by J P Waters
“I think the police are unprepared for this situation.”
“What makes you say that?”
“For one, they lack manpower. They are ill-equipped to deal with many lethal creatures. My assertion is also based on the possibility that they are underestimating the rokes.”
“Because of what?”
“Because they offered you no clear information on how to protect yourself despite being aware of the threat for an undisclosed period of time. They also seem confident they can keep the rokes’ presence secret, despite the obvious increase in news coverage.”
“Are you worried? Are you able to worry?”
“Technically, no. But yes, I am. My system has been on high alert since Gerry’s departure. I can’t seem to override it. I believe that approximates worry.”
Mona returned to cleaning as Olie tried to process what she’d just heard. None of the AIs she’d worked with at SeaCrest or in the military had that kind of self-awareness or capacity for reflection. Frankly, it was amazing.
“Do people underestimate you, Mona?”
“You’re beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist.” Olie could swear she saw a hint of a smile flash across the Seba’s lips.
It was then that Mona reached the terrarium and hesitated. Olie could tell she didn’t know quite what to do with it. It wasn’t beyond repair, but it certainly no longer served a purpose. Should it be picked up and organized, or simply thrown away? The thought put a lump in Olie’s throat. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet.
“Mona, Jayson said you’re to listen to my requests, right?”
“Affirmative.”
“What would you say to a walk on the beach?”
Mona stared blankly at Olie for a moment, giving the question plenty of room to breathe. Maybe Olie had been too subtle. Or maybe the AI understood the suggestion and was calculating the proper way to refuse. Before Olie could backpedal or clarify, however, Mona turned and walked to the duffle bag she’d dropped in the corner. Unzipping it, she pulled out two cases packed full of darts and a large vial of opioid solution before locking eyes with Olie.
“I can accommodate that request.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The sun shone brightly on Olie’s bare shoulders as the wind tossed any stray hairs that weren’t neatly tucked beneath her hat. They were back at the beach where Olie had found Gerry, parked on a pull-off that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. The waves rolled in as Olie shut the trunk and placed the handgun in the back of her pants.
Olie was immediately glad she’d brought Mona along. Wedging her hands between two fence panels, the Seba was able to pull open a gap large enough for the pair to squeeze through. Mona made it look easy, but Olie could see the dents in the sheet metal where the AI’s grip had found purchase.
Surprisingly, no agents were on the beach yet. Maybe erecting a fence was all they could do before shifting manpower from elsewhere. Just how bad was the roke infestation, Olie wondered, and how many more of these quarantines disguised as construction projects were there?
It wasn’t long before they encountered their first sign of roke activity. Divots in the sand peppered the beach in neat lines, crisscrossing one another before heading back into the surf.
“See those tracks?”
“I see them,” said Mona.
“It’s from their rolling—that’s what we’ll be looking for.”
“Affirmative.”
They’d found their lead quickly, but it took much longer for that lead to bear any fruit. The tracks never went too far without returning to the sea, wiping the slate clean. The best the duo could do was keep following the tracks, hoping to somehow catch Gerry. They walked in silence, doing their best not to be diverted by any of the crossing paths.
“Thank you, by the way,” Mona said out of the blue.
“For what?”
“For pulling Gerry off of me following its attack. If you hadn’t acted so quickly, I might have incurred a significant wound.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I hope he didn’t scare you.”
“I don’t experience fear,” said Mona.
“You don’t?”
“Do you think I should?”
Again, Olie was surprised by the depth of Mona’s conversational interests. “It aids in survival, doesn’t it?” She pointed to a cliff overlooking the beach in the distance. “Fear keeps you a safe distance from the edge of a great height, for example. If you were to fall, something might break. You could die – or I guess, in your case, become inoperable.”
“Probabilities can do something similar, and perhaps more efficiently,” Mona replied, “I can calculate the probability of the ground falling out from beneath my feet near the edge of a cliff, and I can know how far away to stand.”
“But how do you know to make that calculation without fear?”
“We are programmed with awareness.”
“I see,” Olie lied as she made her way onto the sand. There were large pieces of driftwood washed up on shore, smoothed and hollowed out. Olie noted that they would be good hiding places for rokes, but she didn’t see any tracks.
As she continued toward an outcropping of rocks, Olie continued, “So, you weren’t afraid when Gerry attacked you?”
“I wasn’t afraid, but—”
“You could act afraid if it would make me feel more comfortable?”
“That’s correct,” said Mona.
Olie shook her head, “No, it might be nice if at least one of us remained calm.”
“Are you scared, Olie?”
“Yes. But I’m pretty sure it’s just the right amount to ensure my survival.”
“Did what I said earlier frighten you?”
“What’d you say?”
“That the police have underestimated the rokes.”
“No.”
“Well, I think it should have.”
Olie looked over her shoulder. “Why is that?”
“I’ve run a number of scenarios through NOVA. Very few of the outcomes involve survival.”
“My survival?” asked Olie.
“No, human survival.”
