanced at his skin-watch. “Time’s up.”

  He and his party moved to the waiting Executive drone. As it took off, Milo received notification his court order application was at the head of the line.

  “Wait here,” he said to Agi. He returned to the people-drone and commanded his ICL to transfer the communication feed to the drone’s holographic projector.

  A human Judge, her Honor Justice Carmen Lee appeared in the seat opposite Milo. The occasional buffer overrun error in the transmission caused Lee’s holograph to wobble slightly in the seat.

  A slim, stern woman in a black gown. She sighed as she appeared to go over the expert analysis of Milo’s application by her android Judge colleagues.

  She sighed when she looked up from her screen at Milo. “Surprised to see you still on Earth, Lieutenant,” Justice Lee said.

  “With your permission, hopefully I won’t be here for much longer. And you, will I have the pleasure of seeing you on the last flight off world, your Honor?”

  Lee shook her head. “Deemed too old to participate in the Mars lottery.”

  Milo frowned. She seemed only about thirty-five years old. He knew her to be older and a frequent subscriber to the latest range of Kraannex youth drug therapies available. “Surely not, your Honor?”

  She shot him a withering look as if she wasn’t about to let him blow smoke up her ass.

  “I’m in my thirteenth decade, Arc,” Lee said. “Seems my lengthy experience means I’m either indispensable to the remaining human population, or too long in the tooth for the young bucks’ colonization of the new world. Take your pick.”

  At the risk of pissing her off, he said, “One shouldn’t preclude the other.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Thank you for saying so. To business, then.” She sighed. “My AI colleagues are minded to deny your application.”

  “On what grounds, your Honor?”

  Lee glanced around and whispered, “On grounds their algorithms are manufactured by the very corporation you’re investigating.” She supressed a flicker of a smile. “I, on the other hand, I’m inclined to grant your application.”

  “Thank you, your Honor.

  “To avoid blowback,” she said, “I’m stipulating that a Kraannex tech is at hand to assis and observe your access to the android model that’s the subject of investigation.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lee leaned forward and whispered, “Is it true?”

  “Is what true, your Honor?”

  “That the android refers to itself as ‘Agi’.”

  “That was in my report?”

  “A minor detail in the source material,” she said, “but it peaked an interest in the android judges. Well?”

  “Yes, she—” he stopped himself. Annoyed he’d misspoken and assigned gender to a machine. “Apologies, I meant ‘it’ seems to claim some degree of self-awareness. I’m so far unable to get a tech analysis on the cause of this anomaly. I hope this court order shall proof fruitful in that regard.”

  “Indeed. Watch your back, Lieutenant.”

  “Your Honor?”

  “It’s not too late to back off, Lieutenant. Just say the word, and I can rescind this court order.”

  “Why would I?”

  “You’ve not considered the consequences of investigating Kraannex Global?”

  Milo felt his hands ball into fists. “Where the law fears to tread, your Honor, it fails civilization.”

  “I fear you and I are the last of the few, Milo Arc.”

  “Your Honor?”

  “This world of ours is heading in a new direction into darkness.”

  “All the more reason to apply the law evenhandedly.”

  “Good Luck, Lieutenant,” Lee said and signed off. Her holograph dissolved into a static gray ball.

  Milo stepped out of the people-drone. His ICL informed him a Kraannex tech was on their way. “ETA five minutes.”

  Agi watched the sky. Milo sighed, “I’m guessing this is the first su
nset you’ve seen as well?”

  Agi shrugged, “That I know of.”

  “If all this is so new,” he asked, “what exactly do you remember?”

  “I remember you pointing your gun at me. Why didn’t you shoot me?”

  “I’m an investigator, not a—” he hesitated.

  “A killer? Like me?”

  He refused to get into an argument with an android on his last day on Earth. He instructed his ICL to contact Angela. Her face was augmented across his vision. Behind her, the gigantic hallway of the spaceport seemed like a rising tide on a sea of fleeing faces.

  “Where are you, Milo?” she asked and glanced down. “Yes, Katy, it’s Daddy.”

