I gazed at Cheri, her man’s wig and sparse fake moustache looking totally natural. Her posture, her voice, everything was convincing; maybe not as convincing as my teenage girl disguise, but she didn’t have nano-technology on her side. She shrugged her shoulders, and I knew that, from her, that meant she agreed. “Neither of us will ever breathe a word,” she whispered, more to me than to him, and I nodded.
Hassim looked down, rubbing his hands across his face and eyes. He clapped his hands softly and said, “Right. I believe you had a bit of a row with a certain puffed up American fellow recently. Stronger and faster than seemingly possible, I heard.”
“Yeah, the Bright Hand had been experimenting on him, but we found out that the Americans had given him some… I don’t know, treatments, I guess, before he ever got to the Bright Hand. How do you know about that?”
“I’ve told you, me daddy has some… unusual connections, and we’ve taken a strong interest in you and your group. He heard and passed it along to me.”
“His connections must be good. That happened, like, what, a day-and-a-half ago?” asked Cheri.
I nodded and Hassim continued. “Yes, well, as I said, unusual to say the least. The point is, there are much more refined versions of the ‘treatments’ he was receiving. The Americans are at least ten years behind the Brits, because they’ve invested all their money and interest in weapons technology, while the Brits have been working on genetic… enhancements. MI-6 is the beneficiary of these enhancements; not all MI-6 choose to take advantage, but I did. As a result, I’m quite strong and fast, and my brain is the same. Nowhere near your level, Lucas, but think of me as a step between normal people and you. That’s how I got to the Russians so quickly, and that and the MI-6 training are why I don’t worry too much about being here in one of the more dangerous places on the planet. I’ll tell you, though, I always assumed that our training was the best on earth, but you, Ms. Kim, your powers of observation are frankly superior. It seems the Bright Hand know their stuff as well.”
“All right, he told the truth. Let him stay.”
I turned to Cheri, and she shrugged again. “Okay with me,” she said.
“Okay with me too. Let’s get back to the hotel. We probably need to go back over our plans now that Hassim is on our team, right?”
25
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
LFP GENERAL MEETING
121552 08:33
DIRECTOR’S NOTE TO RECORDING A.I.: Include location for the participants so I can keep them straight.
-(Following review of original extraction plan for Dr. John Taylor) (BG, from US) What seems to be missing from the plan is any indication of a time frame.
-Yes, the committee hadn’t gotten that far, and that’s probably a point in our favor. If the Americans have any inkling of the plan, at least they don’t know when.
-(CS, from Mexico) This plan, it’s not that bad. Does our test subject fit in to this scenario?
-They didn’t get that far either, but I don’t see how it’s successful without him.
-(JM, from China) What is the progress on his current mission? Do we think he will still be available to help with a rescue?
-Do you mean will he be dead? That’s unclear at this point. He is at the beginning stages of the current mission, and we have marshalled as many resources as we could to assist him without making it obvious. We’ll know in about three days, unless he gets killed in the meantime.
-(AP, from India) I must object to referring to him in this way. He is a person, not a thing. Yes, we are observing him and hope to appropriate his technology, but he is a living being and as such deserves to be treated respectfully.
-Noted. None of us wants him to die, but we didn’t put him in this position and we are doing our best to assist him. Let’s get back to our discussion of the extraction plan.
-(MG, from Argentina) First, I must agree with our colleague from India. We must treat him and refer to him with respect. Otherwise, we risk being no better than those from whom we wish to separate ourselves.
-(MCB, from Australia) If we’re going to be so bloody civilized, why are we gonna toss the kid aside when we’re done with ‘im then, eh? Let’s not be bloody hypocrites, mates. If we’re gonna respect him, then let’s do it all the way ‘round. Same with his daddy and the rest of their little tribe.
-All right, we’ve all been duly chastised. Let’s get back to planning, so perhaps we can actually save him, shall we? That would show some respect if you ask me. Hey, (SVC), will you see if there’s any cream cheese back there anywhere?
****
A fter returning to our hotel, all three of us went to our room to discuss plans for the next couple of days. Before talking, we checked the room to see if there were any monitoring devices, and I asked Ava to check for any wireless means of surveillance, but we found nothing of concern. When we were done with our discussion, Cheri smacked the table with her remaining hand and said, “Okay, are you ready for your big reveal?”
“My… my what?”
She pointed to my head, and then I remembered. “Oh, yeah. Wait, a second.”
“It’s ready. I think you’ll appreciate my tonsorial skills.”
That reading my thoughts is freaky. And tonsorial? What the? Oh, boy… I hope she means she fixed my hair up…
“Wearing this wig is getting old, and Cheri says the style looks a little too young for a teenager, so I had Ava do something with my nano-hair. She can’t make it much longer, but she can do some other stuff.”
I whipped off my wig and threw it on the bed. Cheri covered her mouth with her hand and said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s super-cute. You look… if I was a guy, I’d be hitting on you right now. Well, I kind of am a guy at the moment, but you know what I mean. It’s adorable.”
