by Lance Erlick
“I’m guessing you and Krista might have been close at one time. Sorry, but she was a pain, though I acted the same way. There was a lot of fighting to get choice assignments. In the end, she won and died. I haven’t decided if that was a victory for her. I don’t think I’d want to live inside a machine.”
“You think Krista chose that?”
Maria nodded. “She was a woman on a mission. I believe she chose to become an android over death. I can’t say if I would have. I’m not facing a death sentence.”
“It’s unsettling to have such a smart robot around.”
“That’s why we want to remove the other AI androids. We believe they represent a threat.”
“Do you agree this robot’s a threat?” Grace asked.
“She’s watched my back so far, helping me out of tough spots. She also rescued you. I’m willing to give her a chance. Besides, there’s a worse android out there gathering others in an army. The military wants to capture Synthia to make military androids. That’s the bigger problem.”
“Maybe,” Grace said. “I don’t like this.”
* * * *
Synthia returned to the van, loaded the packages in the back, and considered Grace’s hostility. She couldn’t let on without admitting she’d eavesdropped. Instead, she’d have to watch her back and try to win over Krista’s sister. She climbed into the driver’s seat and drove off.
“Two more stops and we’re ready,” she said.
“Ready for what?” Grace asked. “What are you dragging me into?”
“I’ll be happy to drop you off if you’d like, but I wouldn’t hold out much hope that you could avoid capture. The government is determined to find me and both of you.”
“You won’t stop me from leaving and telling them what I know?”
“You can’t tell them anything they don’t already know,” Synthia said. “I don’t want Commander Drago putting you through the mind upload as they’re doing to a friend of ours and as Machten did to your sister. Quite painful.”
Grace crossed her arms. “You’ve done it this time.”
Synthia directed their van to other shipping outlets to get the rest of her supplies. Meanwhile, Drago’s aerial drone swarm swept over the moving truck with the motorcycle. Buzzing in low, drone cameras captured pictures of the empty cab—no driver. Synthia navigated the truck onto the airport drive, where it stopped by one of the terminals. FBI cars arrived followed by three Special Ops vans, the FBI command van, and a car with Director Zephirelli and Fran. The plane carrying Special Agent Victoria Thale and Detective Marcy Malloy landed and they joined in.
With guns drawn, four of Drago’s operatives surrounded the moving truck. Two FBI agents squatted down to check underneath while others set up a perimeter around the vehicle in case it contained a bomb. Two operatives peered into the cab. Two others opened the back.
“We have the cycle,” one yelled out.
Thale and Fran approached the truck, empty except for the cycle and Synthia’s helmet. “Question everyone who might have seen the occupants,” Thale said. “Dust for prints.”
“You won’t find any,” Fran said. “The android doesn’t have prints and Grace didn’t touch the cycle.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“It’s what I’d do if I was Synthia. Remember, she’s shown a high level of intelligence.”
“What about up front?” Thale asked.
“I doubt either got into the truck.”
Thale looked puzzled. “Explain.”
“This is a self-driving truck,” Fran said. “Fully automated. Synthia has become adept at hacking the software to navigate vehicles remotely. She did it to cars along the way to slow us down.”
“Holy…damn.”
“I doubt she was ever in this truck. It’s a diversion. You won’t find anyone at the airport who saw them. They switched vehicles. We need aerial surveillance.”
Thale turned to Special Agent Marv Clemson. “Maybe so, but we should ask anyone who saw what happened.” She accessed her phone, noted it had bars, and called in. “We need satellite surveillance of the Denver area starting an hour ago. Dangerous suspect on the run.”
Kirk Drago joined them, his face as taut as his muscles. “This is why we need that machine off the streets,” He pulled away to make his own call.
Thale took Fran aside. “What’s your hunch on this? Where do we find her?”
“That depends,” Fran said. “She has two choices: run or fight. If she runs, she’ll leave a trail for us to find. It’s a matter of time before we track her down and corner her.”
“She’d know that,” Thale said, watching Drago by his van. “She’ll choose to fight?”
“It’s her best option. Unfortunately, I have no insight into where and how.”
Director Zephirelli drew closer and lowered her voice. “Any chance we can find the android before they do?” She nodded her head toward Drago.
“Our best chance is to work together,” Fran said. “It’s not just Synthia we have to worry about. The longer this takes, the more chances exist for the other androids or our foreign friends to complicate things.”
“Then let’s catch ourselves an android,” Zephirelli said.
* * * *
While Synthia retrieved packages from a third shipping outlet, she considered how quickly Fran was figuring things out. From the limited download of her mind six months ago, it was clear that she was logic-oriented with flashes of brilliant insight that made her deadly as an FBI investigator. Synthia couldn’t afford to underestimate her during the scramble to come.
