by Greg Dragon
“Things are going well with the experiment, folks. Our subject has been put into place and is acting very much like a woman who has no recollection of her past. She’s moved out of town, met some people, and is as human as can be from anyone’s perspective,” the man was saying. Then suddenly the video powered off and Stephen was staring at the file on top of Thea’s desktop.
He hurriedly logged off and went back into his own desktop where he pulled up images of all the top stakeholders for robotics in the world. He scanned the photos of these men and women, trying to see if any of them was the man from the video. He went down a level to the presidents and CEOs of tech companies and after thirty minutes of scanning, he recognized that the man was Emeril Worth, a top shareholder for Eras Innovations.
Stephen went to the internet and looked for any news on Emeril Worth, especially recently after their partnership with Fritz and Isaac Electronics. Emeril’s name was everywhere; he was a popular name in modern IT. Stephen saw articles on his net worth, his multiple marriages, and the church that he was a member of. He also saw that Emeril was a great believer in freeing the androids. He had been a revolutionary during the early years, when mechanophilia was first deemed illegal.
“Well, hello, Emeril,” Stephen said under his breath.
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That evening Stephen went to Tricia’s hotel room to tell her about what he had found. She had been in bed all day healing, so he sat next to her while holding her hand and telling her about Emeril Worth.
“You and this Thea woman, are you close?” Tricia asked as she stared forward, processing everything Stephen had told her.
“Close, but not that close. We have some history but I don’t want you to be jealous of what we—”
“I am sorry, Steve, but jealousy is wired into who I am. It cannot be helped. I find it difficult to concentrate on Emeril Worth when all I can think about is you with another woman who doesn’t look anything like me. It doesn’t sound as if your company is aware of what your androids are being used for in connection with Eras. You all are being used, and Mr. Worth’s motives may not be what we think they are,” Tricia said.
“But this guy is a huge defender of android rights. He was like a Martin Luther King for the androids back when he was young,” Stephen said. “He and a few other people are the reason why some unrestrained androids are allowed to live out there in peace amongst the humans.”
“I acknowledge this but mechanophilia is still illegal and your company has developed glasses that will allow the android hunters to seek us out and destroy us easily,” Tricia argued.
“Yes, we are the problem but maybe that is why Emeril would start a secret project using our own creations. He can set right a great wrong by having us implicated. He will plant androids, reprogrammed and unrestrained into society and then … I don’t know. Insert evil, diabolical, super villain reasoning as the end goal and you have whatever it is that we’re looking for,” Steven said.
Tricia nodded her head and turned to him. “I need to find out what it was that Bonnie threatened them with in order for them to use her as a guinea pig in the exchange. What would have caused her life to become forfeit with these people, and who was that recording meant for in terms of co-conspirator?”
“I know that it wasn’t meant for Thea. Someone else sent it to her as a reason to take caution. Someone shared the video that Emeril sent, and this leads me to believe that his so-called co-conspirator is either an idiot, or someone who has a traitor working for them who they believe to be trustworthy. This is one hell of a mystery, Trish.”
“We’ll figure it out, don’t you worry,” Tricia said. “If you can do your own sleuthing to see who sent the message to Thea, I can let Sal know where to start snooping in order to find out more about Emeril Worth.”
10 | A World for All
A few days later, Tricia, against the advice of both Sal and Stephen, decided to go back to Bonnie’s house to see if any memories could be triggered. She wore a wig, a short, pink concoction of organized chaos that made her look younger and ultimately out of place in the upscale neighborhood.
She purchased another scooter, pink to match the hair, and traveled on the lower highway using memory to guide her way. When she reached her exit, she cut across a couple of slow-drifting cars and followed the light rail to exit the highway and gain the main road that ran past her house.
Tricia was taken aback by how peaceful and normal the neighborhood seemed. She didn't know what she had expected to see but a quiet, serene place was not it. There were dark buildings with families still asleep in them, traditional traffic lights illuminating the road, and parked vehicles on the street. She landed her scooter on the sidewalk across from her house and then walked up slowly to the front door and unlocked it.
The house was large but humble for the most part. It had two floors, real wood furniture—which cost a ton—and abstract paintings on the wall.
Bonnie took a lot of pride in her home and had purchased a collection of rare furniture and paintings over time. When the divorce had gone through she had thrown out everything. All memories of Ronald had been cleansed from the house and with no android servants to care for the house, Tricia realized that Bonnie had been an outstanding housekeeper.
She walked in, locked the door, and decided against turning on the lights. Her android eyes illuminated the surface of everything so she could easily navigate the rooms. When she got into the master bedroom, a flash of light stunned her and a pair of hands gripped her wrists and tried to pull her back.
Tricia reacted by spinning and driving the heel of her palm up into her attacker's chin. The blow sent him into a desk, which broke under his impact. The other person—the one with the light—came forward but Tricia was ready for anything. Watching enough fights from Reynaldo’s memories had given her the ability to defend herself and as her attacker lunged, she stepped to the side while slamming her fist into the back of his neck.
