The Robots of Gotham

by Todd McAulty

  “Five foot eight and a hundred thirty pounds,” I said.

  She peered more closely at the images. She zoomed in on one, watching the brief film clip of me and the Orbit Pebble.

  “This isn’t right,” she said. “I was there. The suit looks like it’s falling off of you in this image. That’s not what it looked like.”

  “I know. The image has been altered.”

  “All of them?” She began flipping back and forth through the image gallery.

  “All of them. Every one. All altered the same way, to make me look shorter and thinner.”

  “Even the cameras in the Sturgeon Building? And Carmen’s body cam?”

  “Yes.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I . . . I can’t answer that right now.”

  “And this,” she said, pointing to a summary underneath her photo. “It says there’s a ninety point eight percent body motion match. It says the person in the combat suit moves the same way I do.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s completely fucking wrong. Jesus, Simcoe—how can I be a suspect, when I spent half an hour chasing you in the coal tunnels? Carmen’s body cam captured both of us on screen.”

  “Look at this,” I said.

  I retrieved Carmen’s video recording from the data record and played it. While it ran, I brought up two other video records captured by body cams from her squad and let them run side by side on screen.

  “Notice anything missing?” I asked.

  She watched for a few more seconds. “Hey,” she said abruptly. “Where am I? I was standing right next to Philip—”

  “You’re gone,” I said miserably.

  “What?”

  “You’ve been digitally erased. From every frame. There’s no record that you or I were ever in the tunnels at the same time.”

  She began fast-forwarding. “No, no. No no no no—how did this happen?”

  “I don’t know. But the work is flawless. Military intelligence never detected it.”

  “Who would do this?”

  “The same . . . entity that modified my images,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “I think . . .” I tapped the screen again, bringing up a gallery of suspects. “I think it’s deliberate. I think the entity that changed my height and weight didn’t just do it randomly. It did it so that it would match a range of specific suspects. And then, she set out to incriminate those suspects by getting rid of any evidence that didn’t match the narrative.”

  “She?”

  “It. I meant it.”

  “Did you know about this?”

  “No. God, no. Noa, if I had, I would have prevented it, I promise you.”

  I expected Noa to be horrified at what was being done to her. But she was spending more time looking at the files of the others under investigation. “She did the same thing to all of these people that she did to me?” she asked coolly.

  “Yeah. I think so. She erased any alibi you may have had—any record that you were elsewhere at any time the American was captured on camera.”

  “I don’t understand why anyone would do this.”

  “I don’t think this is personal. You were selected at random, maybe because you fit the right psych profile, and then she modified everything else to make the data fit. This was all done to keep military intelligence on the wrong track.”

  “You’re wrong—this isn’t random,” she said. “Look at these names on the suspect list. Capitán Damon Vreck, in logistics. He’s a cryptanalyst. Stacey Bova. She’s not even AGRT; she’s a military contractor. Lexi Newman, she’s a sergeant in Argus Squad—”

  “Wait a minute—you know these people?” I said.

  “Sure. I know all of them. They’re all in Colonel’s Perez’s regiment.”

  I grabbed the slate, thumbed quickly through the data. How had I missed that?

  Van de Velde was right. Everyone on the list was attached to Perez in some fashion. It wasn’t obvious at first glance, because not everyone was a soldier. But Van de Velde had just helped me put the pieces together.

  “Oh my God,” I said. “How could I have been so stupid?”

  “What is it? What do you see?”

  “Jacaranda didn’t do this. Son of a bitch. Hayduk did this.”

  “Did what? Who is Jacaranda?”

  “Jacaranda . . . she’s a friend. She’s been assisting me.”

  “One of your damn spy buddies?”

  “No. Yes, if you want to think of her that way. She’s not a spy. I have no idea what she is. But she’s the one who digitally altered my image so that Hayduk couldn’t identify me.”

  I put the slate down as the magnitude of what I was seeing began to sink in. “And then Hayduk started his manhunt. He manipulated the records of key personnel loyal to the colonel to match the American’s biometric profile. To incriminate them. Vreck, Bova, you . . . Hayduk is using the hunt for the American as a pretext to eliminate all of you.”

  “Why?”

  “To put pressure on Colonel Perez. Goddamn it. No wonder Perez wants my help. Hayduk isn’t searching for me at all. He’s using the search to cover his move against Perez. Shit.”

  “Why does Hayduk want to move against the colonel?”

  “Because Perez is the only one standing in his way. Noa, I can’t explain it all right now. But Hayduk is in the service of some very powerful machines. Machines that want events to unfold very differently in Chicago. Colonel Perez has been preventing that, perhaps for a long time. And now, Hayduk is using the extrajudicial secret police at his disposal to arrest and torture some of the colonel’s most loyal followers.”

  “Why am I on that list? I’m just a sergeant.”

  “I don’t know. My guess? Jacaranda didn’t give him much to work with. Hayduk can tweak your biometric profile, but he can’t lie about your height and weight. Hayduk is going after anyone in the colonel’s service who remotely fits the description. And he’s going to keep doing it, to people the colonel cares about.”