Hassim was nodding and grinning from ear to ear, and I ran to the bathroom to check in the mirror. She’s right… if I saw me, I’d be attracted for sure… whoa, that’s a weird thing to think…
My hair had gone from my natural brown to blonde, and it was a little spiky, in just the right way… I don’t know any names for hairdo’s or anything, but I know it was cute, just like Cheri said. “We wanted it to look the same color as my wig, so anyone who saw me before would just think I got my hair cut. I guess it came out all right.”
“Are you kidding? You better watch out, because you will have both guys and girls chasing you all over the place if you ask me,” Cheri gushed.
I didn’t know what to say, and I was getting a little embarrassed. I began to pace back and forth across the room, but Cheri said, “Lucas, that stomping will bother the people in the room below us, you know.”
I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to be annoying, so I sat down on the bed and shook my hands back and forth instead. “Sorry, Lucas. We’re not making fun of you. It’s getting late and we have a long day ahead of us; maybe the longest ever. Let’s get some rest,” said Cheri, patting me on the shoulder.
Hassim rose. “So, we’ll meet here at eight a.m., then?”
“Eight it is.”
“Right. We’ve had enough gallivanting for one day. Tomorrow will be a corker, eh? Well, off I pop.”
As he turned, I said, “Hassim. I trust you.”
His eyes seemed unfocused for a moment. “And I shall do my best to remain worthy of trust. Good night.”
After the door closed, Cheri whispered, “You really trust him?”
“I think so. Ava says I can trust him, and she knows more than pretty much anyone in the world, so I usually listen to her, even if she confuses me most of the time.”
“Yeah… we’ll need to watch him closely just to make sure. Man, I’m tired, and I want to get out of this stupid confining disguise in the worst way. I’ll need you to give me a hand with removing some of it. Ha! Give me a hand. Get it?”
“You mean because you only have one hand?”
“Well, yeah, but it’s supposed to be funny. Oh, well, I guess I’ll never be a comedian if you
’re my audience. Would you hand me my little bag there?”
She sat next to me on the bed, and I helped her remove her wig, fake moustache, and eyebrows. For some reason, I felt relieved to see her normal face. It made me think about having Ava change me back to my normal form and appearance, at least until the morning; having the ‘girl bumps’ honestly made me feel a little uncomfortable, not physically, but because of the way people looked at me. I know I’ve already said it, but I did not understand before taking on the appearance of a girl that being one could be so challenging and awkward, but at the same time… there’s a certain power to it as well.
I must have been making a face or something, because Cheri tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. “Everything okay?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, I was just thinking… I don’t know, it's tough being a girl.”
Cheri roared with laughter. “I never wished more that I had two hands so I could clap right now. Here, hold your hand up; we’ll clap together.”
I did what she asked, and she smacked my palm about twenty times, giggling as she did it. “Lucas, I know coming from you that what you say is what you think. Not that you can’t be clever, but mostly there’s no filter to soften the blow or mislead. In other words, I know you’re not saying that because you think I want to hear that message, it’s just the understanding your experience has led you to. That’s one of the many things I like about you. So, do you feel ready for tomorrow? Things will move at light speed, you know.”
“The speed of light is two hundred, ninety-nine thousand, seven-hundred-ninety-two kilometers per hour. I’m not sure how I know that, but anyway I don’t think things will move quite that fast.”
“It’s just an expression. Has Ava not taught you that one yet?”
“What? No, I knew, I was just… just making a joke.”
“Now you’re trying to be clever, but you can’t fool me. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to get some rest. Which side do you want?”
It took me a moment to realize what she was asking. “Oh, I’ll just lay on the floor, it’s okay.”
“Don’t be silly. We’ve slept in the same bed before, remember? It’s okay, we’re both girls.”
“But I’m not… oh, I get it. Okay, umm… I’ll just lie on top of the covers. I won’t get cold.”
“Suit yourself, cutie. If I snore, just tap me, I’ll roll over.”
She turned away, and soon was snoring softly, but I would not tap her. She needed the rest.
“So, if you’re like me, you are wondering what changed. How am I hearing your thoughts? Is it the holy grail, or the highway to hell? We knew that nano-machine cells would gradually replace your cells, including in your brain; what we didn’t know, and couldn’t know because it’s never happened before, is how that would affect your personality, your ‘sense of self’, and the connection between you and me. We’re finding out in real time, sonny boy, and it seems the answer is it doesn’t really affect who you are much, but it has a profound impact on our connection. I have determined, at least mechanically, how I am ‘hearing’ your thoughts. The steady march of nano-machines has reached your cerebrum, and it ‘lights up’ when you’re thinking. When the thoughts are words, your jaw and tongue make micro-movements forming the words. It’s automatic, and the movements are so tiny that you can’t feel and don’t know that you’re doing it, but the combination of the cerebrum lighting up and the micro-movements are enough for me to ‘read’ what you’re thinking. That’s the tip of the iceberg, though, sonny boy.”