She checked in with Colorado-clone on Luke’s condition. The clone sent video clips of a successful mosquito-drone visit inside Drago’s Illinois facility.
Under the watchful eye of a Special Ops lieutenant, a lab technician monitored Luke’s vitals while he slept in an adjacent room. The lab tech watched several screens showing aspects of Luke’s mental condition and vital signs.
“Wake him up,” the lieutenant said.
“He needs rest,” the lab tech said. “Two hours isn’t enough.”
“We don’t have time. Resume uploading his memories.” The lieutenant turned to a woman who sat in the corner of the control room surrounded by three screens that showed the status of the mind uploads. “Have you found anything useful yet?” he asked.
The woman, a tall neural-psychologist, didn’t look up. “Uploading memory bits is one thing. Interpreting what we find is complicated.”
“Then un-complicate it,” the lieutenant said. “Commander Drago needs results. We need what Luke knows about the android’s capabilities. He was with her for six months. He has to know something useful.”
“They took lots of showers together,” the neural-psychologist said, rubbing her eyes.
“And the android swam in Lake Michigan. Tell me something I don’t know.”
“We have vague, fuzzy remembrances of him working on her,” the neural-psychologist said.
“And?”
“They’re too fuzzy to show whether it’s intimacy or if he’s doing maintenance. We know she received new batteries, joints, and data storage devices.”
“To what specs?” the lieutenant asked.
“He either doesn’t know or he’s forgotten.” The neural-psychologist waved her hand before the screens. “Or he’s doing a good job of suppressing memories.”
“Probe deeper.” The lieutenant moved to the corner to take a call.
The video clip disturbed Synthia’s directives and sent ripples of pain through her empathy chip, which sent a shiver through her body she hoped the shipping attendant didn’t notice. At least the sensors displaying Luke’s vital signs hadn’t failed. Synthia had to get him out of there and couldn’t while everyone was after her. Besides, he was a th
ousand miles away, in Illinois.
The number of pursuers complicated every option, particularly with the nagging sense that there was another intelligence out there tracking Synthia and trying to hack into her. She needed to help Luke and she had to make sure no harm came to Maria and Grace. She was gathering a human family, one of her goals to become more human herself. She wasn’t doing a very good job for them.
With every move she made, at least one of her pursuers picked it up and tipped off the others. This dilemma measured against her new directives was causing her decision processes to churn to a slow pace. She calculated less than a 1 percent probability of surviving the upcoming assault on her based on the variables she could assess.
As the lieutenant in the facility lab wrapped up his call, Synthia returned her attention to the video clip.
“Uh huh,” the lieutenant said. He turned to the lab technician and the neural-psychologist. “We have orders to move Luke to the Denver facility to be closer to operations. Saddle up.”
Since Synthia didn’t know what Denver facility they were talking about and Special Ops would have Luke on a plane before she could get to Chicago to intervene, Synthia stewed over what other options she had. She also worried whether his situation would be worse in Denver, “closer to operations,” and how they would treat him during the flight. They might even choose to download his mind into a robot to use against her.
On the video, Luke trembled. For now, she couldn’t help him and that sent ripples throughout her systems that she was failing in her need to protect him. At least the upgrade Luke had performed on her had replaced metal with fiber optics to reduce potential damage from the static spikes.
Chapter 24
Synthia squeezed the last of her packages into the back of the van, returned to the middle seat, and changed her face back to Krista. She started the van and directed it out of the parking lot. Then she turned toward Grace, wishing her social-psychology module would suggest something effective to calm the sister’s doubts about riding with an android.
“After so many years, it’s very good to see you, Grace,” Synthia said. “Krista is pleased that we could free you from those government agents, as am I. We’re both sorry to bring all this trouble your way. It must be awkward for you to see me as Krista.”
Grace folded her arms. “Unsettling.”
“If it’s okay with you, I need to keep altering my appearance to avoid the FBI’s facial recognition.”
“You can keep doing that?” Grace shook her head. “How many faces can you do?”
“Not sure,” Synthia said. “Dozens of major changes, many subtle ones.” She modified her face to a plain one for which she had identity papers. “For now, this is who I’ll be. Consider this as another mask. I want you to be comfortable around me. After we’re free of this, you can go your own way and never see me again if you wish.”
Grace stared at Synthia with heightened suspicion. “Tell me what I have to do to get through this.”
“There are at least four groups after us,” Synthia said. She navigated the van along side streets while she figured out her next move. “The FBI and Special Ops have teamed up. They have different goals but they agree on capturing me at all costs. They’ve brought along an Evanston detective who met me once. She’s the one who figured out where I was hiding.”
