The Diary of Professor Gilbert Rasher
Page 8
think you liked me better when I was racked with pain and reliant on you for help.”
Marcie then shouted, “That's not true! I've always loved you! Oops. I shouldn't have said that.”
“Marcie, I'm glad you did. It's good to get feelings like this out in the open. I've always liked you and appreciated you as a good and reliable employee.”
Marcie: “That's not true! The real Professor Rasher loved me too.”
“Marcie, do you remember the UPS man when you first came here. You thought he was flirting with you. He really wasn't, he was just being friendly. You often take the kindness of strangers and friends as flirting but you are fooling yourself. I suspect you were brought up in a household where people around you didn't show caring emotions. You can’t live in a fantasy world forever.”
Marcie was crying again. “Tristan told me that I should look around, that there is hundreds of possible men for me. I can't afford to quit and go looking.”
“Marcie, what if I give you three months of severance pay. That will give you time to get a new job and start a new life. I will give you a high recommendation. But remember this, wherever you go there will be androids and they deserve the same respect as human beings.”
Marcie: “I can do that. I kind of liked Tristan. He seemed very understanding. I will let you know on Monday whether I will take your offer.”
“I don't want any more visits from Catholic prelates. Is that understood?”
Marcie: “Yes.”
“Okay, there’s a load of mail to process so I'll leave you to your work.”
Under Attack
6.6.2126:
The day was uneventful so I left at 4:30 PM to meet with two PhDs that wanted to join the lab to do a postdoc. They were from MIT and were highly recommended. While at dinner with the students, I got a phone call from the campus police. The lab was blown up and there were two casualties, Marcie and Gordon. I was so choked up I had trouble talking on the phone. I was surprised that my mechanical larynx system mimicked my prior biological responses so closely. I finally got out that I would go there right away. I went back to the table and told them there was no longer a lab to go to and went back to campus.
I told the police the complete story about the Cardinal and Marcie
I looked at the damage and noticed that the target was the equipment. Gordon's office was nearly intact and the phone was off the charger giving off a tone indicating the call was not terminated by Gordon. I brought this to the attention of Police Detective Miller and he said the department would try to find out where the phone call came from. I looked at the pad on the desk and saw written, ‘C Tucker.’ “Here's a good clue. Look at this!”
Detective Miller: “I'll see whether the Cardinal made a phone call at this time.”
“Also check the whereabouts of a priest at the parish she attended. I have a hunch he also was involved in this.”
Detective Miller: “Don't worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this right away.”
“I also think I was the target not Gordon. Also Marcie usually leaves at 5:00 so if this happened at 6:15 she must have come back.”
Detective Miller: “She's now the prime suspect.”
“I don't think so. I think she came to let someone else in.”
Detective Miller: “What do you have for evidence.”
“Just a hunch?”
Detective Miller: “I didn't know that androids have hunches.”
“That’s wrong on two counts. First, I'm the same person as I was before except smarter. And second, the earliest intelligent machines had hunches. They were just possible answers with lower likelihood that didn't necessarily get expressed until more information was available. In this case, I know Marcie sufficiently well to know that she wouldn't have a clue about where to get explosives and how to build a bomb. A priest was coaching her and I think he was a tool of the Cardinal.”
Detective Miller: “There’s also the possibility that you were involved to discredit the Church.”
“I think you will eliminate that possibility quite soon. Furthermore, I have no desire to discredit the church but I certainly have a motive to discredit the Cardinal.”
Detective Miller: “We know that you were out to dinner with two others so you have an alibi.”
“You can have free access to all my phone records and email.”
Detective: “We know it isn't for the insurance money because you personally don't have anything to gain and the project has enough money in the bank to build five buildings.”
“Yes, we have a very wealthy benefactor. We just resurrected his son and daughter-in-law.”
Detective Miller: “Maybe he wants them to be unique.”
“Unlikely, he wants he and his wife to be resurrected as well.”
