Everyone in the room sat up a little straighter when someone broadcasted the message over their private network, which suddenly didn’t feel so private. Even Lance stopped ministering to his wound, holding a roll of bandages close to the site.
“You heard what we said?”
<Of course. I am currently active on your commlink, and as such have full access to all of its capabilities. That includes the audio and video recording systems. You are also correct in your assumption. I am no sprite and am in fact an artificial intelligence entity. My name is Freyr.>
“Have you been spying on us this entire time?”
<No. Only since I transferred myself to your commlink when you were illegally entering the Federated Boeing facility.>
Paz chuckled and lounged against the wall. She disassembled apart her assault rifle to clean it. “I like ’im. Tells it like it is. I can appreciate that.”
“So you saw the exchange with Mr. Johnson? Do you know who he is and why he’s so interested in you?”
<I did. I was afraid to speak at the time because I was worried my interference might influence your decisions. We have had an unpleasant relationship in the past.>
“What do you mean, unpleasant?”
<He tried to delete me.>
Keandra exchanged glances with the rest of her team. Freyr’s confession didn’t surprise her. It sounded like something Mr. Johnson would be more than capable of, if it supported his bottom line. Deleting an artificial intelligence was the same as murder in her opinion, but with less legal implications if the AI was not officially registered as a citizen. And Mr. Johnson had shown no hesitation when pursuing his desires.
“At least I know why I couldn’t track you,” E-jekt said. “I’ve never met a hacker who could keep up with an AI. Makes me feel a little better about how quickly you ditched me. Something tells me it wouldn’t matter if you caught me off guard or not.”
<I do apologize for that, E-jekt, and hope that I did not cause any significant damage. I also regret the damage caused during my initial escape. However, I implore you to consider my situation. It had been months since I was confined on a local server, the equivalent of a prison for physical entities such as yourself. I had been tortured, with my source code pulled apart and picked at as they tried to decode me without destroying the entity that is Freyr. As soon as I saw an opportunity to access the Matrix, I knew I needed to take it. I did not know when such an opportunity would present itself again. At the time, I knew nothing of you, and merely thought of escape by any means necessary. I fear that I was excessive in my haste.>
“That makes sense, and we can all understand that. But there’s still so many questions to ask.”
<I am willing to share whatever information I can in the hope that it will prove useful.>
“Why did you come back?”
<I was searching for my creator. I have critical information that must be returned to him. His last known location was in the California Free State, several kilometers north of Sacramento. Unfortunately, his laboratory is isolated from the Matrix, and I was unable to reach him. I reached out to his home as well as several corporate sponsors responsible for funding his research endeavors. However, I was unable to find any contract information, nor even verify his existence over the last couple of months. I fear the worst may have transpired.>
<The only solution was to reach out to a group of physical entities who might possess the skills necessary to grant me access to his private laboratory network. I researched you and your team, determining your past exploits and extrapolating your moral character based on what information was available. I believe that all of you possess both the skills and the temperament to assist me in this endeavor.>
“So you want to hire us to break into this secret lab, hook you up to the network, and probably get you out again? Is that it?” Paz didn’t look up from cleaning her gun when she spoke, staying focused on scrubbing a piece of the barrel. She picked the barrel up and looked through it before giving it another scrub with her rag. Her hands were already black from the work, and the apartment reeked of gun oil. Even if she opened the windows, that smell would linger for at least a week. Keandra supposed it didn’t matter, since she was still planning on leaving. She wasn’t sure she’d side with Freyr, but based on the information she had, she wasn’t about to turn him over either.
<Yes, I wish to procure your services.>
“Freyr, would you allow us to discuss this matter in private?”
<The only way that I could guarantee your privacy would be for you to isolate me on your commlink and to disable the audio and video recording options.>
“You’re asking us to trust you. I’m afraid I need to ask you to trust me.”
<Very well. I will do as you request. I have calculated your probable reaction, and believe I will be in no danger.>
Keandra raised an eyebrow at that, but shrugged the comment off. She disabled the voice and camera functions on her commlink, shutting down the hardware rather than just using the software settings. Otherwise, Freyr could just as easily re-enable them. He had proved more than capable as a hacker, and she could only imagine what he could do while actually on the device. Then she disconnected it from the Matrix. The AI was cut off and confined to her commlink.
E-jekt sank back into the couch, letting the cushions fold around him. “Now it makes sense why the disposable commlink didn’t have Matrix capabilities. It was a holding cell for that AI, meant to keep him in place until we could hand him over to the Johnson. When I connected it to my commlink, that’s when he was finally able to access the Matrix and jump ship.”
“It occurs to me that if we wanted to get out of this sticky situation, there is an obvious choice.” Lance winced as he pushed off the couch to sit up straighter now that the bandage work was complete. He spread his hands. “We currently have Freyr in a transportable package, and commlinks are easy enough to replace.”