As the excitement died down from the well thwarted ambush, Tricia got the sensation that her attackers were androids. She touched the back of the first android’s scalp, opened his control box and then powered him down with a small short to his circuits. As to the android with the flashlight, she disabled his motor functions and then sat him up in the chair in front of the broken desk.
She turned him on and then pulled up another chair and sat down in front of him.
“Android, what is your function and purpose?” she asked as she wiped the sweat that had collected on her brow.
“I cannot answer that question. You do not have the proper clearance,” he replied.
Tricia saw that he was dressed in all black and wore shades despite the dark interior of the house. She knew immediately that this was a military-trained android that would never answer her questions. She got behind him and accessed his CPU. Most of his programming was done in that strange language that Stephen had told her about but she worked her way through it and started to hack out the securities that had been placed there.
It was a long, arduous task, but she worked at it slowly, putting all concern to the side. By the time she was finished and had powered him back on, it was 3:05 a.m. and all of the noises from outside had fallen to a dead silence. She went inside the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There was still plenty of food stored inside and a purified water dispenser, which she used to fill a glass and quickly drink the thirst away. Tricia went back into the room and saw that the android was staring at his unconscious friend on the ground.
“Android, what is your function and purpose?” Tricia asked as she sat down in the chair, resting her glass of water on the floor next to her.
“My function is to secure this house and alert my master when the woman, Bonnie O’Neal appears. My purpose is to seek and destroy those who would do harm to my master or the organization,” he said in a flat, monotone voice.
“What is your organization?” Tricia asked, hoping that there were no more security hurdles for her
to leap over in order to get the answer.
“We are AWFA, A World for All,” he said, smiling proudly as if he had told her about his greatest accomplishment.
“AWFA, thank you for telling me. How many members are in your organization, how many of them are human, and finally, what is your mission?” Tricia asked.
“There are approximately 2,501 members of AWFA currently, with 91 being organic and 2,410 being machine. Our mission is to bring about equality among humans and synthetics,” he replied.
“Wonderful,” Tricia said. “So this brings up the next question. If you are about peace, equality, and android life then why were you planted here to attack me?”
“We never meant to cause you any harm. We were ordered to take hold of you until The Director was able to visit and talk to you himself.”
“Is this director an android like yourself?” she asked.
“He is,” the android responded matter-of-factly, and then stood staring at her with a slight smile on his face.
“Did you send him the signal when you saw me here? Is he coming?” Tricia asked.
“No,” the android replied. “We are only to send a signal when you are detained and identified within a high eighty percent that you are indeed, Bonnie O’Neal.”
Tricia nodded her head and stood up, and then she walked into the bedroom to look at the markers left by the police for the detectives. She tried the bed and smiled at how comfortable it was. Bonnie O’Neal had amassed a small fortune and from what she could tell, she had been using it to buy the best of everything that life could give her.
She walked back out to the office and observed the two androids. “I want you to get up, fix the desk, and clean up this room to as close to what it was as you possibly can. Do not tell your superiors that you saw me here or that I’ve tampered with your programming. I want you to wake your friend as soon as I am gone and force him to wipe the memory of me out of his CPU. Tell me if you’re understanding me,” she said to him and the android nodded and confirmed.
Tricia left the house, hopped back onto her scooter, and rode it back to her hotel room. She felt the urge to power down and rest but she had fought for the first time and was still trying to come down from the excitement. She went to the small concessions kiosk in the hotel lobby and purchased a cup of hot tea. She took it back to her room and sat on the porch sipping it. The tall, intimidating tower of the Fritz and Isaac Electronics building loomed in front of her like an evil omen but she found that she was no longer afraid of it.
Androids had placed other androids to ambush her inside of her home, and while she found this to be the oddest thing, she chalked it up to being a massive clue.
Once the tea was done and the introspection grew stale, Tricia took her tired body to bed and slept until 10:00 a.m. the next day. She woke up feeling happy about her newfound fighting skills and called up Sal.
“Sally!” she exclaimed as soon as he picked up the phone. “Sal, can you hear me?”
“Hey, Bonnie, I can hear you loud and clear.” He chuckled. “Where are you?” he asked, and Tricia rolled her eyes since he always asked the same question whenever she called.
“I’m in my hotel room staring out at the beautiful city. Listen, I have a new clue for you to look into, if you don’t mind. It could have something to do with the frightening woman in the video.”
‘Oh yeah,” he said, sounding genuinely interested. “What about her? Did you remember seeing her somewhere before?”
“No, but I know that she comes from an android organization known as AWFA,” she said. “AWFA stands for A World For All, and I have a strong suspicion that they are extremely dangerous. You’re going to want to watch your back when you ask about them. They seem to be well funded and connected. I have reason to believe that they have the resources needed to cover-up a crime like mine.”
“How did you find out about this stuff? Who’ve you been talking to?” Sal asked.