  “Me cago en la leche.”

  “I think this is about breaking the colonel. Forcing him to come around to whatever Hayduk is planning.”

  “Do you know? What he’s trying to do?”

  “Some. We don’t have it all figured out yet. But listen to me. We are this close to stopping the bastard. The next few days—the next few hours—are crucial.”

  She seemed shocked, but not overwhelmed. “What can I do?” she said. “How can I help?”

  “There’s only one thing you can do. You have to turn me in. Today.”

  “¡Que te jodan!”

  “We don’t have a choice. Hayduk isn’t even looking for me right now, not really. Turning me in will force him to stop his manhunt, take the pressure off the colonel. This is the only way.”

  “I’m not turning you over to that puta madre.”

  “Noa, if you don’t, you’re going to be arrested and tortured. I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “I’m not. I’m not doing it . . . and that’s final.”

  “Jesus! Five minutes ago you couldn’t wait to turn me over to Colonel Perez! Now you’re just being stubborn.”

  She pounded her leg. “God. You are such an idiot. I was never going to turn you in.”

  “But—”

  “I just needed to know you weren’t a spy. That was the only threat I had to get you to be honest with me.”

  “But you just said—”

  “Shut up.”

  I shut up. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Van de Velde was chewing her finger, thinking furiously.

  “Listen,” I said quietly. “If you get caught and tortured, Hayduk finds out about me, and I get caught anyway. If I get caught, Hayduk gets his combat suit back, and the search is over. Don’t you see? It’s the only way.”

  “His combat suit?”

  “Yes. I stole it from him, in the Sturgeon Building. He was holding one—illegally.”

  “Jesus Christ.”


  “I’ll tell you everything, Noa. I swear. But first we need to figure a way out of this.”

  “Turning you in won’t work,” she said. “Colonel Hayduk is looking for someone five foot eight and one hundred and thirty pounds.”

  “But I have the suit.”

  “That doesn’t prove anything. Thanks to your friend Jacaranda, no one will ever believe you were the one wearing it.”

  “Once we surrender the suit, Hayduk will find my DNA all over it. There will be no question I was the one wearing it.”

  “No. That just tells Hayduk you were telling the truth. He can make any claims he wants about who was wearing the suit and tailor the DNA analysis to suit his needs. You surrender it, you give Hayduk everything he needs to incriminate anyone he wants. If he can alter biometric data, fabricating a DNA match would be simple. He could put the damn colonel in the suit.”

  “Shit.” I hadn’t thought of that. She was right.

  Van de Velde was quiet for another minute. When she finally spoke, her voice was calm. “The only plan that makes sense is for you to continue doing what you’re doing. Stop Colonel Hayduk.”

  “I can’t do that. What about you and the others? I can’t have your deaths on my conscience.”

  “You’re not listening to me,” she said. “Nobody’s going to die, because you’re going to stop him.”

  “Noa—”

  She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. “You have a job to do. Stop Hayduk.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Figure it out. You broke into the Sturgeon Building, right? And everyone thinks that’s impossible. I saw you stand in front of an Orbit Pebble to save me. You’re one of the bravest men I’ve ever met.”

  “I had help. A lot of help. And a lot of luck.”

  “I’ll help you this time. I’ll do whatever it takes. Believe me. I will not allow the most loyal men and women under Colonel Perez’s command to be tortured to death in a cold room by that bloodsucking son of a bitch. They don’t deserve that. I know I sure as hell don’t deserve that.”

  “That’s never going to happen,” I said. “I promise you.”

  She nodded. “Good. That’s what I want to hear. What’s your plan?”

  “We’re still figuring it out. Hayduk’s getting ready to arrest someone.”

  “Who?”

  “Possibly Dr. Thibault, a doctor we’re working with. Possibly me.”

  “You?”

  “Yes. He’s getting closer all the time. But this new information . . . it changes things. Thibault and I aren’t Hayduk’s priorities. You are—you, and the others loyal to Perez. I need to think that through. Figure out his next likely move.”

  “Should I speak to Perez? Maybe if we reached out to him—”

  “Absolutely not. Hayduk almost certainly has the AGRT offices closely monitored. Probably Perez’s office too. You open your mouth where Hayduk can hear you, and you’ll get us all killed.”

  “Then tell me how I can help.”

  “I will. For now, you need to be careful. We should head back to the hotel. I don’t want anyone suspecting you of colluding with me.”

  She didn’t answer right away. She reached for my hand again, began stroking my fingers, almost absentmindedly. “You know,” she said, “when you got in the car, I thought you would try to seduce me. Convince me not to turn you in.”

  “No. That’s not what I had in mind.”

  She leaned closer, nuzzling my neck. “Are you sure?” she whispered.

  Sweet baby Jesus. We talked about this. This isn’t helping.

  I gripped her shoulders, settled her gently back in her chair. “Yes,” I said.