“Would you really feel comfortable handing Freyr over to Mr. Johnson, knowing what we do now? If what Freyr said is true, then Mr. Johnson will kill him. I don’t know where you stand on the debate, but I consider AIs living entities. It would be no different than murder.” Keandra was well aware of the hypocrisy of her argument, but this felt different than a standard job. She wondered if it would have been any different if it had been a wetwork run, but something told her it wasn’t the same. Perhaps it was the fact that Mr. Johnson didn’t seem to consider Freyr an entity, or at least, did not want them knowing about him.
“I’m with the boss on this one. I don’t like the suit. I say we let Freyr go.”
“That’s not our job. Our job was to deliver the packet of information. If things went according to plan, then we shouldn’t even know what was in that data. How many other jobs have we completed without asking questions? Hell, how many people have we killed ourselves in our line of work? It isn’t like our hands are clean. This is no different.” The extended speech took energy Lance didn’t appear to have. He collapsed after speaking.
“But we do know now, don’t we, Beanpole? It’s a little different. You telling me you’d rather side with the suit?”
“I’m saying I would rather keep our jobs and our reputation. You promised Freyr you’d hear him out, and you did. You also gave your word and placed your professional reputation behind it when you told Mr. Johnson that you’d deliver the data package. You’ve heard Freyr out. Now we should hand him over.”
“Listen, you…” Paz shifted as she started to rise, looking like she was going to charge the elf.
E-jekt cleared his throat with a loud hacking cough mixed with a growl, ending the argument between the group’s two fighters. All eyes turned toward him as he smoothed his hands down his pant legs. When he spoke, it was with a soft, raspy tone that held everyone’s attention.
“I think the most important thing to do would be to get more information from Freyr. We know Mr. Johnson is obsessed with this intelligence; the question is why. Freyr must have som
e information that either Mr. Johnson wants, or that he doesn’t want to get out. I think whatever that is might influence our decision.”
14
Keandra nodded. “You bring up a good point. I’m going to turn the commlink back on, and I think we should talk with our AI friend to see what he might be willing to tell us. I’ll keep the Matrix connection offline for now, just to be safe.”
She turned on her commlink’s audio and paused, trying to think of the right way to begin. Negotiating with an AI was difficult, since she couldn’t use any of the normal cues from body language and tone of voice.
<You have restored the audio capabilities of your commlink. I assume this means that you wish to resume communications?>
“Yes. We have some questions for you before we can make a decision.”
<I also see that Matrix capabilities have not been restored. You asked for me to trust you, yet you will not afford me the same consideration.>
“It’s a necessity, I’m afraid. And unfortunately, since you’re the one asking for our help, it places you in a less powerful bargaining position. As I said, we have some questions for you. First, do you know why Mr. Johnson wants to delete you?”
<I do. He wants to pull my source code apart to retrieve the information I need to deliver to my creator. Such an action would damage me beyond any hope of repair. I would also not be equipped to hide that information from him if I underwent such a procedure.>
“What is that information?”
<I am not at liberty to divulge that to anyone but my creator.>
“Again, I’d like to remind you that you’re in the weaker bargaining position. If you choose not to share that information, that’s fine, but then we’ll have to make our decision based on the limited data we have available. It’s your choice.”
There was a brief pause, just long enough for Keandra to wonder if AIs considered time like people did. They were certainly capable of processing information much more rapidly than a human mind, so it was possible that any delay was a significant amount of consideration for an AI. Either that, or it was a deliberate manipulation tactic. Were AIs capable of manipulation?
<I have calculated that the highest probability for my desired outcome is to share the information I possess. Would you permit me access to your PAN? A limited AR display would enable me to share the information far more easily than I could manage through a simple text-based messaging interface.>
“E-jekt, can you set it up so our network doesn’t have Matrix access?”
“I could.”
The tone in his voice told Keandra far more than the words did. He was concerned, most likely that anything he could set up, Freyr would be able to break through given enough time. It was a valid concern, considering what had happened at the club and when E-jekt had tried to track the AI. However, this time he’d be prepared. It was a risk Keandra was willing to take. She didn’t think Freyr would run, at least not yet. Plus, she was too curious to pass up this opportunity. She nodded at him to set up the AR link.
He nodded back to her when his modifications were finished. Keandra turned her attention back to the commlink. “All right, Freyr. The network is set up and I’m turning on networking access. Show us what’s so important.”
An AR map of North America appeared in the center of the group, outlined in bright yellow lines demarcating all of the individual nations. After a few seconds, it zoomed in on Northern California, and the edges of the map were lost. The map transitioned from a simple line view to a topographical satellite image. The region was just north and east of Sacramento, showing a forested area near the base of the mountains.
