Emergent
Page 12
“Very well,” Drago nodded. “We’ll focus on downtown and closing off streets.”
“Don’t make an enemy of local police,” Thale said.
“What, me?” Drago acted innocent as he stood up and bumped his head. Rubbing his scalp, he hurried out.
“What was that all about?” Fran whispered after he’d gone.
“You think Synthia is on a train,” Thale said. “I agree. Which one?”
Fran moved away from the screen and turned to face Thale. “I don’t like that there were similar incidents at both stations, involving the use of social media to draw attention to the cops so they couldn’t do their jobs. It was too well organized and coordinated.”
“Distracting police hints that Synthia has a different plan, maybe to drive out of town. After all, with a personal vehicle, she’d have more control over her destination.”
“She’d have to deal with Special Ops watching all the roads. Synthia has reached out to you and Detective Malloy. It sounds to me as if she’d be more willing to surrender to us. We need to convince her we can keep her safe from them. I have a hunch she’s watching us and saw what happened to Luke.”
“Then let’s keep Detective Malloy close. See if we can entice Synthia to give herself up before this gets out of hand and Drago raises the stakes.”
Fran nodded and sat at her screen. “Maria may be Synthia’s weakness. However, Synthia’s a machine. Given a choice of sacrificing Maria or her own freedom, she might choose freedom.”
“If we can’t depend on Maria as bait, then how do we capture Synthia and convince her we won’t turn her over to Special Ops?”
“That’s a tough one,” Fran said. “With her ability to change appearance, Synthia could be anyone doing anything. She could even be one of us.”
Thale shuddered for an instant. “A chilling thought. I’m willing to try to keep her away from Special Ops if we can get all of the other androids off the street. However, we have to prevent Synthia from roaming around. We can’t allow that.”
“What freedom and assurances can we offer her to come off the streets?”
“I don’t know,” Thale said. “Let’s come up with something before it’s too late.”
Synthia received from her clone the video of this meeting and shook her head. She commended Fran for trying to accommodate her freedom needs and the spirit of cooperation in removing the other androids, but Drago had overridden the FBI and Synthia couldn’t see any surrender outcome that didn’t end up with her being a prototype for a new weapon system. Nice try, Fran.
A disconcerting part of the conversation was that Fran had assumed Synthia was listening in. That implied Fran was playing a game here, playing to an audience.
* * * *
As their train passed the Barrington station, Synthia intercepted a text to the police officer who’d moved through the entire train without focusing on either Synthia or Maria. The message contained an attachment with Maria’s college intern picture. Synthia considered grabbing Maria to jump off the train. Aside from the risk of injury, that would guarantee that the entire police force, the FBI, and Special Ops would descend on their location. There would be no safe hiding places and every mode of transportation would be vulnerable.
If the cop grabbed Maria, there was the risk she might talk to save herself and remove an android. The smart move would have been for Synthia to jump off the train and blend into the local population.
It disturbed Synthia’s directives, her emotive chip, and her social-psychology module that she even contemplated a move that led to the capture of Maria to save herself. This was what Fran had said, what in hindsight Synthia had done to Luke. This wasn’t the ethical individual Synthia wanted to be. However, a rash act with a guarantee of capture, probability in excess of 99 percent, made no sense. Stay calm.
She couldn’t risk blanking out train cameras without confirming she was here. At least the police officer didn’t have a scanner. He couldn’t confirm Synthia’s nature without a thorough pat-down and he had as much reason to do the same to all of the other passengers. Then again, if he located Maria, he would call in the troops.
The young officer began at the back of the train where he’d been resting and moved forward. With each passenger, he examined the image on his phone against the person seated before him and for good measure took a picture. Not knowing what else to do, Synthia sent Maria a text: Cop has intern picture. Rechecking passengers. Don’t touch hair or face. Go to bathroom. Don’t lock door so no Occupancy light.
As soon as Maria viewed the text, her eyes widened. She glanced behind her, grabbed her backpack and hurried into the bathroom. Synthia purged the text on Maria’s phone and on the servers it passed through. There was no camera in the bathroom and so no way for Synthia to watch Maria’s actions.
The officer made his way through the first car and started on the second, reaching Synthia. She adopted a sad expression around the mouth, letting her eyes water as if she’d lost the most important relationship of her life. The officer looked up at her on the second level and handed her a napkin.
“Bad day?” he asked, his face softening.