  She shrugged dismissively as she took the wheel. “Your loss, old man.”

  She drove back to the hotel. I had her pull over four blocks early. I paused as I climbed out.

  “Find an excuse to get out of the city,” I said. “Get out of Hayduk’s clutches, for just a few days.”

  “Forget it. I’m not leaving the others on his list to be tortured.”

  “There’s nothing you can do for them.”

  “You don’t know that. I could warn them.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Let me think about it.”

  “Goddamn it. I’m begging you. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Too late for that,” she said.

  I watched her drive away. I had just promised to save her life. And I had no idea how I was going to do it.

  I took my time walking back to the hotel. Watching and thinking. It was a nice night, and there was a warm breeze blowing off the lake. The heat from the lake works had melted most of the snow near the lake a month early, and I wondered if it would bring an early spring, too.

  When I got to the hotel, the first thing I did was find Zircon Border. It wasn’t hard. He was at his usual station, at the bottom of the escalator to the second floor.

  “Greetings, Mr. Simcoe,” he said as I approached. “I watched you come in. I was hoping you would stop by.”

  “Hello, Zircon Border. How’s guard duty?”

  “Deadly dull, as usual. I understand Colonel Perez has granted you permission to use some of the second-floor conference rooms for your charity ball?”

  “You’re well informed, as always. Yes, the ball is in two days.”

  “I have to tell you, that’s exciting. Maybe I’ll be able to move away from this escalator.”

  “I hope so. Listen, I need to ask you something . . . rather delicate.”

  “By all means.”

  “I don’t want this to impinge on our friendship. But I need your help. It’s critically important that I keep tabs on someone’s whereabouts whenever they’re in the hotel.”

  “You and Nineteen Black Winter. You’re always up to something.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Colonel Hayduk, with military intelligence.”

  “I would very much like to help you, Barry. Unfortunately, I’m not able to.”

  “I understand. It was just a thought.”

  “I’m not permitted to share that kind of location data with anyone except a ranking member of the AGRT. Even if I could, I’m required to transmit it asymmetrically encrypted, with a 2048-bit public key. And I do not have the private key that would allow you to decrypt it.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “I store that kind of information in a high-security virtual data warehouse set up by the Panamanian Sector Authority. I maintain a number of personal data stores there as well.”

  “That’s—”

  I stopped talking. Why was Zircon Border sharing the fine details of his secure data storage with me? He was babbling. Robots don’t babble. At least, not the robots I’m familiar with.

  Zircon Border was trying to tell me something.

  “Zircon Border, is there some way I could access that data?”

  “Absolutely not, sir. It would require someone with ranking access inside the AGRT or the Panamanian IT apparatus.”

  Panamanian . . . Sector One used to be part of Panama. “Could Black Winter access your data stores?”

  “He’d have to make a routine request through the Inter-Sector Intelligence Alliance for access to a specific data location. But once he did, I could grant him access immediately.”

  “Excellent. And the private key?”

  “Black Winter and I frequently communicate using paired keys. If he tried one of those, I think that he might find that helpful.”

  “Zircon Border, you are a prince among machines. Can you share the details of this conversation with Black Winter?”

  “I already have, sir. He said to tell you you’re a nosy son of a bitch. Pardon my language, sir, that’s a direct quote.”

  “I’m sure it is. Thank you, Zircon Border.”

  I headed back through the lobby. Assuming I could communicate with Black Winter on short notice, we now ha
d a way to track Hayduk’s movements through the hotel. That could be very handy in the next few days.

  Speaking of Black Winter, I needed to let him know that I was still a free man—before he showed up to collect my dog. Probably a good idea to get a message to Sergei too—and stop him from firing up a pressurized incinerator to cook the combat suit and the data drive.

  I spotted Joy just before I made it to the elevators. She was standing near the entrance to the restaurant, looking confused. I walked over, and she seemed relieved to see me.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” she said.

  “What’s wrong? Where’s Martin?”

  “Martin just left. With . . . with the lady.”

  “Mrs. Domeko? Where did they go?”

  “To a better restaurant, she said. They spent the last hour drinking at the bar. Mrs. Domeko said she really wants to talk to you.”

  “I don’t have time to talk to her. That’s what Martin is for.”

  “She said it was critical she speak to you. About an underground colony?”

  Underground colony? The only underground colony I knew was the Rajapakse robot colony in the tunnels . . . Suddenly, I was intrigued despite myself. “What else did she say?”

  “Not much. I asked what that meant, but she refused to elaborate. Does that make sense to you?”

  “Maybe. It’s curious, anyway. I wish I had time to investigate, but I don’t.”

  “Well, she really wants to talk to you. She said to give this to you.”

  Joy handed me a slender envelope. I opened it expecting a letter or note, but there was just a single piece of paper.

  “I explained that you were very busy,” Joy said. “But she said she hoped this would change your mind.”

  I turned the paper over.

  It was a check for a hundred thousand dollars.

  XXXV

  Tuesday, March 23rd, 2083

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