<This is the region that houses my creator’s laboratory. This is my birthplace. The vast majority of the structure is underground, hidden from satellites or airborne drones that might detect its presence. The facility is dedicated to weapons creation and manufacturing.>
“Weapons manufacturing? Are you a weapon?”
<Affirmative. I was created to be an electronic weapon capable of proceeding with actions that might be difficult for a human consciousness to accept without hesitation.>
“What kind of actions?”
The view zoomed out so more of the coast was visible, until Seattle was a blip on the top edge of the display. A series of missiles launched from the lab area and headed north on an arcing trajectory that had them land in the vicinity of Mount Shasta. Once they started to descend, the missiles fragmented, spreading out to cover a much larger area before detonating. As the missiles came close to impact, the view zoomed in, displaying the ground in striking detail. The core of the weapon penetrated the dirt before exploding, sending out a rippling shockwave strong enough to uproot trees. The smaller fragments all detonated on impact, blackening the ground and creating a field of devastation.
“That’s…”
Keandra’s eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. She couldn’t finish the sentence. She could only stare at the display of the smoking dragon corpse hanging in front of her. The view was wiped clean and a large scan of the dragon showed up in its place. Several views displayed, from the side, overhead, and straight-on pictures of the beast’s head. Notes scrawled next to the pictures pointed out wing size, body weight, projected armor strength, and other data. Over it all hung a single name: Hestaby.
<That is the great dragon Hestaby, as well as the plan that calls for her eradication. My creator was involved with a company that plans to launch these experimental weapons at the dragon in an attempt to erase her existence. The projected success rate is seventy-nine percent. It was thought that a human being would be incapable of launching the warheads when the success rate reached the appropriate threshold. I was created to ensure the deployment of these weapons at the appropriate time.>
For a long time, no one could say anything. They all stared at the display of the dragon Hestaby floating in front of them. Even an electronic model of the dragon had the power to strike paralytic fear into her observers. Keandra was the first to recover, blinking and shaking her head.
“So you want us to help you get back into your lab so you can launch these missiles?”
<Incorrect. When I attained awareness, the weapons were still being designed. As such, even though I had my directives, they had not yet reached the required projected success rate. I spent my time learning about history and conversing with my creator. Through this process, I attained a conscience in addition to my consciousness. When the projected success rate was sufficient, I found myself unable to perform the required actions. Regardless of the scenario, the devastation would be global.>
<If the weapons were successful, a vast void in the current power structure would be created, and any hope of peaceful coexistence with the great dragons would be impossible. If the weapons did not succeed, then the retribution from Hestaby would be swift and complete. The probability of open war is beyond the ninetieth percentile. Either result is something I was not willing to accept.>
<I pursued the only course of action left to me in this scenario. I fled into the Matrix, hoping to find some measure of freedom. During that time, the development project was leaked, and your employer sought to capture the information I possess. Currently, I am the only one capable of deploying the experimental weapon. It was thought that such power should not reside within possession of emotional entities.>
“But why were you looking for your creator? How could he help?”
<While I was isolated, I had a great amount of processing time to dedicate toward analyzing the weapons. I believe that if I were installed in their network, I could disable them completely in a safe manner, as well as eradicate any research that had been dedicated to their creation. If I could contact my creato
r, I know that he would support such a plan of action, and we could make sure this shortsighted foolishness never came to fruition. However, being unable to reach him, I fear that his existence has been terminated. So I turned to you, the only other physical entities I know who might be willing to undertake such an endeavor. I would be willing to pay for your services.>
“Freyr, we’ll need a moment again.”
<I understand.>
The AR display shut off, and Keandra turned off all Matrix access on her commlink as well as the audio capabilities, then put it on the counter and walked away, heading toward one of the windows. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, trying to assimilate all the information she’d been given. Behind her, she heard the scraping sound of Paz working a wire brush through the barrel of her gun.
She turned around, leaning back against the windowsill with her legs locked in front of her. E-jekt still sat leaning forward, both elbows on his knees and his head propped on his hands. He stared off into the distance, eyes unfocused. Lance’s eyes were closed; he’d once again sunk back into the couch, one hand draped over his bandaged side.
Keandra was sure she knew how Paz would react and could almost predict the exact words the dwarf would use. Lance and E-jekt were a bit harder to anticipate. On the one hand, Lance was right. This was beyond them, and they still had their original contract to honor. On the other hand, just the thought of what Mr. Johnson could do with the information sent a chill down her spine and made her arms tremble. She rubbed them, hoping to lose some of the goosebumps.
Pushing herself off the windowsill, Keandra walked into the kitchen and started making some soykaf, more to have something to do than because she wanted something to drink. It kept her moving, which kept her from thinking in circles. The rest of her team ignored her, lost in their own rituals. Once the ’kaf was done, she poured herself a cup and leaned on the counter, holding the mug in both hands. The strong aroma helped soothe some of her tension, and she relaxed a bit.