Synthia nodded. He took her picture and she turned her attention to colorful fall trees passing outside with the camera in her neck fixed on him.
The police officer finished in that compartment and moved to the next. Synthia hoped her presented sadness might soften his search for Maria, who remained in the bathroom. The officer glanced at the unoccupied sign and moved on. Synthia sent another text: Cop passed you. Stay calm. She gave Maria a moment to read and made that message vanish without knowing if Maria had seen it.
The train approached Woodstock, its final destination. Synthia pulled up camera footage of the parking lot. She spotted a car with the proper wireless and self-driving features. She traced through the station’s security footage to identify the car’s owner and collected information on her. The owner wouldn’t need the car until evening.
The train pulled into Woodstock at 11:03 a.m. The quiet, sleepy community at the very outskirts of the Chicago metropolitan area was best known as the location where the movie Groundhog Day had been filmed. Synthia blanked out the cameras, stepped off the train, and met Maria at the end of the parking lot.
Maria had tears in her eyes. “I thought I was done for back there.”
“Almost were,” Synthia whispered, waiting for the other commuters to leave. “You did great. You need to keep your current look until we can figure this out.”
“At least we’re out in the country.”
“Not good. With few people around, it’s harder for me to hide.”
“What’s the plan?” Maria asked.
“Get far away from here.”
After the last of the commuters picked up their vehicles, Synthia hacked the navigation for her chosen car, started the engine remotely, and had it pull up to pick them up.
“You did that?” Maria adopted a jittery facial twitch.
“Don’t worry, I’ll send the car back when we’re done.”
“I don’t know whether to be impressed or downright terrified.”
“We need to focus.” Synthia opened the back door. “As if our very existence depended on it, because it does.”
“Are you certain driving is a good idea with all of the street cameras?” Maria climbed in.
“If we take the right precautions.” Synthia altered her face to that of the car’s owner, closed the door, and put on a hat to mask the difference in hair color. Then she climbed into the driver’s seat.
“I can’t get used to you changing faces like that. Promise not to play tricks on me.”
“I’ll do my best to let you know when I change. Get on the floor and hide. We can’t take any chance that one of their very smart facial recognition agents connects your current appearance to the intern picture.”
Maria settled onto the floor. “This isn’t very comfortable.”
“Neither is what Luke’s going through.” Synthia navigated the car south, using the self-drive feature at five miles over the speed limit, and hacked lights along the way to green. “We need to get far away from the metropolitan area before they widen their search. Our swimming caused them to pull more agents into the area, and to disperse them around the lake in case we swam elsewhere. Soon they’ll bring more to bear on transportation in and out of Chicago.”
“You won’t share the plan, will you?” Maria’s voice sounded muffled in the back seat.
“Not until we’re far away from here.”
“I’ve been puzzling over our dilemma. I don’t believe your idea of taking out one android at a time will work. Things are happening too fast and smart AI can adapt quickly, meaning the second target can learn from the first and stop you.”
Synthia smiled at that recognition but didn’t confirm it aloud. Her AI was adapting very fast. So were Vera and whatever the government was using to catch her. She was in an arms race with her pursuers. If she didn’t keep learning, they would destroy her.
“We need to find a robot vulnerability we can exploit to take them all out at once,” Maria said. “Are you with me on this?”
“I am, as long as that doesn’t include me.” Synthia contacted Roosevelt-clone to get aerial surveillance over the surrounding area and options for escape.
“Care to share what weaknesses we can exploit? I mean, how do dumb humans outsmart advanced AI?”
Synthia got the impression Maria was fishing. She’d commented on how quickly AIs can learn. Did she expect Synthia to fall into the trap of sharing how to defeat her? Or was this Maria’s nervous way of making conversation?
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Synthia said. “Besides, you have me on your side. Inherent android weaknesses include the need to recharge and inherent electronic signatures that sensors can pick up. You studied android development. What ideas do you have?”
Roosevelt-clone chimed in with a compressed burst of communication in a simplified, encrypted electronic language she’d developed and synchronized with Synthia.
Synthia severed the connection and studied surveillance video along the road and at the Rockford airport.
“I don’t know,” Maria said from the back of the car in answer to Synthia’s earlier question. “If we could get all the other androids in one place, we could blast them.”
“Sounds messy, both in terms of getting Vera and Alexander to fall into that trap and the possibility something useful might survive, allowing Drago to exploit the technology.”