“Well, we’d better find Gerry fast, then,” Olie said, returning to the task at hand. “You know, before we die and all.”
A few moments later, Mona stepped away from Olie and pointed to the ground. “These tracks seem to be coming together at a higher density, aren’t they?” There were several, crisscrossing and circling into the sand. “A group may be close.”
“Give me a few more darts.” Olie checked that her dart gun was full and tucked the rest into a vest pocket. “Let’s follow them.”
“Why don’t I go first?” said Mona.
“Are you sure? You were already attacked once.”
“Yes, but I’m in defense mode.”
“Defense mode? What’s that?”
“I can be configured to defend human life, specifically the lives of those I work with.”
“Why aren’t you always in that setting?”
“The heightened awareness is taxing to my system. Similar to the detrimental effects of prolonged stress on a human, defense mode puts undue strain on Sebanic components.”
“Okay… just be careful.”
Mona nodded as Olie moved a step or two behind her with a dart gun trained in the direction of the tracks. Ahead there was a cluster of rocks, jagged and standing six feet or more out of the sand in places. The sand changed to shards of seashells and smooth, flat pebbles. The rokes’ tracks became harder to follow, but Mona was able to perceive slight indentations between the shells and stones.
Mona stopped suddenly.
“What? What is it?”
“This is where they stop.”
Olie looked down at a pile of sand in the crevice of a large stone. She handed Mona her dart gun and approached it. Bending down, she found several speckled gray shell fragments. Each piece had one large blunt end and one dull point. As she tried to piece the shards togeth
er, she found them to be extremely dense and surprisingly durable.
“What do you think this is?” asked Olie as she held up one of the pieces.
“Most likely what you are holding is an egg fragment.”
Olie nodded as she put it down.
“I think so too. Is repopulation included in your scenarios?”
“It is.”
“How do these eggs affect your data?”
“I would tell you, but you’re already experiencing fear. Do you need to experience more?”
Olie shivered. “No. No, I certainly don’t, but thank you anyway.”
“You’re welcome.”
Olie turned and began to climb the rock above the nest to get a better view. When she reached the top, she immediately lowered herself again. She’d seen a roke rolling up on the shore out of the sea.
“I saw one. Here, hand me the dart gun.”
“Was it Gerry?”
“I don’t know yet. Better to keep our distance until it’s unconscious.”
Turning back around, Olie took aim before noticing something she hadn’t before. Further down the beach there were no more pebbles or sand, just a teeming black mass of rokes—an entire colony of them. They rolled around in the sand, sat with their limbs outstretched toward the sun, or tussled with one another like a group of seals.
Olie backed down the rock slowly, then looked at Mona. “I want you to go up there and see how that figures into your scenarios.”
Mona quickly climbed the rocks and peered over them. She looked back at Olie. “Would you like me to take a few images?”
Olie nodded. “Get some zoomed in if you can.”
Mona lowered herself down a moment or two later.
“This does not improve my calculations.”
“How fast do you think they can reproduce?”
“I’m not sure,” Mona replied. “It may be that they appeared in large numbers from the very beginning even without their current procreation.”
“We need to tell everyone. This is huge.”
Mona nodded. Careful not to alert any of the rokes to their location, the two slowly backed away from the outcrop of rocks before making their way back to the car.
At the top of the ridge, Olie tried to have Jayson’s car drive them further down the road to a position where they might see the rokes, but their view was obscured by a combination of fencework and overhanging rock. Olie had Mona send the images to her before forwarding them to the number Detective Scarborough had provided during their SeaCrest questioning.
Olie waited a moment, then heard, “What is this?” as Detective Scarborough appeared on her band.
“It looks like an invasion to me,” said Olie.
“Send me your location.”
“What are you gonna do?” Olie asked, thinking of Gerry yet again. He must be in there somewhere. “Take out the whole beach?”
“Do you have another suggestion?”
“Hold on, don’t you think they’d be worth more alive?”
“That was before you found an army of them.” Detective Scarborough shook her head as she looked at the coordinates Olie’d sent her. “I’ll just have to—Hold on, you’re near Melbourne?”
“Yes,” said Olie.
“Is that where you found the last roke?”
“…Yes.”
“You trespassed despite the fences? Despite our explicit warnings?”
“You said I had to be silent, not stay away. Before you get all pissed off about that – there’s something else,” said Olie. “I didn’t think to get a picture of it, but they might be reproducing.”
“You found eggs?”
“Yes.”
“Shit. There too.”
“Wait, you already found others? You knew about the eggs?”
“Ms. Manning, I simply do not have time for this. I need to pass this along now. Are you still on the beach?”
“No.”
“Good. Now for Pete’s sake keep it that way.”
Abruptly Scarborough ended the call. Olie programmed the vehicle to take them back to her apartment.
Olie sighed deeply, then sunk into her chair. “They knew about the eggs.”
“Jayson believed they knew more than they were telling us.”
“I can’t imagine what else they could be keeping from us, though. This already seems like the worst-case scenario.”