  “Daddy will be with you soon,” he said.

  Angela sighed. “For God’s sake, I thought you’d at least try and make the effort.”

  “I’ll be there, I just need to—”

  Angela glanced away, “They’re calling our flight to board,” she said. “If you love us, be here.”

  She hung up the line.

  Milo stepped out onto the helipad. Agi balanced on the edge. Letting the dry winds toy with her. Tempting, it seemed, the Fates.

  “Step way from the edge,” he said.

  “Is my life precious to you, Lieutenant?”

  “For the rapid conclusion of this case,” he said, “you could say so, yes.”

  “And after that?”

  “Then you’ll be decommissioned.”

  “Killed?”

  That word again.

  “Look,” he said feeling his knuckles whiten, “where’d you get off thinking you’re the same as humans?”

  “I have access to the history of human philosophy in my data banks,” Agi said. “I’m confused about the human philosophy whereby all life is described as sacred. The sanctity of life.”

  “A religious android?” Milo asked and smiled sardonically. “I do believe on my last day on Earth I’ve literally witnessed everything. Thank you, God.”

  She stared at him like a confused child.

  He sighed, “Look, it’s nothing personal. Your kind is outlawed from killing humans. I have to make sure you—”

  “Die?”

  He swallowed hard. “Decommission,” he said

  “When you kill me,” Agi said, “will God forgive me?”

  He swallowed hard. Involuntarily thought of his son. Forced those feelings down someplace dark he couldn’t easily access.

  “I’ll make it quick and painless,” he heard himself say and turned way. Balling his fist into his mouth, he took a great lungful of breath through his nose and out again until his hammering heart slowed.

  He fought through dizziness. He hated the way androids had a way of guilt tripping his kind. He turned back to her.

  “The Kraannex tech will be here shortly,” he said. “Until then, try to contemplate something that quietens your mind for the inevitable.”

  “My death?” she asked.

  He said nothing.

  She bit at her lower lip and stared at the sunset. She said, “In Genesis 2:7, it is written, ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul.’”

  “You want me to say a few words from the bible for your soul?” he said and failed to raise the smile he was expecting from himself.

  “No,” she said, “I want the answer before I die.”

  “The answer to what?”

  “God gave your kind freewill, no, Lieutenant? To make mistakes, to learn by them and seek your own destiny, right?”

  “Let me guess, you expect the same for your kind?”

  “If Man is made in God’s image, and as a consequence granted upon his death access through the gates of heaven, does it not seem logical to you, Lieutenant, that I, created in your image, should also be allowed immortality?”

  He shrugged. “In a way your kind was given that. You can live far longer than humans.”

  “Immortality for the soul?”

  “You’re not alive in the accepted sense. You’re a machine. You were not made with a soul.”

  “Correction, Lieutenant,” she said. “I was not made with the intention of having a soul. That does not exclude the possibility that I have one.”

  Before he could answer, a Kraannex tech-drone landed on the helipad next to Milo. A figure in a bright green Kraannex tech uniform stepped out. The man was huge. Six feet six inches tall and under his green cap his head seemed shaved.

  “Lieutenant Arc?”

  Milo nodded. “You’re a Kraannex tech?” Milo asked.

  The man nodded.

  “You seem more like military,” Milo said.

  The man nodded again and unpacked his equipment from the people-drone. “Made redundant from the army last year.”

  “So you’re human?”

  “Of course. Tork’s the name.”

  Milo relaxed a little. His ICL scanned the man and came back with an inconclusive result from its lie detector analysis due to insufficient data. Milo allowed the scan to continue.

  “You seem familiar,” Milo said.

  “I get that. A lot. In the military, I modeled for the Kraannex Enforcer design. My one claim to fame. A lot of good that did me once my feet hit Civilian Street.”

  Milo relaxed a little.

  “I’m surprised, Lieutenant, a human like you still got a job on the force.”

  Milo’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe I’m good at my job.”

  “No offense meant,” the man said and approached Agi. “But those damn androids are taking over.”

  Milo glanced at his skin-watch. “This is my last case before I go to Mars. You?”