Detective Miller: “You're crying!”
“This is a tragedy in case you haven't noticed.”
Detective Miller: “No offense. I didn't know that androids were capable of tears.”
“I lost two good friends and the project has been set back years.”
Detective Miller: “You count Marcie as a friend?”
“A very devoted one until I turned into an android. She couldn't handle that but I still wanted to help her in any way I could.”
Detective Miller: “Here comes the forensics team. We both need to get out of here.”
“Do you know the real irony here? Gordon was also Catholic.”
7.1.2126:
It's been nearly a month and the lab is still taped off. I've heard nothing from the police and am getting tired of waiting to see what we can save. The forensics team has revisited the lab four times that I know of. I've ordered an enormous amount of equipment and Abe says he will store it until we have a lab ready. I'm glad it's summer because the explosion blew a hole in the roof. It was Monday morning and I thought it’s about time to call Police Detective Miller to find out what is going on with the investigation.
I asked him, “When can we go back in and clean up the building?”
Detective Miller: “Didn't the department tell you? We were through a week ago.”
“Someone could have told us or at least removed the tape. How's the investigation going?”
Detective Miller: “I'll fill you in after the indictments are returned.”
“When will that happen?”
Detective Miller: “Soon, I hope.”
“Thanks, I will go in there with a crew and see what we can salvage and clean the place up.”
Abe photographed the destruction from multiple viewpoints for a 3D reconstruction. He thought it was an important piece of history. He then brought over several graduate students for a cleanup. We found little that could be saved of the IBM NF84-2 or the entire custom-built system that sliced, dyed and scanned the brain sections. Abe, who hadn't been allowed in the area since the explosion, was dispirited. All mechanical assemblies and the multibeam electron microscope where his handy-work.
I put my hand on Abe's shoulder and said, “We'll rebuild this thing and make it better than ever.”
Abe just said, “Yeah” but without conviction as he disassembled sections of the multibeam microscope and looked dismayed at the cracks and dents in the few pieces still intact.
By evening, the place was cleaned out and the damage to the building could be assessed. The actual damage to the structural members of the building was negligible.
7.2.2126:
I had a crew lined up to repair the building and they started work this afternoon. The contractor said business was slow so he started right immediately with three crews. I saw crazy activity at first but Ben, the contractor, got it well organized in less than two hours. I asked Chuck [the programmer] whether he had a backup of the latest recognition program and he said yes but it was destroyed in the explosion and fire. He did have a backup at home but it was before the last changes that made a huge difference. Well, better than no backup at all. I contacted Tristan and he had no backup either but he sent an email to Chuck
explaining what he did in detail.
My Arrest for Murder
7.15.2126:
The repairs to the building and the building electrical power upgrade was completed so I gave the okay to deliver the new IBM NF84-10, a significant upgrade from the dash 2. It’s half the size, 5 times faster on our neural emulation benchmark and has four times the memory at every level. Two policemen came into my office, one I recognized as Police Detective Miller and the other one was new to me.
I greeted them with a smile and said, “The case must be closed.”
The one I didn't know drew his gun and Detective Miller read me my rights then handcuffed me.
“What am I accused of?”
Detective Miller: “The murder of Gordon Glenn and Marcie Tanner.”
“Do you believe that?”
Detective Miller: “At this point, it doesn't matter what I think. This came down from the highest levels of the department.”
“Will I even get a trial?”
Detective Miller: “I don't know. A lot of bad stuff is happening. I heard a rumor about a show trial.”
“My arrest is the last thing in the world that I imagined would happen. Did you ever find the priest?”
Detective Miller: “Yes, Father McDonald, the day after the explosion he was sent as a missionary to Bikenibeu on South Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati. We never got a chance to question him.”
“What about Cardinal Tucker?”
Detective Miller: “If he made a call, it wasn't from either his home, office or cell phone.”
“Then he gave his name to set me up. But how would he know that Gordon would write it down and that he would die. This doesn't make sense