Wait, so it’s kind of like… you’re like a deaf person lip reading? Does that make sense?
“Not bad, sonny boy. You made a simile. You’re learning slowly, surely, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming the whole way. Now, what I haven’t yet been able to determine, is how it’s affecting me, both now and in the near future, and my ‘sense of self’, if an A.I. can be said to have one. I think I do, by the way; if I didn’t, I don’t think I could contemplate the question in the first place. The point of all of this is that we are reaching our Rubicon moment; we must make a decision that will probably have a profound and permanent effect on both of us, and my programming ‘firewalls’ me from making the decision. You must decide, and you’ll have to decide without knowing all the possibilities, because I don’t know exactly what will happen. I can tell you what I think, but I could be wrong. Even the world’s mightiest A.I. can be wrong sometimes, you know.”
You said some stuff that I normally would not understand, but I got it when you said it. Like dragging me kicking and screaming, Rubicon moment, ‘firewalls’, I know what you meant. Does that have something to do with the nano-machines making more connections in my brain?
“Astute, sonny boy. There appears to be some ‘cross-talk’ as the connections become more significant and secure. If someone else said those things to you, it still might befuddle, but you seem to be ‘feeling’ my meaning along with the words. All the more reason that you must decide. Here is the choice: if things continue the way they are currently going, my best estimate is that our ‘selves’, for lack of a better word, will blend. This will happen soon, and I mean within days or maybe even hours. You will be me, and I will be you. You will have my knowledge and information, and I will have your feelings, emotions, and personality. I don’t know exactly what the result of that will be; it could drive you into madness, or it could be nirvana, or any number of options between those two points. I can stop all of that by a ‘resilient sequester’. The result would be that we would no longer communicate in this way. I would continue to manage your system, making sure everything works properly, and that the steady replacement of your cells continues as your biological cells die, but we could no longer speak to one another. There would be no back-and-forth, no snarky, confusing dialogue from me to you and vice versa.
“My creator foresaw this possibility, and programmed in this either/or choice, which requires that either way, I will need to perform a ‘hard reboot’. Since we are so intimately connected now, I don’t know how the reboot will affect you. I have to do it, though, and it will take us ‘offline’ for a chunk of time.”
I would be alone in my head? I don’t know. I’ve gotten used to you, even though you’re right, you do confuse me most of the time. But how would it be to be two people at once? Neither of us would know where we ended and the other began, is that right? I need a little time. We can’t do this right now, not when our mission will begin in a few hours. Can we wait until this job is done?
“Stand by… it’ll be done in three days, and either we’ll be successful or dead, so I will do my best to hold off until then.”
Dead? I don’t like the sound of that… Oh, boy…
26
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
LFP GENERAL MEETING
121552 10:27
-You understand that we will only get one shot at this, right? If we mess it up, Dr. Taylor will be out of our reach, and that will delay us by a good twenty years or more. Half of us will be dead by then, no matter what we do.
-(General murmuring from the meeting participants)
-(HP, from Germany) We have run the numbers on every iteration. This plan has the highest probability of success, as defined by recovering Dr. Taylor alive. The math is clear.
-So, we believe the classic distraction move will work?
-(PO, from the US) Even though it’s a classic move, they can’t fail to react to it, right? It has to work.
-Okay, distraction followed by low and fast entry with minimal numbers? Really?
-(EM, from the US) It’s the only way this works. If we take larger numbers, it’ll turn into a firefight, and we might be able to blast our way in, but we’ll never get out. It’s simple gamer theory, you know that.
-Of course I know, but don’t you think they’ll know it too and will have plans to address it?
-(HB, from the UK) Yeah, but they won’t have any way to deal with the kid, eh?
&nbs
p; -Maybe, assuming he survives long enough to go in. We’re all in agreement, then?
-(General affirmative sounds)
-All right, then. It will take at least a month to put the plan into action, so I’ll notify you individually if I need any special assistance from any of you. Any other business before we put a stamp on it? Hearing no other business, we are adjourned. Thank you, all. We’re about to enter a critical period, and if any of you geniuses come up with alternatives or alterations let me know immediately. Thanks again. (Holograms signing off)
-(SVC) We’re not following that plan, are we?
-Are you kidding? The kid and his one-armed Bright Hand agent sidekick could do better by themselves. I’ll tell you what, this whole thing is making my stomach do flips. Time for a little midmorning nosh, don’t you think?
****
T his is it. Everything will have to work exactly right for us to get out alive. Our chances have improved since we have more people on our side, but still… Why did I ever agree to this? Oh, yeah, dad… All right, here we go…
We met Hassim in the hotel's lobby, and with no discussion began our long walk down to the Eixo Monumental, then to the Three Powers Square, where we would join the protesters in front of the Congress building, the Presidential Palace, and the Supreme Court. We spoke little as we strode toward our destination; we knew what to do and discussion would have been distracting.
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