“Hey,” Maria said, poking her head up. “Why are we getting off at the Rockford Airport?”
“You’re supposed to keep your head down and your face off potential cameras.”
“No more secrets. You want my cooperation and trust, then talk.”
“We’re flying to Chicago.” Synthia said.
Maria’s face appeared in the rearview mirror. “Do you have a death wish?”
Synthia pulled into the airport drive toward the terminal. “I thought you’d appreciate some excitement.”
“I’ve had my friend’s house blown up. We’ve had to escape under water. That cop almost caught me. Isn’t that enough?”
“Driving takes too long with too many points of failure. Our best odds are to fly.”
“What about all of the airport security?” Maria said.
“Worst case we go sky diving.”
“No thanks.”
“Without a parachute,” Synthia said.
“Tell me you can flap your arms and fly us out of here.”
“No better than humans.” Synthia pulled up to the terminal entrance. “Get ready to climb out. We’ll be taking the same flights, but we need to travel separately.”
Synthia sketched out what Maria needed to do and stopped the car. They both jumped out and Synthia sent the car back to the Woodstock train station, needing a recharge, but otherwise not harming the owner.
Chapter 17
Synthia had concerns about Maria spoiling the plans so she didn’t share the part about the pilot. Instead, Synthia went to the ticket counter to pick up her companion’s prepaid ticket and a second Synthia didn’t intend to use, both under false identities. She hurried toward the restrooms, brushed past Maria when they were away from the cameras, and slipped her the ticket.
While Maria headed toward security, Synthia slipped into a unisex restroom. She pulled up all of the airport surveillance to plot her next move. Maria acted nervous around all of the airport security and Rockford police, though Synthia’s social-psychology module indicated a high level of anxiety among most of the passengers faced with long security lines and the police presence. Synthia calculated a 38 percent probability of them catching Maria. Their primary focus was on using the electromagnetic sensors they’d just received to identify escaped androids.
Maria waited for her turn through security. The police waved the electromagnetic scanner over each passenger as they approached. Synthia discarded the idea of having all scanning equipment malfunction. The police might call the FBI who would shut down the airport. Then she would need to find a way out of the airport and another way west, with no chance to protect Maria. Synthia felt ripples of distress over letting anyone else suffer for her.
While she watched surveillance of Maria, Synthia replaced her wig with a short-cropped male hairdo, which she combed to be close to that of the pilot. She used hydraulics to modify her figure to appear masculine, her height to pick up two inches to be closer to his, and her face to match the pilot’s masculine appearance right down to simulated facial stubble. Then she headed toward the ticket counter.
d.
At airport security, Maria’s turn came up. A female police officer ran the scanner over her, coming up with no unusual electronic signature. Synthia even blanked out any image of the tablet her companion hadn’t placed with her bags. Not smart, Maria. Then Maria went through the human scanner while her backpack and bag rode the baggage scanner.
Glancing at the long line of passengers at the security checkpoints, the female police officer waved Maria on. Maria grabbed her bags and headed for the gate, keeping her head down and looking away from where Synthia said the cameras would be.
Synthia reached the ticket counter and smiled at the weary woman who appeared older than expected. She was biting her nails. The woman looked up as she rubbed her eyes, yawned, and returned her attention to her screen. Synthia copied the yawn since that was what humans did.
“Clumsy me,” Synthia said in a somewhat cheerful male voice that matched the pilot. She waited until the woman looked up with an annoyed “now what” expression.
“You again?”
“I seem to have left my ID on the other side of security. I don’t suppose you could provide me credentials. Otherwise, they’ll fire me for missing another flight.”
The ticket agent gave Synthia’s male impersonation a suspicious stare. “You’re always losing things,” she said. “Where’s your uniform?”
“With my ID. Please.”
It helped that Synthia had a complete dossier on the pilot, on the ticket agent, and on their troubled history. Too much drama for Synthia, but a better choice than the other ticket agent, a man who had it out for the pilot.
The female agent frowned. “Have you been drinking again? They ought to fire you for that. I’m not losing my job over you.”
“Please,” Synthia said in the pilot’s voice. She adjusted her eyes to reflect worry. “I beg you. I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk. It’s no excuse. My marriage is on the rocks. My wife wants to take the kids back east. I haven’t had a drink. I swear. If I don’t make it to the plane…well, have a heart.”