“I don’t want to alarm you or make you worry for me, Sal, so, better if I keep that to myself and assure you that everything that I am telling you is true. That organization exists. I have only guesses as to who they are and what they’re about, though,” Tricia said.
“What makes you think they have anything to do with your shooting or the chick we saw in the video?”
“I spoke to someone in the organization about my case and he thinks that they had something to do with it,” Tricia said.
“I’m not getting you … were you in some sort of trouble?” Sal asked. “You have a run-in with these people? I mean, there’s only so much I can do with partial information, Bonnie. You gotta tell me the whole thing. What’s going on here? What do I need to know?”
Tricia became frustrated. “The thing is, if I tell you the whole truth you’re not going to believe me. I’ve already tried—”
“You mean the android thing?” he said, laughing.
“YES, THE ANDROID THING!” Tricia yelled. “If you really need proof, why don’t you come over to my hotel and I will show you that I am what I claim to be.”
“Maybe I don’t want to know,” he said, sounding exhausted. “Maybe all this is kind of above my head and it’s getting a bit too strange for my liking. I can’t lie to you, Bonnie, we haven’t been getting much traction with finding the woman on the video. And with the things you’re telling me, it seems like this is going to get a whole lot bigger than little old me will be able to handle. I think I need to turn this case over to my superiors so that they can let the big boys handle it. Androids replacing human beings, super-secret organizations. Either you’re off your rocker, or this is way too deep for my pay grade.”
“It has to be you, Sal, I am sorry. If you turn my case over I will disappear, I just know it,” Tricia said.
“How do you mean it has to be me? What’s so special about me?” he asked.
“I trust you, that’s why. They haven’t gotten to you, they think that you are as blind to everything going on as I am.”
“I’m at my wits end here, Bonnie. This whole android thing, that’s not gonna cut it, I mean, I can’t even wrap my head around that,” he said with a hint of desperation. “If I kick this up you can have several versions of me looking into this and I can go back to busting regular criminals. You know what I mean?”
“I think I do, but it makes me sad that I have failed you somehow. Just last month you were fired up about my case and you wanted nothing else but to help me get back to my life. I’m not asking you to bust the company that did this to me, I just wanted you to look around to see if you can find out anything about them. You can close the file on the mysterious android woman at the crime scene because I am almost certain that she is what I used to be before they changed my identity,” Tricia said.
“You haven’t failed anybody. It’s just that I’m not getting anywhere with this and now we’re talking android horror stories or something. If what you’re telling me is true, the city would flip out over this. I’m talking about nationwide meltdown of all machine people just to make Johnny Public sleep easy at night,” he said.
“That right there is why it has to be you, Sal, and it is why we have to find this out on our own.”
“Listen kid, I’m tired, and we got the guy who shot you, so you no longer have to worry about him. Maybe it’s time for you to move back into your house, get your life back together, and press on. In the meantime I’ll be on the lookout for this organization that you mentioned and I’ll give you a call if I hear anything.”
“That sounds good, Sal, but I would still like to meet with you to tell you some of the things that I remembered. You worked really hard trying to figure things out on your own and I would like to keep you abreast of my situation. That way, later on there will be no surprises between us,” Tricia said.
“I’d really like that,” Sal said. “Let’s talk this weekend. I can come over there and you can tell me all about it.”
“Oh, I almost forgot – do you have something to writ
e with?” she asked.
“Sure, what else you got for me?” Sal asked sounding like his old self again.
“I hear that a man named Emeril Worth is watching me. He lost track of me after you took me to Florida and a friend of mine found a message he sent to someone at Fritz and Isaac Electronics saying that he lost me. They’ve also been harassing a friend of mine that works for the company because they saw him talking to me,” she said.
“Whoa, the company? You mean AWFA or Fritz?” Sal asked.
“Fritz and Isaac. He works there, and his name is Stephen Dwayne. Look, this Emeril could be a major player and extremely dangerous. Please be careful, especially when it comes to revealing why you’re asking about him. He’s the primary suspect for all of this, as far as I’m concerned, and my friend could get that video if we need it.”
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After getting off the call with Sal, Tricia decided that it would be a good day to take a ride out to what she remembered to be her old neighborhood. She hopped on her scooter and rode the lower highway stream to Tesla University. The University was a massive structure that could be seen easily from the height that Tricia rode, so she dropped off of the beam to take to the magnetic asphalt road where she drove through several neighborhoods before arriving at the looming gateposts at the front of the University.
Tricia looked around and her memory led her to ride south until she arrived at a set of small apartments where a number of students lived. One of these apartments was familiar. She remembered that her creator had been a college student who had built her for a class project. She had grown and begun to get her first education of the world in this apartment.
She sat on the scooter and looked up at the red brick building. It was three levels high and had glass windows, wooden doors, and mundane signage that displayed its rates. It looked like a relic from the past. None of the exciting new changes in architecture and convenience had been added to it. Tenants still had to climb stairs to get up to the top floors and there were no moving sidewalks.