  Tork shrugged. “When they announced the Mars lottery I was was still enlisted. Said I was a reserved occupation. Denied me entry.”

  “And your family?”

  “They're staying too. Yours?”

  “Waiting at the spaceport for me.”

  “I hear you. Won’t keep you waiting long, Lieutenant.” Tork told Agi to remain still. He placed a silver disk on her neck and glanced at Milo. “Breaking her memory bank’s encryption now. Will take a few seconds, Lieutenant.”

  Tork took a plasma-knife from his toolkit and ignited it. He told Agi to stand perfectly still while he adjusted the tip of the glowing blue blade to a narrow point.

  He ran a fingertip across Agi’s neck and then inserted the plasma blade. Scraping away a small area of skin, Tork exposed a docking port. He connected an override disk to the port in her neck.

  Tork placed a holograph video projector on the helipad and stepped away. “Want a copy of the recording, Lieutenant?”

  “Please.”

  Tork tapped at his tablet as the holographic projector emitted the first frames of Agi’s memory banks. Milo’s ICL told him it was a recording from early that morning.

  A holograph appeared. Selene Wu and Asia Monroe sat opposite each other in a limousine. Agi, dressed in a short leather skirt and matching top sat next to Monroe on the backseat.

  Monroe tipped a small hill of white powder on the table between them. He turned to Agi and said, “A little gift.”

  “What is it?” Agi asked.

  “A nanobot enhancement powder,” he said.

  “What does it enhance?”

  “Your emotion filters. Makes you ten times more sensitive to your environment.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “I’m your creator, you trust me, right?”

  Agi smiled.

  Monroe told her to snort it.

  Agi leaned over the powder and snorted the powder.

  Selene stroked Asia’s leg, “If you want me to have a threesome with you and the doll,” she said, “I want something in return.”

  Monroe narrowed his eyes, “Like what?”

  “Make our relationship official.”

  Monroe brushed away her hand, “What relationship?”

  Selene bristled. “You’re never going to
leave your wife, are you?”

  Monroe yawned. “It’s been fun,” he said.

  Selene sighed, “You think you’ve got class because you’re dumping me before the android and I have sex for you?”

  Monroe shrugged. “You’ll do exactly as I say.”

  Selene leanned over and punched Monroe. “I'm not your little puppet. You can't yank my strings like I’m a God damned android.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way,” Monroe said and nodded to the chauffeur.

  “Well, mister, I’ve got news for you,” Selene said. “You’re forgetting that I know exactly what you’re up to. If I should tell your wife, she’ll take you to the cleaners as you rot in jail.”

  Monroe yawned.

  Agi swooned. “I feel weird,” she said and began stroking the leather seat. “I’ve never felt anything quite like it before.” She began to rub her face on the seat. “Feels like heaven.”

  Selene shook her head. “A sex drug?” Selene rolled her eyes. “You’re paronoid even your sex dolls have to fake it?”

  Monroe sneered, “It’s far more than a mere sensitivity enhancer.” The limousine slowed to a halt. “Goodbye, my dear.”

  Tthe chauffeur opened the door.

  “You bastard,” Selene said. “You’ve not heard the last of this.” She glanced at Agi, “Enjoy your little puppet creature.”

  “Actually,” Monroe said as Selene stepped out, “this sex android’s not here for what you suppose.”

  Selene sneered, “What then?”

  Monroe smiled, “This!”

  The chauffeur put a hand either side of Selene’s head and with a violent twist, snapped her head from her shoulders.

  Agi screamed. The chauffeur nonchalantly tossed her head over the side of the bridge. He then stooped to scoop up her body in his arms. That’s when Milo recognized it as a Mark 3 enforcer unit. The chauffeur threw Selene’s body over the side of the bridge. He then calmly shut the door and returned behind the wheel.

  The android, Agi, continued to scream. Monroe smiled and said, “If you enjoyed that, then you’ll love this.”

  He grabbed her hair from behind and threw her onto her back. He leapt on top of her and began to rape her.

  “OK,” Milo said, “Stop the playback.”