“So the entire U.S. government,” Grace said.
“Pretty much. I considered finding you a safe house. They’re hard to find with so many people involved.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” Grace glanced at Maria and returned her attention to Synthia. “You realize they have satellite surveillance and tons of traffic cameras.”
“I’m well aware,” Synthia said and had Colorado-clone send her a complete set of surveillance scans from the Denver area. “The sharpest mind on their side appears to be an FBI agent by the name of Fran Rogers.”
“Our Fran?” Maria asked. “She was one of the interns with me and Krista,” she explained for Grace.
“She turned her scientific mind to helping them find me. I don’t know where she gets her insight, but she’s one of their greatest threats.”
“I’m not sending her anything,” Maria said. Her eyes looked worried.
“I don’t believe you are.” Synthia had suspected, though her hack of Maria’s phone showed no such communication. Neither had her constant camera surveillance.
“Unfortunately,” Synthia said, “she hasn’t been careful enough with her communications. Other groups tapped in to get a jump on us. This caught the attention of the Secretary of National Security Derek Chen with all his resources.”
“I’ve heard he can make people disappear,” Grace said. “What have you done?”
“It’s illegal to create an android with advanced AI that looks human. I’m illegal.”
Grace shuddered. “Who else is after us?”
“There’s a Russian oligarch by the name of Tolstoy,” Synthia said. “His American agent, John Smith, landed at a private airfield with an entourage of military robots. Tolstoy is there to meet him and they have other agents in the area.”
“You’re watching all this?”
“I’m getting constant updates through an internal internet connection.”
“So the Russians are involved?” Grace said.
“So are the Chinese and other foreign agents. As I said, FBI communications are not as confidential and secure as they think. Artificial intelligence became effective faster than the Bureau could increase their security.”
“Who isn’t after us?” Grace asked.
“As far as I can tell, the Girl Scouts.”
“Was that a joke?” Maria asked.
“A poor one,” Synthia said. “Our most dangerous adversaries are Vera and Alexander. They’re humaniform androids with artificial general intelligence.”
“More of you?” Grace asked.
“More androids, yes. Vera’s design encourages her to gather allies. She’s reprogrammed another android to help her. She’s working to get Alexander and his two followers to work for her. If they unite, it will be five androids against me. They can be in multiple places and put their minds together.”
“You’re afraid?” Maria said.
“It’s not supposed to happen to an android, but I wish to exist and the threat to that existence brings what equates to me as fear. I sense this unexpected yearning inside me. It’s true that I’m not like you. Neither are cats and dogs yet humans love their animals.”
“Don’t compare yourself to a cuddly dog,” Grace said.
“Why not?” Synthia asked. “When a dog looks up at its human companion, it’s not a partnership of equals yet it works.”
“I see why people are afraid of AI. You can be very convincing.”
“You may hate me, but until we get free of the people after us, I suggest we work together.” However, having to deal with human emotions and doubts was slowing her down.
“I agree with Synthia on this,” Maria said.
“Why?” Grace asked. “They want the android, not us. If we turn her in, we might get a reward.”
“Your reward will be an unmarked grave,” Synthia said. “They don’t want anyone who knows about me to talk about what they’ve seen. I promise if we get through this I’ll find you a safe place to live with a new identity.”
“Here I was beginning to like my new underemployed life in Denver.” Grace shook her head and seemed to be conjuring up something to add.
Synthia recei
ved an update from Colorado-clone. “That’s not good,” Synthia said. “Alexander has agreed to support Vera and follow her lead. They’re combining forces.”
“Why don’t you stick me in witness protection before it’s too late?” Grace asked.
“It already is,” Synthia said. “Vera’s deal with Alexander is that he gets both of you with which to barter with authorities. If you don’t want to be with me, you certainly don’t want to be hostage to Alexander and his two android supporters while they negotiate with the government.”
Grace’s face tightened as if she were trying to work this out. “Okay, I get it. We’re screwed either way. I’ll have to hope there’s in you enough of the old Krista who did watch my back.”
“There is.” Synthia turned toward Maria. “If for any reason we get separated I want you two to work together.” She looked at Grace. “Maria has a lot of experience living off the grid. You two could be very good for each other.”
* * * *
Synthia gave the van’s navigation system new coordinates and had one of her network-channels survey the area. Colorado-clone sent out a wave of aerial drones to help. Special Ops picked them off one by one and sent up a second small swarm of their own drones. While the clone worked on surveillance, Synthia contacted the android Ben, with whom she’d worked before.
Synthia cut the link before Ben could trace the call and connected with Ben’s partner, Mark, formerly Margarite, also manufactured by Machten.