“That is not the case. Would you like to hear my calculations on the worst-case scenario?”
“No, Mona, I do not want to hear that right now.”
Olie suddenly understood why Scarborough and Haight were so desperate to prevent this from going public.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jayson walked through Olie’s door with his aerohelmet tucked under his arm. After lending his car to Mona, he’d taken his own bike out of storage.
“I think I’d forgotten what it was like to do 100 mph on a bike,” he said, stripping out of his protective gear.
“You should try driving it yourself.”
“No, thanks. I’m a risk-taker, not suicidal.”
“Haven’t you ever heard of the autobahn?”
“I have. I’ve also heard of people who test rocket drones for fun, and I’m not interested.”
After sitting down in the kitchen, Jayson glanced over at Olie’s empty cage and terrarium. “So I’m guessing you didn’t catch any rokes today?”
Olie breathed in deeply. “No, but they almost caught us. A whole swarm of them.”
“A swarm?”
Mona spoke up. “We encountered a breeding ground.”
“What?”
Olie pushed the pictures off her band onto the kitchen table. The digital images slid across the surface and came to rest before Jayson. He spun and resized them.
“Holy shit! There’s hundreds of them,” he said, pinching and resizing the photo for a better look.
“Maybe a thousand, from Mona’s estimate.”
“I didn’t make enough tranquilizer for this.”
“It wouldn’t help. It sounds as though the police are going there tonight to exterminate them,” said Olie.
“The entire colony?”
“I think so,” said Olie.
“But what about Gerry?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t like it either, but you didn’t see them. There’s nothing we can do. He’s like a needle in a haystack now, and we’d be killed far before we even reached him.” It was the first time Olie’d admitted it to herself. Whatever hope she’d had of seeing her friend again was all but extinguished, replaced by an unmistakable dread.
Jayson shook his head and took another look at the pictures.
“What if we told someone, though? Public outcry could lead to at least some kind of conservation effort.”
“Conservation? Jayson, you didn’t see it. There were hundreds of them, there is no hope for conservation.”
“Okay, fine. Increased safety precautions, then! It doesn’t matter, Olie, we have to go public with this. Do you really think the population is better off ignorant about the danger?”
“What about what you signed at the police station? The city could sue, could put us in jail.”
“I can afford a legal fine, Olie.”
“Oh, so it doesn’t matter? They’ll come after me, too.”
“Calm down. If this gets out, I’ll make sure they know you had nothing to do with it.” Then he looked at the Seba. “Hell, we can always blame it on Mona.”
Mona blinked. “I approve of this,” she said.
“You see?”
Olie remembered her earlier misgivings about Sebanic but pinning the blame on Mona without her having a say in the matter felt dirty. Like an abuse of the power Jayson had over her.
Olie shook her head. “She’s not even supposed to know.”
“But she saw the first roke we caught.”
Olie looked at Mona, then back to Jayson. “She’s your assistant but know that I don’t support the idea. Sharin
g or lying about it.”
“Duly noted.”
Olie walked Jayson and Mona back to their transports. It was nighttime by the time they’d finished debating their next course of action, and Olie wanted to avoid being alone as long as possible after the events of the day. Eventually they’d reached a compromise—Jayson would tell Janie. As one of their local representatives, she deserved to know – if she didn’t know already. She was in the best position to make decisions about public safety.
Jayson’s band shone in front of them, illuminating their way. They’d just about reached his cycle when a small dark figure darted across their path. Immediately Olie and Jayson drew their dart guns, leveling the weapons at the darkness in front of them.
“You got anything, Mona?”
“Two hundred yards on the left,” Mona said, frozen mid-stride to avoid attracting extra attention from Jayson’s band.
Jayson slowly shifted the light in that direction and started walking forward. Olie pulled in closely behind. Why were the rokes this close already? Wasn’t the fence keeping them from traveling inland?
When Olie saw the rokes, she lifted her dart gun and fired. A black creature impaled with a dart skittered off like a spider. Jayson’s shot came at the same time; the roke he hit collapsed in a heap on top of a third. As Olie placed another dart into her gun’s chamber, Jayson fired at the third roke but only managed to hit the one that had already fallen. The dead weight was causing its companion to screech like a banshee. It climbed up on two legs and began rolling. As it began to travel in a wide semi-circle, Olie and Jayson both fired again. Both missed as the roke began to pick up speed. The animal quickly circled inward and leapt into the air, heading straight for Jayson’s abdomen.
Mona reached out and grabbed it by the forelimb, then took hold of a second limb and, in a single fluid, motion ripped the animal in half. The roke screamed again for an instant before falling on the ground, wriggling in agony.
Jayson shone his light on it and Olie saw a black sludge oozing from the beast, covering a multitude of eggs that had fallen out of the creature and onto the ground. Thankfully there was no white stripe on the animal; it wasn’t Gerry. Mona reached down to pick up the eggs. One by one, she crushed them in her hand, producing more black ooze.